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Wow...just realized, until last night, it had been nearly 7 years I had been on here. Sorry to anyone who still remembers me. Life happened and I completely forgot about this amazing place until last night. Recently survived a major hurricane. Which was historic. I live in the mountains of North Carolina and we got wrecked. Thankfully our home survived, but we took a hit financially. We were without power for two weeks, internet a month, and water for a month. Then there was three wild fires 13 miles away from our home. Anyways, my family is safe and I am going to try and get on here again and be more active.

That's interesting, you don't often see this kind of word in english; more so in other languages. In a way you could say the word is adscititious to the language in and of itself

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What's the Word: ADSCITITIOUS pronunciation: [ad-sih-TISH-əs] Part of speech: adjective Origin: Latin, 17th century Meaning: 1. Forming an addition or supplement; not integral or intrinsic. Examples: "When the dense fog stranded hundreds of travelers, the resort struggled to feed the adscititious crowd." "The Sunday papers used to come with more than a half-dozen adscititious magazines and promotional flyers." About Adscititious “Adscititious” is based on the Latin “adscitus,” meaning “admitted.” Did you Know? The word “adscititious” has a two-part definition: “forming an addition or supplement” and also “not integral.” While both parts make up the definition, they can be at odds with each other — something that is not integral can be seen as unneeded. However, supplements are usually helpful additions, and sometimes even necessary. Consider the nutritional supplement folic acid. This might fit both sides of the definition of adscititious; it’s not integral to most adult diets, but it’s extremely important to supplement as a prenatal vitamin.

The last episode of season one of HoriMiya. It was such a a sweet episode. The whole series was wonderful, but I love how it came to a beautiful ending of Izumi proposing to Kyoko. It was in a tasteful innocent way, and not some cheesy over the top way.

Just sitting here watching snow and playing Pokemon Violet.

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What's the Word: GAB pronunciation: [gab] Part of speech: verb Origin: Late Middle English, 18th century Meaning: 1. Talk at length, typically about trivial matters. Examples: "Come over for a cup of coffee and let's gab." "If my mom starts to gab in the grocery store, we'll never make it home." About Gab This short and sweet word basically means to chit-chat. You might gab with your friends about everything, or nothing at all. It's just a casual chat. Did you Know? The original Late Middle English word "gab" meant "to mock or tell lies." Pleasantly, the meaning has shifted to account for a casual sort of chat. You're not telling lies; you're just passing the time with a bit of conversation.

Fact of the Day -ARACHNOPHOBIA Did you know.... Arachnophobia is among the most common phobias, and not just among humans. Spiders can have it too, and with good reason — spiders of certain species regularly eat each other (for food, after mating, and for other reasons scientists don’t fully understand). A 2021 study found that fear of fellow arachnids is prevalent among common zebra jumping spiders (Salticus scenicus), who were observed leaping away from larger jumping spider species in recognition of the latter’s status as potential predators. Even when placed near deceased Marpissa muscosa and Phidippus audax, the spiders froze up or ran away. The same effects were found even when baby Salticus scenicus were presented with 3D models that somewhat resembled the predators. Like their adult counterparts, baby jumping spiders have extremely strong eyesight and use their keen vision to detect and avoid threats — even when those threats aren’t actually moving. When it comes to humans, acrophobia (fear of heights), aerophobia (flying), trypanophobia (needles), and social phobias like public speaking also consistently rank among the most common fears. Approximately 19 million Americans have at least one phobia, most of which emerge when a person is between the ages of 15 and 20. Exposure therapy has been shown to help reduce these fears, at least when it comes to humans — jumping spiders may not be as lucky. There’s a (mostly) vegetarian spider. There are more than 45,000 species of spiders, and all but one of them are carnivores. The sole known exception is Bagheera kiplingi, which prefers a plant-based diet — for the most part, at least. Found across Latin America, the jumping spider is named in honor of both The Jungle Book’s black panther (Bagheera) and the book’s author (Rudyard Kipling). The arachnids reside in acacia trees and dine on nutrient-rich delicacies known as Beltian bodies (tips of the leaves of certain acacia species), which they steal from the ants who protect said trees. While these nutritious nodules make up 91% of their diet in Mexico and 60% in Costa Rica, B.kiplingi will occasionally drink nectar and, much more rarely, eat ant larvae, flies, or fellow spiders. Source: Spiders can have arachnophobia.

