16 August 2018

Dazzle Ships

Dazzle camouflage was a style of military camouflage used during World War I and World War II. It was the innovation of Devon artist, Norman Wilkinson. Unlike most camouflage, Dazzle was not meant to conceal the ship, but to provide an illusion that made it difficult to identify the type of ship and its speed and direction of travel. It is alleged that Picasso tried to take credit for the Dazzle paint scheme as it closely resembled cubism, which had inspired Wilkinson’s idea for the paint schemes.

Examples of Dazzle Ships

HMS Mauretania (1918)

SS Olympic with returned soldiers at Halifax, Canada (1917)

– painted by Arthur Lismer

USS Leviathan (1918)

USS Nebraska (1918)

USS Charles S. Sperry (1944)

Today’s quote

The ignorant mind, with its infinite afflictions, passions, and evils, is rooted in the three poisons. Greed, anger, and delusion.

– Bodhidharma

On this day

16 August 1938 – death of Robert Johnson. American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter. Legend has it that Johnson met the devil at a crossroads and sold his soul in return for fame and fortune. One of the first musicians of the 20th century to join the 27 club. Born 8 May 1911.

16 August 1958 – birth of Madonna, American pop star, (born Madonna Louise Ciccone). The Guinness Book of World Records lists her as the biggest selling female recording artist of all time, with over 300 million records sold world-wide.

16 August 1962 – Ringo Starr becomes the new drummer for the Beatles, taking over from Peter Best who was sacked by the band. Ringo went on to fame and fortune, Best became a career public servant for 20 years, before forming the Peter Best Band.

16 August 1975 – Land is returned to Australia’s indigenous people for the first time by an Australian government. Prime Minister Gough Whitlam (Australian Labor Party) returned land to Vincent Lingiari and the Gurindji people, who are based southwest of Katherine, in the Northern Territory. The land was returned as freehold following years of campaigning that included a strike in 1966 at Wave Hill cattle station.

16 August 1977 – death of Elvis Presley, the King of Rock and Roll. Born 8 January 1935.

15 August 2018

sentimental

[sen-tuh-men-tl]

adjective

1. expressive of or appealing to sentiment, especially the tender emotions and feelings, as love, pity, or nostalgia:
a sentimental song.
2. pertaining to or dependent on sentiment :
We kept the old photograph for purely sentimental reasons.
3. weakly emotional; mawkishly susceptible or tender:
the sentimental Victorians.
4. characterized by or showing sentiment or refined feeling.

Origin of sentimental

1740-1750 First recorded in 1740-50; sentiment + -al1

Related forms

sentimentally, adverb
antisentimental, adjective
antisentimentally, adverb
hypersentimental, adjective
hypersentimentally, adverb

Synonyms

1. romantic, tender, nostalgic; maudlin, bathetic.

Antonyms

1, 4. dispassionate.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for sentimental

Contemporary Examples

A good commercial Christmas song must avoid being too sentimental or too cutesy.
Yes, I Like Christmas Music. Stop Laughing.
Michael Tomasky
December 24, 2014

Northanger Abbey, after all, parodies the tropes and excesses of sentimental Gothic novels.
The Birth of the Novel
Nick Romeo
November 27, 2014

While Kalman tends to mine the past for material, she is as irreverent as she is sentimental.
The Singular Artist of New Yorkistan
Lizzie Crocker
November 14, 2014

The simultaneously upbeat and sentimental ode to friendship is equal parts funk, trance, pop, and R&B.
The Swedish Queen of Soulful Pop: Mapei Won’t Wait for You to Listen
Caitlin Dickson
October 16, 2014

In another series, drafting a fantasy football team by the side of a fallen comrade could be sentimental, even borderline maudlin.
The MVPs of Sleaze Are Back: FXX’s ‘The League’ Ups the Degenerate Ante
Emily Shire
September 4, 2014

Historical Examples

Let us see if there is any foundation for this sentimental balderdash.
The Man Shakespeare
Frank Harris

This was the first time she had ever heard Martin ask for something as sentimental as a kiss.
Dust
Mr. and Mrs. Haldeman-Julius

This country is absurd with its sentimental regard for individual liberty.
The Secret Agent
Joseph Conrad

The public has a sort of sentimental regard for that fellow.
The Secret Agent
Joseph Conrad

There was not a trace of sentimental expression to this absorption.
Hetty’s Strange History
Anonymous

Today’s quote

Inspiration is hard to come by. You have to take it where you find it.

