5 June 2014
goad
[gohd]
noun
1. a stick with a pointed or electrically charged end, for driving cattle, oxen, etc.; prod.
2. anything that pricks or wounds like such a stick.
3. something that encourages, urges, or drives; a stimulus. ‘The speech served to goad the team onto victory’.
verb (used with object)
4. to prick or drive with, or as if with, a goad; prod; incite.
Origin:
before 900; Middle English gode, Old English gād; compare Langobardic gaida spearhead
Related forms
goad·like, adjective
un·goad·ed, adjective
Synonyms
4. spur, push, impel.
anagram
a god
Today’s aphorism
You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.
– Ray Bradbury
On this day
5 June 1967 – start of the Six Day War, when Israel attacked Egypt and Syria. During the six days of the War, Israel occupied the Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula, Golan Heights, West Bank and East Jerusalem, effectively doubling its size. Although Israel eventually withdrew from the Golan Heights and Sinai Peninsula, it continues to controversially occupy Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem.
5 June 1968 – Robert F. Kennedy, Presidential candidate and brother of JFK, shot by Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian-born, Jordanian citizen. Kennedy died the following day. In an interview with David Frost in 1989, Sirhan stated that he opposed Kennedy’s support of Israel and plan to send 50 bombers to Israel to ‘obviously do harm to the Palestinians’. Sirhan was initially sentenced to death, but the sentence was later commuted to life in prison.
5 June 1989 – the ‘Tank Man’ halts a column of Chinese tanks in Beijing for more than half an hour, following protests in Tiananmen Square.
5 June 2000 – start of the Six Day War in Kisangani, Democratic Republic of the Congo, between Ugandan and Rwandan forces, destroying a large part of the city.
5 June 2012 – death of Ray Bradbury, American fantasy, science-fiction, horror and mystery fiction writer. Author of Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustratred Man, Something Wicked This Way Comes. The movie Butterfly Effect uses a similar theory to that described in Bradbury’s short-story A Sound of Thunder. In one scene, a Sound of Thunder pennant is hanging on the dormitory door of the main character, Evan. Michael Moore’s movie Fahrenheit 9/11 was named after Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Bradbury was not happy with this and pressured Moore to change the title, which Moore refused to do. Born 22 August 1920.