What's the Word: CAMPANOLOGY pronunciation: [kamp-ə-NAH-lə-jee] Part of speech: noun Origin: Latin, mid-19th century Meaning: 1. The art or practice of bell-ringing. Examples: "We knew he played the piano, but his expertise at campanology surprised us." "The art of campanology is kept alive during the holiday season." About Campanology Campanology developed from the modern Latin "campanologia" and late Latin "campana," which both mean "bell." Did you Know? One of the most enduring December sounds is the chime of the bell ringer stationed by donation boxes. This campanology is meant to remind people to donate, but the bell ringing is also a nostalgic, wintry sound.

Fact of the Day - THE @ SYMBOL Did you know.... The @ symbol has been in use for centuries, since long before email made it one of the most-typed characters on Earth. The first documented use dates all the way back to a 1536 letter written by an Italian merchant, who used a looping “a” as shorthand for amphorae — a traditional unit of volume roughly equal to a standard clay amphora jar. In other contexts, medieval scribes also used the symbol to mean “at the rate of,” helping to make calculations and bookkeeping more efficient. As global trade expanded, merchants began using @ in ledgers to indicate price per unit — for example, three barrels @ five florins each. That practical function kept the symbol alive for hundreds of years, even as writing styles, currencies, and languages evolved. The average person, however, rarely encountered it outside of accounting and typewriters. That changed dramatically in 1971, when computer engineer Ray Tomlinson needed a character to separate a username from a host computer in the world’s first networked email. It had to be a symbol that was rarely used in names, yet widely understood across keyboards. He selected @, a typographic character used by developers that at the time meant “located at” — as in “user at computer.” More than five decades later, the @ symbol now helps route billions of messages daily and anchors our digital identities across email and social platforms. Not bad for a 16th-century bookkeeper’s shorthand. The @ symbol has many nicknames. Despite its universal function, there is no globally recognized name for the @ symbol. In the U.S., it’s most commonly known as the “at sign,” and in modern computing terminology, it’s called the “commercial at” (formerly “commercial ‘a’”). Across other languages, the names are far more imaginative. Several countries have nicknames related to monkeys, likely because of the symbol’s swirling tail. German speakers call it “spider monkey” (klammeraffe) or “monkey’s tail” (affenschwanz). Dutch speakers also use “monkey tail” (apestaart), and Polish speakers refer to it simply as “monkey” (małpa). Some cultures see other animals in the distinctive curves. Danish speakers have two names for the symbol: “pig’s tail” (grisehale) and “elephant’s trunk” (snabel ). In Russia, it’s called “dog” (sobachka), and in Greece it’s “duckling” (papaki). Italians call it “snail” (chiocciola), while Hungarians refer to it as “worm” (kukac). Source: The @ symbol was invented more than 400 years before email.

What's the Word: PHALANX pronunciation: [FEY-leynx] Part of speech: noun Origin: Greek, 16th century Meaning: 1. A group of people or things of a similar type forming a compact body. Examples: "Getting off the plane, I passed a phalanx of families waiting to be reunited with loved ones." "Every Saturday just before lunch, a phalanx of parents with strollers makes the park nearly impassable." About Phalanx “Phalanx” comes from the same term in Latin, based on the ancient Greek “φάλαγξ” (“phalanx”), meaning “battle order.” Did you Know? The first phalanx was developed by militaries in ancient Macedonia: It was a military unit in a formation of closely arrayed soldiers overlapping their shields and crossing their spears, making themselves difficult to attack. However, even by the fourth century, the Latin term had expanded beyond its military meaning to describe any group of people gathered closely together. In modern use, “phalanx” often calls back to its military roots by evoking a hostile or demanding group, or a group that is difficult to pass. For example, a film star may find herself surrounded by a phalanx of fans asking for her autograph, and a kindergarten teacher giving out ice cream may be surrounded by a phalanx of hungry children.

