4 November 2013

savoir-faire

[sav-wahr-fair; French sa-vwar-fer]
noun

– knowledge of just what to do in any situation; tact.

Origin:
1805–15; < French: literally, knowing how to do

Synonyms
adaptability, adroitness, diplomacy, discernment, skill, ability.

Today’s aphorism

Profits, like sausages… are esteemed most by those who know least about what goes into them.

– Alvin Toffler

On this day

4 November 1926 – British archeologist, Howard Carter, discovers steps leading to the tomb of the Pharoah Tutankhamen.

4 November 1979 – Students loyal to the Ayatollah Khomeini over-run the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and take 90 Americans hostage in protest against the former Shah of Iran being allowed into the U.S. for medical treatment. The hostages were held for 14 months and released after the U.S. government promised $5 billion in foreign aid and unfroze $3 billion of Iranian funds. During the crisis, President Jimmy Carter attempted an unsuccessful rescue mission by helicopter, which ended in the deaths of 8 U.S. marines.

4 November 1995 – assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The assassin was Yigal Amir, an Israeli right-wing Zionist, who opposed the signing of the Oslo Peace Accords in which Rabin had negotiated a peace plan with the Palestinian Liberation Organisation.