Today in History (April 15th):
Tax Day
1452: Birthdays: Italian painter and inventor Leonardo da Vinci.
1755: Samuel Johnson published A Dictionary of the English Language.
1800: Birthdays: British polar explorer James Clark Ross.
1817: The first U.S. public school for the deaf, Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons (now the American School for the Deaf), was founded at Hartford, Conn.
1841: Birthdays: Distiller Joseph E. Seagram.
1843: Birthdays: Author Henry James.
1861: U.S. President Abraham Lincoln sent Congress a message recognizing a state of war with the Southern states and calling for 75,000 volunteer soldiers.
1865: U.S. President Abraham Lincoln died of an assassin’s bullet. Vice President Andrew Johnson was sworn in as the 17th President of the United States.
1889: Birthdays: Painter Thomas Hart Benton.
1894: Birthdays: Former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev; Singer Bessie Smith.
1898: Birthdays: Actor Marian Jordan, Molly in the long-running Fibber McGee and Molly radio show.
1912: The luxury liner Titanic sank in the northern Atlantic Ocean off Newfoundland after striking an iceberg the night before. Some 1,500 lives were lost. Birthdays: North Korean leader Kim Il Sung.
1916: Birthdays: Businessman Alfred S. Bloomingdale.
1922: Birthdays: Harold Washington, the first black mayor of Chicago.
1924: The first Rand McNally road atlas was published.
1933: Birthdays: Country singer Roy Clark ;Actor Elizabeth Montgomery.
1938: Birthdays: Actor Claudia Cardinale.
1944: Birthdays: Musician Dave Edmunds.
1947: Major League Baseball’s color line was broken with the debut of Jackie Robinson for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
1950: Birthdays: Actor Amy Wright.
1951: Birthdays: Newspaper columnist Heloise Cruse Evans (Hints from Heloise).
1955: The first franchised McDonald’s was opened in Des Plaines, Ill., by Ray Kroc, who got the idea from a hamburger restaurant in San Bernardino, Calif., run by the McDonald brothers.
1959: Birthdays: Actor Emma Thompson.
1982: Birthdays: Actor Seth Rogen.
1990: Birthdays: Actor Emma Watson.
1991: The European Community lifted its remaining economic sanctions against South Africa, allowing the import of gold coins, iron and steel — despite pleas by the African National Congress to continue the sanctions.
1998: Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge leader who presided over a reign of terror in Cambodia in the late 1970s, died at a jungle outpost near the Cambodian-Thailand border.
1999: Astronomers announced they discovered evidence of a planetary system in the constellation Andromeda. At the time it was the only known planet system other than the one around the sun.
2007: Iran announced it was accepting bids for a contract to build two nuclear power plants in the southern city of Bushehr.
2008: On his first papal visit to the United States, Pope Benedict XVI met with U.S. President George W. Bush, addressed the United Nations, conducted masses at stadiums in Washington and New York, celebrated his 81st birthday and apologized for the scandal that grew from alleged child abuse by priests.
2009: Tea Party protests, largely critical of U.S. President Barack Obama and his policies, had their biggest turnout to date on April 15, tax day, with demonstrations in a reported in 750 cities.
2010: In a speech at the Kennedy Space Center, U.S. President Barack Obama outlined long-range space goals, including a manned flight to Mars by the mid-2030s.
2011: Two days after U.S. President Barack Obama outlined plans for a fiscal 2012 budget designed to cut $4 trillion from projected deficits over a 12-year period, the House of Representatives introduced its own version that, among other things, promised to balance the budget by 2040, reduce taxes, cut spending and privatize Medicare.
2012: U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s contention that women had most of the job losses during Barack Obama’s presidency was misleading and ridiculous.
Quotes
“Art is the elimination of the unnecessary.” – Pablo Picasso, painter, and sculptor (1881-1973)
“The reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who can write know anything.” – Walter Bagehot
“The trick is to stop thinking of it as ‘your’ money.” – Tax Auditor
“People who complain about taxes can be divide into two classes: men and women.” – Anonymous
“Taxation with representation ain’t so hot either” – Gerald Barzan, humorist
“It’s income tax time again, Americans: time to gather up those receipts, get out those tax forms, sharpen up that pencil, and stab yourself in the aorta” – Dave Barry
“Worried about an IRS audit? Avoid what’s called a red flag. That’s something the IRS always looks for. For example, say you have some mney left in your bank account after paying taxes. That’s a red flag.” – Jay Leno
“If you are truly serious about preparing your child for the future, don’t teach him to subtract – teach him to deduct.” – Fran Lebowitz
“Day in and day out, your tax accountant can make or lose you more money than any single person in your life, with the possible exception of your kids.” – Harvey Mackay
“In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.” – Voltaire (1764)
“The more you earn, the less you keep
And now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my soul to take
If the tax collector hasn’t got it before I wake”
– Ogden Nash
“The Internal Revenue code is about 10 times the size of the Bible – and, unlike the Bible, it contains no good news.” – Don Rickles
“What this country needs is a really good 5-cent cigar.” – Thomas Riley Marshall (U.S. Vice President, 1913-1921)
“There are plenty of good 5-cent cigars in this country. The problem is they cost a quarter. What this country needs is a good 5-cent nickel.” – W. C. Fields, in response to above quote
“The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best — and therefore never scrutinize or question.” – Stephen Jay Gould, paleontologist, biologist, author (1941-2002)
“Gods are fragile things; they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense.” – Chapman Cohen, author and lecturer (1868-1954)
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) Italian artist, writer, inventor, and philosopher:
Therefore, you are suggested to read more cipla cialis india about American Ginseng and its health benefits on the internet. These exercises are to india pharmacy viagra be performed on your own. However, both indivduals must be able to erect cialis for cheap energyhealingforeveryone.com your male reproductive organ. The film is about four friends Phil, Stu, Alan and tadalafil tablets prices energyhealingforeveryone.com Doug who have a bachelor that goes wrong. “Although nature commences with reason and ends in experience it is necessary for us to do the opposite, that is to commence with experience and from this to proceed to investigate the reason.”
“Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory.”
“As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.”
“Common Sense is that which judges the things given to it by other senses.”
“Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen.”
“Experience does not err. Only your judgments err by expecting from her what is not in her power.”
“For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.”
“He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast.”
“Human subtelty will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does Nature, because in her inventions, nothing is lacking and nothing is superfluous.”
“I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.”
“I have offended God and mankind because my work didn’t reach the quality it should have.”
maffick
PRONUNCIATION: (MAF-ik)
http://wordsmith.org/words/maffick.mp3
MEANING: (verb intr.), To celebrate boisterously.
ETYMOLOGY: Back formation from Mafeking (now Mafikeng), a town in South Africa, where a British garrison was besieged for 217 days during the Boer War. Lifting of the siege on May 17, 1900 sparked wild celebrations in London.
USAGE:
“Colin Milburn had a glazed look of stupefaction in his unseeing eyes and was completely oblivious to the mafficking going all around him in the wake of England’s recently completed Test victory over Australia.” – Frank Tyson; Driven by Natural Gifts; Sportstar (Chennai, India); Jul 4, 2009.
“Last year, about 300 people who like comics showed up … It was a successful day of mingling, marketing, and mafficking.” – Wayne Alan Brenner; Giant-Sized Annual; The Austin Chronicle (Texas); Mar 3, 2006.
dendrochronology
PRONUNCIATION: (den-dreh-kreh-NAH-leh-gee)
MEANING: (noun), The study of the history of climatic and environmental changes of a geographical region based on the interpretation of the annual growth rings in the trunks of trees.
ETYMOLOGY: Today’s word comes from a Greek-based compound made up of dendron “tree” + another compound, “chronologia” from chronos “time” + log- “word, idea” + ia, a noun suffix. Greek dendron “tree” also found its way into dendrophile “tree-lover” and dendrolatry “tree-worship.” The root is from Proto-Indo-European *doru-, deru-, dru- “solid, be firm.” The [u] tended to become [w] or [v] if preceded by a vowel, so we find in Old Slavic drevo “tree, wood,” which remains in Serbian but has become “derevo” in Russian. In Old English it became “treow” and, ultimately, “tree.” The *deru- form gave us “tar,” originally derived from the sap of trees.
USAGE: “We stopped burning logs in our fireplace when an amateur dendrochronologist told us how much history of the area was going up in smoke.”
nice nelly
PRONUNCIATION: (nys NEL-ee)
http://wordsmith.org/words/nice_nelly.mp3
MEANING: (noun), A person excessively concerned with propriety, modesty, etc.
ETYMOLOGY: A specialized use of the name Nelly, a nickname for Helen or Eleanor. Earliest documented use: 1922.
USAGE: “Glen Rounds wrote: Instead of trying to make a nice nelly of me they encourage me to be my own nasty self, or even more so.” – Russell Freedman & Barbara Elleman; Holiday House: The First Sixty-Five Years; Holiday House; 2000.
paragon
PRONUNCIATION: (PAR-uh-gohn)
http://wordsmith.org/words/paragon.mp3
MEANING:
(noun)
1. A model of excellence or perfection.
2. A match or an equal.
3. A perfect diamond weighing 100 carats or more.
4. A very large round pearl.
5. A type size of 20 points.
(verb tr.), To compare, parallel, rival, or surpass.
ETYMOLOGY: From Middle French paragone/peragone (perfect diamond), from Old Italian paragone (touchstone), from Greek parakonan (to sharpen), from akone(whetstone), from akme (point). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ak-(sharp), which is also the source of acrid, vinegar, acid, acute, edge, hammer, heaven, eager, oxygen, and mediocre. Earliest documented use: 1548.
USAGE:
“Mom, a paragon of manners, stresses the importance of offering sincere gratitude before asking for more.” – Don’t Be Fooled; Chicago Tribune; Mar 24, 2010.
“The Cavaliere … paragoned her in his song to all the pagan goddesses of antiquity.” – Edith Wharton; Crucial Instances; 1901.
Explore “paragon” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=paragon
bien-pensant
PRONUNCIATION: (bee-aN poN-saN [the last three syllables are nasal])
http://wordsmith.org/words/bien-pensant.mp3
MEANING:
(adjective)
1. Right-thinking; conservative; conformist.
2. Self-righteous.
(noun)
1. A right-thinking person.
2. A self-righteous person.
ETYMOLOGY: From French, literally well thinking, from bien (well), + penser (to think).
USAGE:
“But the problem is that one man’s superstition is another man’s religion, and vice versa. Many Protestants today still see Catholicism as being rife with superstition, … while atheists and agnostics would see bien-pensant Protestants as worshiping an equally absurd form of the supernatural.” – David Gibson; Is One Man’s Faith Another’s Superstition?; The Wall Street Journal (New York); Mar 27, 2009.
“We North London bien pensant types do our best, we really do.” – Peter York; How to Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is; The Independent (London, UK); Sep 17, 2006.