What's the Word: SUSURRUS pronunciation: [soo-SUR-əs] Part of speech: noun Origin: Latin, mid-19th century Meaning: 1. Whispering, or rustling. Examples: "The quiet susurrus of the wind is a soothing backdrop for reading." "You could hear the susurrus of the audience before the curtain went up." About Susurrus It's not technically an onomatopoeia (a word that resembles a sound, such as "plop" or "meow"), but it's pretty close. "Susurrus" means "a soft whisper or murmuring sound." It's what you hear when the wind blows through fall leaves or waves are crashing on the shore. Did you Know? In Latin, "susurrus" is a noun for a whisper, and "susurrare" is the verb for "to murmur or hum." In English, we've maintained "susurrus" as a noun for a whispering noise, but you might also see it as "susurration." We prefer to stick to the more poetic and original Latin spelling.

What's the Word: NONPAREIL pronunciation: [nahn-pə-REL] Part of speech: noun Origin: French, early 16th century Meaning: 1. An unrivaled or matchless person or thing. 2. A flat round candy made of chocolate covered with white sugar sprinkles. Examples: "In my opinion, the 1961 version is the nonpareil of 'The Parent Trap' movies." "I always indulge in a box of nonpareils when I go to the movies." About Nonpareil The Latin breakdown of this word is pretty simple. "Non" means "not," and "pareil" is "equal." The description means that the nonpareil is leaps and bounds better; it's so good that there can be no equal. Did you Know? We agree that nonpareils are quite unparalleled when it comes to chocolate treats, and you might love them even more when you find out how easy they are to make. Melt some bittersweet chocolate and mix it with a dab of vegetable shortening. Then spoon coin-sized circles of chocolate onto a baking sheet. Top with sprinkles, then cool until hard. Now you have your very own stash of nonpareils.

What's the Word: FLAVANOL pronunciation: [FLAY-və-nohl] Part of speech: noun Origin: German, 19th century Meaning: 1. Any of a major group of flavonoids found in many fruits and vegetables. Examples: "Quercetin is a flavonol found in onions and cilantro, and it has anti-inflammatory effects for people who consume it." "My mother sent me an article about how flavonols found in vegetables and tea may slow memory loss." About Flavanol “Flavonol” was coined in 1895 by German chemists Kostanecki and Tambor. They based their word on the existing German chemical term “flavon.” Did you Know? There are more than a dozen classes of flavonols, a substance in plants that performs many functions. In many cases, flavonols — and other flavonoids (the chemical grouping of which they are a greater part) — give bright pigments to flowers that attract bees and wasps. The flavonol kaempferol is in onions, asparagus, and leafy greens, and appears to protect healthy cells against cancer. Quercetin, known for its anti-inflammatory effects, is another common flavonol found in capers, cilantro, yellow peppers, and onions.

What's the Word: MOXIE pronunciation: [MAHK-see] Part of speech: noun Origin: American English, 19th century Meaning: 1. Force of character, determination, or nerve. Examples: "Arlene had no experience but lots of moxie, and her attitude got her hired." "Mark held onto his youthful moxie even though he was decades past his teen years." About Moxie “Moxie” as an adjective is taken directly from the name of the New England soft drink Moxie, which was marketed as strengthening drinkers’ nerves. Did you Know? The first appearance of the word “moxie” was as the name of the soft drink Moxie, patented by Augustin Thompson in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1885. Its flavor was a combination of root beer with a bitter aftertaste of gentian root, which is traditionally used in herbal medicine. Moxie was originally sold as “Moxie Nerve Food,” and, in its early marketing, it was said to cure “paralysis, softening of the brain, nervousness, and insomnia,” which strengthened its association with strong nerves and forceful character.

What's the Word: TORTUOUS pronunciation: [TOR-choo-əs] Part of speech: adjective Origin: French, late 14th century Meaning: 1. Full of twists and turns. 2. Excessively lengthy and complex. Examples: "Their will-they or-won’t-they dynamic made for a tortuous romance." "Maddie found taking the SAT to be a tortuous experience." About Tortuous This word comes from Middle English via Old French. Originally comes from the Latin “tortuosus,” from “tortus,” meaning “twisting, a twist,” from the Latin stem “torquere.” Did you Know? At first glance, you might think there’s little difference between “tortuous” and “torturous,” but their core meanings are not the same. While “tortuous” means “full of twists and turns,” “torturous” means “involving torture or excruciating pain.” That extra “R” denotes intense suffering versus being a flowery word for something mildly painful or even excitingly puzzling.

Fact of the Day - GREAT WHITE SHARK Did you know... The white belly of a great white shark serves a surprisingly useful purpose. Even if you’ve never had the dangerous experience of encountering a great white up close, you likely recognize the shark from movies like Jaws (1975) and Finding Nemo (2003). The predator is known for its menacing dorsal fin, rows of serrated teeth, and glassy black eyes. Their namesake white bellies are also part of their iconic look. Besides being distinctive, what purpose does the shading serve? The evolutionary advantage of the great white shark’s pale underside come down to camouflage. If you were to look up from beneath the fish—a terrifying image that’s necessary for this explanation—you’d notice that it blends in with the sunlight on the water’s surface. Similarly, a great white sports a dark gray upper body because it matches the darkness of the sea when viewed from above. This coloring is called countershading, and it allows the shark to blend in with its surroundings, hiding in plain sight from both prey and predators. Other marine animals with such coloring include penguins, whales, dolphins, and many fish. While great whites occupy the top of the food chain, they’re not totally without predators. There have been reports of orcas hunting the fish. One weakness of great whites is their tendency to enter a state of tonic immobility, characterized by inertness and semi-consciousness, when flipped upside down. Some killer whales are apparently aware of this and use it to their advantage when hunting great whites. One onlooker even caught the hunting tactic on camera in 1997, when an orca dragged a stunned shark around before eating just its liver. Great white shark livers are rich in fat and nutrients, making them a tasty treat and high-value food source for orcas. Smaller great whites also have to worry about becoming food for their larger counterparts. However, the number-one predator of these fish is humans. Shark fishing, accidental ship crashes, and getting caught as bycatch in fishing nets are some of the greatest threats facing the species. Here’s another big question concerning great whites: Why aren’t they usually found in aquariums? It turns out that they just aren’t suited for living within glass walls. You can read more about it here. Source: Why Do Great White Sharks Have White Bellies?

Fact of the Day - ICEBERG LETTUCE Did you know..... Theories abound as to why we named our most reliably bland greens after icy formations. Film director John Waters once dubbed iceberg lettuce “the polyester of greens.” It’s not difficult to understand why: Crisp but bland and lacking the same nutritional profile as other vegetables, iceberg lettuce is often regarded as a last resort for salads. It’s probably better tolerated in hamburgers or BLTs. Only a wedge salad, where the head is left partially intact, seems to be welcome in fine dining establishments. But let’s table the debate over its merits for a moment. Why is it known as iceberg lettuce? Tip of the Iceberg According to the culinary magazine Saveur, the modern branding of iceberg lettuce was the work of W. Atlee Burpee & Co., a Philadelphia-based seed distributor, in the 1890s. The vegetable belongs to a family of lettuces known as “crisphead,” derived from Batavia lettuce, which was a similarly bulbous and leafy variety. But iceberg was crispier, had more leaves, and sported a durable outer “shell.” A sturdy ball of lettuce was surprisingly valuable. Most lettuce grown in the United States originated in California, and from there it was shipped via railroad to other parts of the country. Taste wasn't necessarily a priority: A lettuce head that could simply survive the trip was paramount. Iceberg had tough leaves that refused to wilt easily, especially when compared to other soggy, frail greens that went bad more quickly. It was also available year-round. The result? A seemingly exotic vegetable. “California iceberg lettuce,” one 1891 newspaper ad that ran in Wisconsin read. It cost 12 cents per head. Traveling well is where the origins of the name iceberg may have come from, though that’s somewhat in dispute. One theory has it that iceberg was so named because it was shipped on mounds of ice, a necessary cooling procedure before refrigerated transport became commonplace. But that may be apocryphal. Helen Rosner, a New Yorker contributor and iceberg apologist, bluntly assessed this as “pure American horsesh*t,” a tall tale spun for publicity purposes by Depression-era farmers. In speaking with Saveur, Burpee CEO George Ball offered another explanation: Iceberg refers to the white(ish) color of the outer leaves and its crunchy texture, not the ice it was packed in. That’s bolstered by some of the early descriptions of the lettuce. In an 1895 ad for iceberg lettuce seeds, Cole’s Seed Store of Pella, Iowa, wrote: “ … [the leaves] have small indents, which are constantly filled with dew-drops. They are thus kept fresh, and show a remarkably crystalline appearance, which well warrants the name of iceberg.” Further refinements to the lettuce were made, and by the 1940s, lettuce science had improved to the point where one type of crisphead was cross-bred with another variety, dubbed brittle-ice, to create the super-crisp iceberg we’re familiar with. Because it was easy to ship and slow to wilt, iceberg became the predominant type of lettuce consumed by Americans for decades. Breaking the Ice Trouble came in the form of the growing influence of celebrity chefs like Julia Child in the 1960s, who shirked iceberg for more flavorful greens like romaine and arugula. Later, the emergence of pre-bagged salad mixes that kept fresher for longer made room for other types of lettuce to get a seat at the table. Coupled with an increasingly health-conscious society, iceberg was unseated as the only lettuce game in town. Does iceberg deserve the bad rap? By some estimates, it does have a lower nutritional profile—perhaps as little as 5 percent of what other greens pack in. But for people who want to add some crunch to a salad or sandwich, that may not matter. Some even choose to grill or pickle the leaves, though that may defeat iceberg’s true purpose: to remain reliably bland, the polyester of greens. Source: Why Is It Called “Iceberg” Lettuce?

