5 April 2018
finger man
noun, Slang.
1. a person who points out someone to be murdered, robbed, etc. Example: The public hit owed its success to the discreet presence of the finger man.
Origin of finger man
1925-1930 An Americanism dating back to 1925-30
Dictionary.com
Slang definitions & phrases for finger man
finger man
noun phrase
A person who points out potential loot, potential victims, wanted criminals, etc (1920s+ Underworld)
The Dictionary of American Slang, Fourth Edition by Barbara Ann Kipfer, PhD. and Robert L. Chapman, Ph.D.
Copyright (C) 2007 by HarperCollins Publishers.
Today’s quote
Poetry is the one place where people can speak their original human mind. It is the outlet for people to say in public what is known in private.
– Allen Ginsberg
On this day
5 April 1839 – birth of Robert Smalls, African American who was born into slavery in Beaufort, South Carolina. When he was a teenager, his master sent him to Charleston to work. Smalls ended up working on boats and became adept at all manner of work around wharves and boats, including stevedore, rigger, sail maker and wheelman (essentially a pilot, although slaves were not granted that title). During the Civil War, he was asked to steer a lightly armed Confederate vessel, the CSS Planter. One evening, after the white crew members disembarked, Smalls dressed in the captain’s uniform and commandeered the vessel with the help of seven other slaves, sailing towards Union ships. On the way, he picked up his wife and child, as well as the families of the other slave crewman. As they neared the Union ships, Smalls flew a white bed-sheet from the mast as a symbol of surrender. Smalls was treated as a hero by the Union. He later successfully petitioned President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, to allow black men to fight for the Union. Stanton signed an order allowing 5,000 black men to enlist with Union forces. Smalls was made pilot of the USS Keokuk. After the Civil War, Smalls returned to Beaufort and bought his former master’s house. Smalls became a businessman, operating a store for freed men. He also became politically active, joining the Republican Party. In 1868 Smalls was elected to the State House of Representatives. He worked on passing the Civil Rights Bill and in 1868, the Republican government enacted the Civil Rights Act, which gave citizenship to all Americans, regardless of race. Smalls was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1874, and served two terms.In 1912, Smalls famously described the Republican Party as, ‘the party of Lincoln … which unshackled the necks of four million human beings‘. In 1913, Smalls stopped a lynch mob from lynching two black men, after he warned their mayor that blacks he’d sent through the city would burn the town down if the mob wasn’t stopped. The mayor and sheriff stopped the mob. Smalls inspirational life went from slave, to hijacker, to defector, to politician and civil rights campaigner. Died 23 February 1915.
5 April 1994 – death of Kurt Cobain. Lead singer, guitarist and lyricist for Nirvana. He was 27. Born 20 February 1967. The exact date of his death is unknown as his body wasn’t discovered until 8 April 1994.
5 April 1997 – death of Allen Ginsberg, leading American beat-generation writer and poet. Born 3 June 1926.