Thoughts for the Day

Today in History (December 9th):

1608: Birthdays: English poet John Milton.

1845: Birthdays: Journalist Joel Chandler Harris, author of the Uncle Remus stories.

1851: The first YMCA in North America was established in Montreal.

1886: Birthdays: Clarence Birdseye, industrialist/inventor, noted as the father of frozen foods.

1897: Birthdays: Actor Hermione Gingold.

1898: Birthdays: Circus clown Emmett Kelly.

1902: Birthdays: Actor Margaret Hamilton.

1906: Birthdays: Bandleader Freddy Martin.

1907: The first Christmas Seals to raise money to fight tuberculosis went on sale in the post office in Wilmington, Del.

1909: Birthdays: Actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

1911: Birthdays: Actor Broderick Crawford.

1912: Birthdays: Former Speaker of the House Thomas Tip O’Neill, D-Mass.

1916: Birthdays: Actor Kirk Douglas.

1920: The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson.

1922: Birthdays: Comedian Redd Foxx.

1925: Birthdays: Actor Dina Merrill.

1928: Birthdays: Actor Dick Van Patten.

1929: Birthdays: Actor John Cassavetes.

1930: Birthdays: Actor Buck Henry.

1934: Birthdays: Actor Judi Dench.

1938: Birthdays: Football Hall of Fame member Deacon Jones.

1941: Birthdays: Actor Beau Bridges.

1942: Birthdays: Football Hall of Fame member Dick Butkus.

1945: Birthdays: Actor Michael Nouri.

1949: Birthdays: Golf Hall of Fame member Tom Kite.

1950: Birthdays: Singer Joan Armatrading.

1952: Birthdays: Actor Michael Dorn.

1953: Birthdays: Actor John Malkovich.

1957: Birthdays: Singer Donny Osmond.

1958: In Indianapolis, retired Boston candy manufacturer Robert H. W. Welch, Jr., established the John Birch Society, a right-wing organization dedicated to fighting what it perceived to be the extensive infiltration of communism into U.S. society.

1961: Birthdays: Actor Joe Lando.

1962: Birthdays: Actor Felicity Huffman.

1969: Birthdays: Singer Jakob Dylan.

1974: White House aide John Ehrlichman testified at the Watergate trial that U.S. President Richard Nixon was responsible for the coverup.

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1990: Lech Walesa won Poland’s first direct presidential vote.

1992: The U.S. Marines landed in famine-wracked Somalia to ensure the delivery of food and medicine. British Prime Minister John Major announced the formal separation of Prince Charles and Princess Diana.

1994: U.S. President Bill Clinton fired U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders for reportedly suggesting that masturbation be taught in schools.

2002: United Airlines, which said it was losing $22 million a day, filed for bankruptcy.

2005: Published reports said a key prewar Bush administration claim about ties between Iraq and al-Qaida came from a prisoner who said he made it up to avoid harsh treatment.

2006: U.S. midterm election figures indicated Democrats made a 31-seat gain to recapture control of the House of Representatives, with 233 seats to 202 for the Republicans. Democrats earlier assured themselves the Senate majority. Arson was suspected in a Moscow clinic fire that killed 45 women trapped in the inferno by metal bars across the windows.

2008: Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was accused of plotting to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.

2009: The U.S. government’s bailout program for ailing major banks played a critical role in renewing the flow of credit and preventing a more acute crisis, the independent Congressional Oversight Panel said in a year-end report.

2010: A London crowd protesting a British government decision to triple college tuition fees attacked a car carrying Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, smashing a window and covering the car with paint. The royal couple wasn’t injured. U.S. House Democrats voted to block a tax deal reached by President Barack Obama and Republicans, indicating what observers called possible fierce opposition within the president’s party.

2011: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin blamed the United States for encouraging opposition protests that had broken out since parliamentary elections. Mexican authorities investigated a series of attacks in Juarez that left 14 people dead, including four people killed aboard an ambulance.



Quotes
John Milton (1608-1674) English Poet:

“No man who know aught can be so stupid to deny that all men naturally were born free.”

“. . . and now expecting Each hour their great adventurer, from the search Of foreign words.”

“Adam, well may we labour, still to dress This garden, still to tend plant, herb, and flower.”

“If by fire Of sooty coal th’ empiric alchymist Can turn, or holds it possible to turn, Metals of drossiest ore to perfect gold.”

“Here may we reign secure, and in my choice To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell. Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.”

“Such joy ambition finds.”

“But what will not ambition and revenge Descend to? who aspires must down as low As high he soar’d, obnoxious first and last To basest things.”

“If at great things thou would’st arrive, Get riches first, get wealth, and treasure heap, Not difficult, if thou hearken to me; Riches are mine, fortune is in my hand, They whom I favor thrive in wealth amain, While virtue, valor, wisdom, sit in want.”

“In naked beauty more adorned More lovely than Pandora.”

“Of calling shapes, and beck’ning shadows dire, And airy tongues that syllable men’s names.”



princox

PRONUNCIATION: (PRIN-koks)
http://wordsmith.org/words/princox.mp3

MEANING: (noun), A conceited person; a coxcomb. Also princock.

ETYMOLOGY: Of uncertain origin. Earliest documented use: 1540.

USAGE:

“The crowing princock wouldn’t mind his tongue, practically begged for a beating with his back talk.” – Jennifer Bray-Weber; A Kiss in the Wind; Harlequin; 2012.

“You are a saucy boy … You are a princox.” – William Shakespeare; Romeo & Juliet; 1590s.



maven

PRONUNCIATION: (MEY-vn)

MEANING: (noun), An expert or connoisseur; someone with profound knowledge of a subject.

ETYMOLOGY: Yiddish “meyvn” from Hebrew meebin “expert,” active participle of heebin “to understand,” derived stem of the radical bn “discern, understand.” “Maven” is a lexical orphan without an adjective or verb to accompany it. The Hebrew plural, “mavinim,” is used only facetiously. The spelling “mavin” has alternated with the current spelling over the past century but most dictionaries have now settled on the spelling we use above.

USAGE: “Hesh was the local maven of 60’s era music, with an extensive record library and reference books.”


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