– Bob Dylan

On this day

15 August 1769 – birth of Napoleon Bonaparte, French Emperor. Died 5 May 1821.

15 August 1945 – Japan announces its surrender to the Allies following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The official ‘Instrument of Surrender’ was signed on 2 September 1945.

15 August 1947 – India Independence Day. At the stroke of midnight (14/15 August), India was partitioned and granted independence from British rule.

15 – 18 August 1969 – the Woodstock Music & Art Fair (or just ‘Woodstock’), a festival of peace and music, was held over three days at Max Yasgur’s dairy farm, 69 kilometres south-west of the town of Woodstock in New York State. It featured artists such as Joan Baez, Ravi Shankar, Arlo Guthrie, Mountain, the Grateful Dead, Canned Heat, Janis Joplin, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Joe Cocker, Jimi Hendrix, Cosby Stills Nash and Young, Blood Sweat and Tears, Ten Years After. A number of high profile musicians declined to play, including The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, Chicago, The Byrds, Jethro Tull, Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention, Iron Butterfly and Joni Mitchell. Woodstock is still considered to be the ultimate rock and counter-cultural festival. The promoters hoped for 50,000 to attend and were caught unprepared when more than 500,000 people attended.

14 August 2018

execrable

[ek-si-kruh-buh l]

adjective

1. utterly detestable; abominable; abhorrent.
2. very bad:
an execrable stage performance.

Origin of execrable

Middle English, Latin

1350-1400 for earlier sense “expressing a curse”; 1480-90 for def 1; Middle English < Latin ex(s)ecrābilis accursed, detestable. See execrate, -able

Related forms

execrableness, noun
execrably, adverb

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for execrable

Contemporary Examples

Anything, for example, to take our minds off the execrable “dining experience.”
Your iPod (Most Likely) Won’t Bring Down the Plane
Clive Irving
October 31, 2013

So I’m not criticizing her, and I’m certainly not defending DW Griffith’s execrable opinions.
The Economic History of Stereotypes
Megan McArdle
June 3, 2013

Historical Examples

And he’s likely to talk the most execrable slang, or to quote Browning.
The Spenders
Harry Leon Wilson

Ah, I would willingly have killed that execrable Smith, for he was poisoning my life.
My Double Life
Sarah Bernhardt

Not a word of it seemed to be true, and the style in which it was written was execrable.
Monday or Tuesday
Virginia Woolf

Why should not they admit that little picture, although he himself thought it execrable ?
His Masterpiece
Emile Zola

The host of the little inn had not exaggerated—the road was execrable.
Maurice Tiernay Soldier of Fortune
Charles James Lever

But the dinner was execrable, and all the feast was for the eyes.
Falk
Joseph Conrad

It is execrable stuff—the milk of sirens mingled with sea-water.
Lippincott’s Magazine, Vol. 20, August 1877
Various

“Just time if we put on some speed; but the roads are execrable,” he vouchsafed.
A harum-scarum schoolgirl
Angela Brazil

Today’s quote

A free press is the unsleeping guardian of every other right that free men prize; it is the most dangerous foe of tyranny. Where men have the habit of liberty, the Press will continue to be the vigilant guardian of the rights of the ordinary citizen.

– Winston Churchill

On this day

14 August 1248 – construction begins on the Cologne Cathedral in Germany.

14 August 1880 – construction of the Cologne Cathedral in Germany is finally completed … 632 years after commencement.

14 August 1947 – Pakistan Independence Day. At the stroke of midnight (14/15 August), India was partitioned and the nation of Pakistan created, independent of British and Indian rule.

14 August 1956 – death of Bertolt Brecht, German playwright, writer and theatre practitioner. Born 10 February 1898.

14 August 1963 – Considered to be the founding documents of Australia’s indigenous land rights (native title) movement, the first Bark Petition was presented to the Australian Government’s House of Representatives by Jock Nelson, Member for the Northern Territory on behalf of the Yolngu people of Yirrkala. The second Bark Petition was presented to the House of Representatives by then Opposition Leader, Arthur Calwell. The petitions were ochre paintings on bark and signed by 13 clan leaders of the Yolngu region (Gove peninsula), protesting the Commonwealth Government granting mining rights to Nabalco on Yolngu land . The petitions resulted in a parliamentary inquiry that recommended compensation be paid to the Yolngu people. It was the first recognition of native title in Australia.

13 August 2018

rebozo

[ri-boh-soh, -zoh; Spanish re-baw-thaw, -saw]

noun, plural rebozos [ri-boh-sohz, -zohz; Spanish re-baw-thaws, -saws] (Show IPA)

1. a long woven scarf, often of fine material, worn over the head and shoulders by Spanish and Mexican women.

Also, reboso, rebosa, riboso, ribozo.

Origin of rebozo

1800-1810; Spanish: scarf, shawl, equivalent to re- re- + bozo muzzle

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for rebozo

Contemporary Examples

She made the design as a comment on the comforting nature of wrapping oneself in a rebozo.
Shining a Spotlight on Mexico’s Iconic Textile—the Rebozo
Liza Foreman
June 16, 2014

Photographs by Lourdes Almeida explore the meaning of the style in which a rebozo is worn.
Shining a Spotlight on Mexico’s Iconic Textile—the Rebozo
Liza Foreman
June 16, 2014

Made from Japanese paper and thread, her rebozo is a critique of the condition of the planet and human behavior, the artist said.
Shining a Spotlight on Mexico’s Iconic Textile—the Rebozo
Liza Foreman
June 16, 2014

Today’s quote

We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color.

– Maya Angelou

On this day

13 August 1784 – British Parliament enacts ‘Pitt’s India Act’, which brought the East India company under the control of the British government.

13 August 1899 – birth of Alfred Hitchcock, English movie director and producer. Died 29 April 1980.

13 August 1926 – birth of Fidel Castro, former Cuban President. Died 25 November 2016.

13 August 1946 – death of Herbert George ‘H.G.’ Wells, British science fiction writer, author of The War of the Worlds, Time Machine, Island of Dr Moreau, The War of the Worlds. Born 21 September 1866.

13 August 1961 – construction of the Berlin Wall commences. Torn down 9 November 1989.

12 August 2018

rustre

[roi-ster]

noun / adjective (french)

lout, someone who is rude, lack of education, of delicacy.

Example: He is such a rustre.

Today’s quote

What we observe as material bodies and forces are nothing but shapes and variations in the structure of space.

– Erwin Schrödinger

On this day

12 August 30BC – Cleopatra VII, last Pharoah of Ancient Egypt, suicides after learning of the suicide of her lover, Mark Antony (after he lost the Battle of Actium to Emperor Octavian). She reportedly allowed herself to be bitten by an asp. Soon after, Egypt became a Roman province under Octavian.

12 August 1887 – birth of Erwin Schrödinger, Nobel prize-winning Austrian physicist who developed a number of fundamental results in the field of quantum theory, which formed the basis of wave mechanics. He was the author of many works in various fields of physics: statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, physics of dielectrics, colour theory, electrodynamics, general relativity, and cosmology, and he made several attempts to construct a unified field theory. He paid great attention to the philosophical aspects of science, ancient and oriental philosophical concepts, ethics, and religion.[4] He also wrote on philosophy and theoretical biology. He is also known for his “Schrödinger’s cat” thought-experiment. Died 4 January 1961.

