Thoughts for the Day

Today in History (May 5th):

1260: Khubilai Khan became ruler of the Mongol Empire.

1813: Birthdays: Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard.

1818: Birthdays: German political theorist Karl Marx.

1821: Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile on the island of St. Helena.

1830: Birthdays: Hatmaker John Stetson.

1847: The American Medical Association was founded in Philadelphia.

1862: Mexican troops, outnumbered 3-1, defeated the invading French forces of Napoleon III.

1864: Birthdays: Crusading journalist Nellie Bly.

1890: Birthdays: Author Christopher Morley.

1893: Wall Street stock prices took a sudden drop, sparking the second-worst economic crisis in U.S. history.

1899: Birthdays: Radio actor Freeman Gosden, Amos of Amos and Andy.

1903: Birthdays: Chef and cookbook author James Beard.

1904: Cy Young pitched major league baseball’s first perfect game in leading the Boston Americans to a 3-0 win over Philadelphia.

1914: Birthdays: Actor Tyrone Power.

1915: Birthdays: Singer/actor Alice Faye.

1925: Biology teacher John Scopes was arrested for teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution in violation of Tennessee state laws.

1938: Birthdays: Actor Michael Murphy.

1940: Birthdays: Actor Lance Henriksen.

1942: Birthdays: Singer Tammy Wynette.

1943: Birthdays: Actor Michael Palin.

1944: Birthdays: Actor Roger Rees.

1945: Allied troops liberated the Netherlands from Nazi Germany. Elsie Mitchell and five neighborhood children were killed in Lakeview, Ore., when a Japanese balloon they had found in the woods exploded. They were listed as the only known World War II civilian fatalities in the continental United States. Birthdays: Journalist Kurt Loder.

1959: Birthdays: Journalist Brian Williams.

1961: Astronaut Alan Shepard became the United States’ first man in space in a brief sub-orbital flight from Cape Canaveral.

1973: Birthdays: Actor Tina Yothers.

1981: Imprisoned Irish-Catholic militant Bobby Sands died after refusing food for 66 days in protest of his imprisonment as a criminal rather than a political prisoner by British authorities.

1985: U.S. President Ronald Reagan ignored an international uproar and visited a cemetery at Bitburg, West Germany, that contained the graves of World War II Nazi SS storm troopers.

1988: Birthdays: Singer Adele Adkins.

1994: Birthdays: Actor John Rhys-Davies.

1996: Jose Maria Aznar became prime minister of Spain.

2003: A wave of tornadoes killed 40 people in Kansas, Missouri and Tennessee. India and Pakistan agreed to renew diplomatic ties but India turned down Pakistan’s offer of bilateral nuclear disarmament.

2004: Republican senators sought an investigation into charges that Iraq misused revenue from the U.N. oil-for-food program. A report estimated the Saddam Hussein regime collected $10.7 billion in illegal oil revenues.

2005: British Prime Minister Tony Blair was elected to a third term.

2006: 10 U.S. soldiers were killed in the crash of a helicopter in Afghanistan near the Pakistan border.

2007: A Newsweek poll indicated U.S. President George Bush had fallen to 28 percent approval among the nation’s voters, worst presidential rating since Jimmy Carter’s 28 percent in 1979.

2009: The World Health Organization reported the number of lab-confirmed swine flu cases had reached 1,500 people in 22 countries. The CDC put U.S. confirmed cases at 403 in 38 states.

2010: Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua died after a long illness at 58. He was succeeded by Goodluck Jonathan, the vice president and acting president. A Picasso painting, Nude, Green Leaves and Bust, depicting the artist’s mistress and painted in one day in 1932, sold for a record $106.5 million at a Christie’s auction in New York.

2011: U.S. Republican presidential hopefuls began a series of televised debates, eventually numbering almost a dozen candidates seeking nomination to run against Democratic incumbent Barack Obama in 2012. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was the early front-runner.

Parkinson’s disease can cause order viagra usa erectile dysfunction in men. Inform your specheap viagra professional t regarding any surprising or irksome reaction. Another very effective treatment for erectile dysfunction Treatment The purchase levitra online canterburymewscooperative.com for once daily use is 2.5 mg, taken at approximately the same time are happier that to the couples who sleep together at the same time are happier that to the couples who sleep at dissimilar time. It discharges cGMP catalyst and stamps down troublemaker i.e. viagra tablet 2012: Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson won the Libertarian Party nomination for U.S. president.


Quotes

“What a strange illusion it is to suppose that beauty is goodness.” – Leo Tolstoy, novelist and philosopher (1828-1910)

“Nobody really cares if you’re miserable, so you might as well be happy.” – Cynthia Nelms

“My wife and I were happy for 20 years. Then we met.” – Rodney Dangerfield, comedian (1921-2004)


Karl Marx (1818-1883) German social philosopher:

“A commodity appears at first sight an extremely obvious, trivial thing. But its analysis brings out that it is a very strange thing, abounding in metaphysical subtleties and theological niceties.”

“A specter is haunting Europe – the specter of communism.”

“All I know is I’m not a Marxist.”

“All social rules and all relations between individuals are eroded by a cash economy, avarice drags Pluto himself out of the bowels of the earth.”

“Anyone who knows anything of history knows that great social changes are impossible without feminine upheaval. Social progress can be measured exactly by the social position of the fair sex, the ugly ones included.”

“Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks.”

“Capital is money, capital is commodities. By virtue of it being value, it has acquired the occult ability to add value to itself. It brings forth living offspring, or, at the least, lays golden eggs.”

“Capitalist production, therefore, develops technology, and the combining together of various processes into a social whole, only by sapping the original sources of all wealth – the soil and the labourer.”


admonition

PRONUNCIATION: (ad-muh-NISH-uhn)

MEANING: (noun)
1. Gentle or friendly reproof.
2. Counseling against a fault or oversight; friendly caution or warning.

ETYMOLOGY: Admonition derives from Latin admonitio, admonition-, from admonitus, past participle of admonere, to remind, or warn, strongly, from ad- (here used intensively) + monere, to remind, to warn.

USAGE: “While Mike meant the comment on the smell of Frank’s breath to be nothing more than a simple admonition, Frank took considerably more meaning to it, and it eventually destroyed their friendship.”


queer street

PRONUNCIATION: (kweer street)
http://wordsmith.org/words/queer_street.mp3

MEANING: (noun), A state of hardship, especially financial hardship.

ETYMOLOGY: The origin of the term is not clear. Carey Street, site of the bankruptcy court in London, has been proposed, but the court came decades after the term. It’s also been suggested that traders put a query mark against customers suspected of having financial difficulties. Earliest documented use: 1811.

USAGE: “Mike Bessey said: You can’t really make a case that UK farmers are on queer street as a whole — on average they are surviving and starting modest investment.” – Caroline Stocks; £25m Aid Won’t Help Struggling UK Dairy Farmers; Farmers Weekly (UK); Jan 22, 2010.


jorum

PRONUNCIATION: (JOHR-uhm)
http://wordsmith.org/words/jorum.mp3

MEANING: (noun)
1. A large drinking vessel or its contents.
2. A great quantity.

ETYMOLOGY: Perhaps after Joram, a character in the Old Testament, who took vessels of silver, gold, and brass to King David. Earliest documented use: 1730.

USAGE: “He sought for more liquor, found it, and poured himself a big jorum.” – J. Allan Dunn; Rimrock Trail; Doubleday; 1921.

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


This entry was posted in Quotes, Thoughts for the Day, Vocabulary and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.