What's the Word: FASCICLE pronunciation: [FAS-ə-kəl] Part of speech: noun Origin: Latin, 15th century Meaning: 1. A separately published installment of a book or other printed work. 2. (Anatomy and biology) A bundle of structures, such as nerve or muscle fibers or conducting vessels in plants. Examples: "Mae wanted to study how different groups of fascicles in mammals function." "‘Great Expectations’ was originally published as sequential fascicles in a literary magazine." About Fascicle This word stems from the Latin “fasciculus,” the diminutive of “fascis,” meaning “bundle.” Did you Know? Charles Dickens started the serialized fascicle trend when he published “The Pickwick Papers” in 20 parts between 1836 and 1837. Soon, other Victorian-era novelists began following suit. In England, these part-issue installments cost a shilling, making fiction affordable to an entirely new class of readers for the first time.

What's the Word: IMPREST pronunciation: [IM-prest] Part of speech: noun Origin: Italian, mid-16th century Meaning: 1. A fund used by a business for small items of expenditure and restored to a fixed amount periodically. 2. A sum of money advanced to a person for a particular purpose. Examples: "The business has a specific imprest fund." "Charlotte was clear that she was offering her friend an imprest for her bills." About Imprest This term stems from the earlier phrase “in prest,” meaning “as a loan,” likely influenced by the Italian or medieval Latin “imprestare,” meaning “lend.” Did you Know? “Imprest” is pronounced exactly like another, more common word in the American lexicon: “impressed.” But they have two very different meanings. While “imprest” is related to loans and business funds, “impressed” means either “feeling or showing admiration or respect for someone or something” or “applied to something using pressure,” depending on the context.

What's the Word: SMORGASBORD pronunciation: [SMOR-ɡəs-bord] Part of speech: noun Origin: Swedish, 19th century Meaning: 1. A buffet offering a variety of hot and cold meats, salads, hors d'oeuvres, etc. 2. A wide range of something; a variety. Examples: "The hungry travelers were delighted to discover their hosts had prepared a smorgasbord of meats, cheeses, breads, and spreads." "Tanni’s vinyl collection was a smorgasbord of musical styles that reflected her varied tastes and moods." About Smorgasbord The term is taken directly from the Swedish “smörgåsbord,” formed by combining “smörgås,” meaning “bread and butter,” and “bord,” meaning “table.” Did you Know? English speakers rarely use “smorgasbord” to describe a table stocked with different foods. Instead, this term is mostly figurative, to describe a variety of things in one place. While a Swedish restaurant might offer a literal smorgasbord of pickled herring, ham, meatballs, and mashed potatoes, a health spa might be said to offer a smorgasbord of steam rooms and dry saunas, whirlpools, ice baths, and massage rooms.

Fact of the Day - MONKEY BREAD Did you know... The beloved pastry has a whimsical—yet undoubtedly odd—name. Monkey bread—a sticky pull-apart pastry that’s typically made from canned biscuit dough—is a sugary, cinnamony treat. Perhaps it’s a traditional part of your family’s Christmas feasts. Or maybe grandma was known for whipping it up for special brunches. Despite its seemingly silly name, monkey bread has nothing to do with actual monkeys. So why is this sweet pastry named after primates? Let’s dig into the history of monkey bread, starting from the very beginning. Monkey Bread’s Hungarian Roots Before it became a centerpiece on Americans’ tables, this dish was known as something else entirely. Food historians trace its roots to aranygaluska, a Hungarian dessert that translates to “golden dumpling.” This pull-apart sweet bread was brought to the U.S. by Hungarian Jewish immigrants in the late 19th century. Aranygaluska was a bakery staple in immigrant communities, especially in California, for several decades. In the 1970s, Betty Crocker even featured it in a cookbook; the book labeled the sweet dish as “Hungarian Coffee Cake.” Eventually, the dish became known as “monkey bread”—a name that has stuck around to this day. And thanks to actress and first lady Nancy Reagan (a big fan of the treat), monkey bread made it to the White House Christmas table, cementing its status as a classic. The pastry has continued to evolve; now, there are seemingly countless recipes floating around the internet for traditional monkey bread, other sweet versions, and even savory spins on the dish. The Many Theories Behind Monkey Bread’s Name There’s no clear answer as to how monkey bread got its name. But, like most good mysteries, there are several theories at play. The most common explanation is that it’s named after the way it’s eaten: with your fingers, pulling apart the sticky pieces of dough one by one, much like a monkey might eat something. Some also trace it back to 20th-century slang. In the 1940s, monkey food was Southern slang for casual snacks you could pick at. That, combined with jumble bread—another old-timey term for breads made from small pieces of dough—could have led to monkey bread. Another theory credits silent film star ZaSu Pitts, who reportedly used the term in a 1945 cooking column after bringing the recipe home from Nashville. Pitts was known for her lavish Hollywood parties; and apparently, her monkey bread was a hit. In the end, monkey bread might just be one of those names that stuck, literally and figuratively. Like the dessert itself, it’s a little weird and oddly delightful. Source: Why Is It Called “Monkey Bread”?

Fact of the Day - WORST ANIMAL DADDIES Did you know... These dads won’t be getting any Father’s Day cards this June. In addition to getting your dad a card or new tie this Father’s Day, be sure to thank him for not trying to eat you when you were young. Devouring babies may sound savage and strange, but when it comes to certain species, kids becoming a meal for their fathers is just par for the course. Lions You may already know that a male lion that recently became head of his pride will usually kill all the cubs sired by the previous leader. But while that makes lions terrible step-dads, it doesn’t make them terrible fathers. What makes lions bad dads is a combination of greed and laziness. Papa lions spend most of their day lying in the shade, waiting for one of their mates to bring home dinner. The female does the majority of the hunting and pretty much all of the parenting; the male’s job is to protect his territory from other prides and scavengers like hyenas. Once the mama brings home her kill, the male lion is always the first one to eat and he often leaves only scraps for the rest of the pride—including any of his recently weaned children. Grizzly Bears It’s rare for any animal-kingdom father to eat his own young when he isn’t desperate for food, but the male grizzly bear will do just that. These creatures are extremely protective of their territories—which can range all the way up to 1500 miles—and are opportunistic hunters, willing to kill and eat anything that happens to enter their home turf. Even cubs, whether they’ve sired them or not. Males may also kill cubs to force their mother to go into estrus so he can breed with her. Bass There are a lot of bad aquatic fathers. In fact, even those that are highly protective of their spawn, like male bass, are still prone to eating their own children. In the case of the bass, this occurs after most of the newborns have swum away and a few stragglers remain. Suddenly daddy stops protecting his kids from predators and becomes a predator himself, swallowing up all of the stragglers as a reward to himself for helping the strong ones stay alive. Sand Goby Similarly, the male sand goby is relentless about guarding his eggs from predators, but even if he has plenty of extra food available, he will still eat about a third of his brood. