Thoughts for the Day

Today in History (January 10th):

0049 B.C.: Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon, beginning the Roman civil war.

1776: Common Sense by political philosopher Thomas Paine was published. The pamphlet advocated American independence from England.

1861: Florida seceded from the United States.

1878: A constitutional amendment that would give women the right to vote was introduced into the U.S. Senate. It wasn’t until 42 years later that the amendment was signed into law.

1883: Birthdays: Silent screen actor Francis X. Bushman.

1887: Birthdays: Poet Robinson Jeffers.

1901: Oil was discovered at the Spindletop claim near Beaumont, Texas, launching the Southwest oil boom.

1904: Birthdays: Actor Ray Bolger.

1908: Birthdays: Actor Paul Henreid.

1920: The League of Nations came into being as the Treaty of Versailles went into effect. Birthdays: Max Patkin, the Clown Prince of Baseball.

1927: Birthdays: Singer Johnnie Ray.

1929: The Adventures of Tintin comic book first published.

1935: Birthdays: Rock ‘n’ roll Hall of Fame member Ronnie Hawkins.

1936: Birthdays: Historian Stephen Ambrose.

1939: Birthdays: Actor Sal Mineo; Olympic decathlon champion Bill Toomey.

1943: Birthdays: Singer Jim Croce.

1944: Birthdays: Actor William Sanderson; Singer Frank Sinatra Jr.

1945: Birthdays: Rock ‘n’ roll Hall of Fame member Rod Stewart.

1946: The first meeting of the United Nations General Assembly convened in London.

1948: Birthdays: Rock ‘n’ roll Hall of Fame member Donald Fagen.

1949: Birthdays: X-rated film actor Linda Lovelace; Boxer George Foreman.

1953: Birthdays: Singer Pat Benatar.

1956: Birthdays: Singer Shawn Colvin.

1959: Birthdays: New Zealand screenwriter Fran Walsh.

1984: The United States established full diplomatic relations with the Vatican for the first time in 116 years.

1996: Rebels in the Russian republic of Chechnya holding 2,000 rebels released all but 130 and were allowed to flee. However, before they reached the border, Russian troops attacked the convoy, beginning a five-day standoff.

2000: America Online announced it had agreed to buy Time Warner for $165 billion, in what would be the biggest merger in history.

2003: North Korea announced it was withdrawing from the 1979 nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

2005: Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip elected Mahmoud Abbas their new president, succeeding the late Yasser Arafat.

2006: Iran unsealed its nuclear facility at Natanz and resumed atomic research for what it claimed to be peaceful purposes but sparking international ire.

2007: U.S. President George W. Bush announced he was sending more than 20,000 additional troops to Iraq, most of them deployed in Baghdad, in what was labeled a troop surge. The U.S. House of Representatives approved a $2.10-an-hour increase in the national minimum wage, raising the figure to $7.25.

2008: U.S. forces mounted a major air offensive against al-Qaida targets on the southern outskirts of Baghdad, the military said. Within 10 minutes, warplanes dropped 38 1,000-pound bombs on suspected al-Qaida safe houses. At least 23 people were killed and 60 others injured when a suicide bomber detonated outside a busy courthouse at midday in Lahore, Pakistan. Deaths: Edmund Hillary, who gained international fame as a member of the first climbing party to scale Mount Everest, died in Auckland, New Zealand, at age 88.

2009: A published report said Israel dropped a plan to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities after U.S. President George W. Bush denied permission to fly over Iraq. The New York Times said further the Bush administration also turned down a request for bunker-busting bombs. Six Somali pirates drowned during a dispute in their overloaded boat as they tried to escape with an alleged $3 million ransom for the Saudi oil supertanker Sirius Star.
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2011: Mississippi sisters, Gladys and Jaime Scott, in their 30s, were released from prison after serving 16 years of a life sentence for a reported $11 armed robbery, and became a national civil rights cause, on condition that one donates a kidney to her ailing sibling, if doctors say it’s safe.

2012: U.S. gas prices went up by more than 10 cents a gallon in three weeks. Libyan and U.N. officials signed an agreement creating the legal framework for the United Nations’ support mission in the country.



Quotes

“Most people think that shadows follow, precede, or surround beings or objects. The truth is that they also surround words, ideas, desires, deeds, impulses and memories.” – Elie Wiesel, writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1928)

“There is something beautiful about all scars of whatever nature. A scar means the hurt is over, the wound is closed and healed, done with.” – Harry Crews, novelist and playwright (b. 1935)



George Foreman (1949- ) American Boxer:

“A hero is someone right who doesn’t change.”

“I am a winner each and every time I go into the ring.”

“I don’t even think about a retirement program because I’m working for the Lord, for the Almighty. And even thought the Lord’s pay isn’t very high, his retirement program is, you might say, out of this world.”

“I think sleeping was my problem in school. If school had started at 4:00 in the afternoon, I’d be a college graduate today.”

“I want to keep fighting because it is the only thing that keeps me out of the hamburger joints. If I don’t fight, I’ll eat this planet.”

“I’m the world heavyweight champion. I consider myself a citizen of the whole world.”

“Let the other guy have whatever he wants before the fight. Once the bell rings he’s gonna be disappointed anyway.”

“My kids idea of a hard life is to live in a house with only one phone.”



cenobite

PRONUNCIATION: (SEN-uh-byt, SEEN-)

MEANING: (noun), A member of a religious order living in a monastic community. (Also see eremite and anchorite.)

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin coenobium (monastery), from Greek koinobion (convent), from koinos (common) + bios (life). Earliest documented use: before 1638.

USAGE: “He knew a fellow cenobite when he saw one. There was no religious meditation involved, but they were both alone in places where they should not have been alone.” – Elizabeth George; Careless in Red; Harper; 2009.

Explore “cenobite” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=cenobite



afflatus

PRONUNCIATION: (uh-FLAY-tuhs)

MEANING: (noun), A divine imparting of knowledge; inspiration.

ETYMOLOGY: Afflatus is from Latin afflatus, past participle of afflare, “to blow at or breathe on,” from ad-, “at” + flare, “to puff, to blow.” Other words with the same root include deflate (de-, “out of” + flare); inflate (in-, “into” + flare); souffle, the “puffed up” dish (from French souffler, “to puff,” from Latin sufflare, “to blow from below,” hence “to blow up, to puff up,” from sub-, “below” + flare); and flatulent.

USAGE: “The miraculous spring that nourished the poet’s afflatus seems out of reach of today’s writers, whose desperate yearning for inspiration only indicates the coming of an ‘age of exhaustion.'”



dysthymia

PRONUNCIATION:  (dis-THY-mee-uh)
http://wordsmith.org/words/dysthymia.mp3

MEANING:  (noun), A mild depression.

ETYMOLOGY:  From Greek dys- (bad) + -thymia (mental disorder), from thymos (mind, soul). Earliest documented use: 1842.

USAGE:  “It was as if my mood had been goaded away from situational discontentedness into a dysthymia that seemed now to be heading into full-fledged depression.” – Meghan Daum; Life Would Be Perfect If I Lived in That House; Knopf; 2011.

Explore “dysthymia” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=dysthymia


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