12 August 1964 – death of Ian Fleming, British author of the ‘James Bond’ novels. Born 28 May 1908.

12 August 2009 – death of Les Paul, (born Lester William Polsfuss) American musician and inventor of the solid body electric guitar. The popular Gibson Les Paul was designed in collaboration with him. Born 9 June 1915.

9 August 2018

sine qua non

[sahy-nee kwey non, kwah, sin-ey; Latin si-ne kwah-nohn]

noun

1. an indispensable condition, element, or factor; something essential:
Her presence was the sine qua non of every social event.

Origin of sine qua non

Late Latin. From the Late Latin word sine quā (causā) nōn without which (thing) not
causa sine qua non. Literally, a cause without which not

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for sine qua non

Contemporary Examples

That accumulation of identities is already a sine qua non when speaking of Hispanics, like Zimmerman.
George Zimmerman, Hispanics, and the Messy Nature of American Identity
Ilan Stavans
April 6, 2012

In the land of the industrial revolution, foreign ownership and management is the sine qua non of industrial success.
Britain is in No Position to Rule the Waves
Noah Kristula-Green
March 8, 2012

This unsmoked, wet-cured ham is the sine qua non of Parisian butcher shops: a light, ephemeral meat, sweet but umami.
Easter’s Top Five Hams
Mark Scarbrough
March 30, 2010

Today’s quote

Why fit in when you were born to stand out?

– Theodor Seuss Geisel

On this day

9 August – World Indigenous Day – to promote and protect the rights of the world’s indigenous populations. It also recognises the achievements and contributions that indigenous people make to improve world issues.

9 August 1936 – Jesse Owens, an African-American athlete, wins his 4th gold medal at the Berlin Olympics – much to Adolf Hitler’s chagrin. Hitler had hoped the games would show-case white Aryan ideals, and was disgusted that a black athlete had achieved more than the white athletes.

9 August 1945 – USA drops an atomic bomb, called ‘Fat Boy’ on Nagasaki, Japan. It is estimated that between 60,000 to 80,000 people died within four months of the bombing, with half that number dying on the day of the bombing.

8 August 2018

craw

[kraw]

noun

1. the crop of a bird or insect.
2. the stomach of an animal.
Idioms
3. stick in one’s craw, to cause considerable or abiding resentment; rankle:
She said I was pompous, and that really stuck in my craw.

Origin of craw

Middle English

1350-1400; Middle English crawe, probably akin to crag2

Can be confused

craw, crow.
craw, crawl.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for craw

Contemporary Examples

One image in the film also stuck in my craw : a shot of a little boy in the audience holding up his white stuffed unicorn.
The Stacks: Pauline Kael’s Talking Heads Obsession
Pauline Kael
November 22, 2014

The seizure of this particular spring sticks in the craw of Palestinian activists—see the “infographic.”
The Settlement Movement and The Environmental Card
Kathleen Peratis
August 21, 2012

But what really stuck in my craw was that Pope mindlessly repeated a spate of spurious claims about ethanol and Brazil.
How Wall Street Will Ruin the Environment
Robert Bryce
June 26, 2009

Historical Examples

The seed came from the craw of a wild swan that they had shot.
Old Rail Fence Corners
Various

Something stuck in his craw, and he couldn’t figure out what it was.
The Bramble Bush
Gordon Randall Garrett

“He ain’t got the sand in his craw to make a killing,” said one of the listeners.
Rimrock Trail
J. Allan Dunn

“Just the same, he’s got something in his craw,” replied the sheriff.
Rimrock Trail
J. Allan Dunn

Fill the craw of the fowl, &c.; but do not cram it so as to disfigure its shape.
The Cook’s Oracle; and Housekeeper’s Manual
William Kitchiner

It was pumping up the food from its craw, in the same way that a pigeon does.
In a Cheshire Garden
Geoffrey Egerton-Warburton

Today’s quote

When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal.

