Today’s WOTD – 23 October 2012

quidnunc

[kwid-nuhngk]

noun
– a person who is eager to know the latest news and gossip; a gossip or busy-body.

plural: quidnuncs

For example:

He claimed to deplore gossip, but was always the first one to ask the office quidnunc for the latest scuttlebutt.

Today’s aphorism

The one permanent emotion of the inferior man is fear – fear of the unknown, the complex, the inexplicable. What he wants above everything else is safety.

– H.L. Mencken

On this day

23 October 4004BC – creation of the world according to Archbishop James Ussher.

23 October 42BC – death of Brutus, Roman senator. He suicided after his Army was defeated during the Roman civil wars at the Second Battle of Philippi, by Mark Antony and Octavian.

23 October 1959 – birth of ‘Weird’ Al Yankovic, American parody singer-songwriter. 23 October 1998 – Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, establish a ‘Land for Peace’ deal regarding the West Bank, after a marathon 21 hour negotiation.