– Richard Nixon

On this day

8 August 1864 – Formation of the Red Cross in Geneva, Switzerland.

8 August 1879 – birth of Emiliano Zapata Salazar, Mexican revolutionary. Died 10 April 1919.

8 August 1945 – The Soviet Union declares war on the Empire of Japan and invades the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. In late, July 1945 Japan, naively, had been petitioning the neutral Soviets to broker a peace deal favourable to the Japanese. While the invasion violated the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact, it was in accordance with the secret Yalta Agreements that the Soviet Union made with the United States and the United Kingdom at the Crimea Conference held between 4-11 February 1945, in which Stalin agreed to attack Japan within 3 months of Germany’s surrender.

8 August 1953 – conclusion of negotiations for the 1953 London Debt Agreement which had begun on 27 February 1953, when West Germany was given debt relief by creditor nations, which included Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Greece, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Norway, Pakistan, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, South Africa, the United States, Yugoslavia and others. The debt of 32 billion marks (16 billion owed to the United States and 16 billion to other nations) had accumulated since the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. The London Agreement halved the debt to 15 billion marks to be paid out over 30 years. The repayments were capped at 3% of export earnings and were only required while West Germany had a trade surplus. This significantly boosted West Germany’s export market and directly resulted in Germany becoming an economic powerhouse.

8 August 1959 – death of Albert Namatjira, Australian Aboriginal artist. Born 28 July 1902.

8 August 1974 – USA President Richard Millhouse Nixon resigns because of his impending impeachment for ‘obstruction of justice’, ‘abuse of power’, and ‘contempt of congress’, in relation to the Watergate Scandal.

8 August 1981 – birth of Roger Federer in Switzerland, champion tennis player.

8 August 1988 – The ‘8888’ Uprising in Burma, from which Aung Sun Suu Kyi gains popularity and becomes a national hero.

7 August 2018

Parousia

[puh-roo-zee-uh, -see-uh, pahr-oo-see-uh]

noun

1. advent (def 4).
2. (lowercase) Platonism. the presence in any thing of the idea after which it was formed.

Origin of Parousia

Greek

1870-1875; < Greek parousía a being present, presence, equivalent to par- par- + ous- (stem of ôn, present participle of eînai to be) + -ia -ia

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for Parousia

Historical Examples

They also betray the expectation of the early coming of the Parousia.
Sources of the Synoptic Gospels
Carl S. Patton

They betray the conviction that the time of the Parousia is near.
Sources of the Synoptic Gospels
Carl S. Patton

Luke (xvii, 34) wishes to suggest that the Parousia may occur in the night.
Sources of the Synoptic Gospels
Carl S. Patton

Furthermore, it is not only in the earlier epistles that expressions occur which seem to suggest that the Parousia is near.
The Literature and History of New Testament Times
J. Gresham (John Gresham) Machen

The thought of an incarnation or a Parousia of Wisdom is absolutely foreign to Jewish thought.
The Origin of Paul’s Religion
J. Gresham Machen

Luke, or his source, wishes to indicate that the Parousia may be in the night, and so adds the words and .
Sources of the Synoptic Gospels
Carl S. Patton

Today’s quote

You can expect what you inspect.

– William Deming

On this day

7 August 1876 – birth of Mata Hari, (born Margaretha Geertruida Zelle), Dutch dancer, courtesan and spy. She was charged with espionage and executed by firing squad in France, after being accused of spying for Germany during World War I. Died 15 October 1917.

7 August 1964 – birth of John Birmingham, Australian author.

7 August 1987 – US long distance swimmer, Lynne Cox, swims the freezing Bering Strait from Alaska to the Soviet Union in an effort to warm the relationship between the USA and the USSR. Unlike the reception that Matthius Rust received in May 1987 for illegally entering the Soviet Union, Lynne Cox was welcomed by the Eskimos of the Diomede Islands and Soviet soldiers stationed there. Her effort was praised by the both US President Ronald Reagan and USSR General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev.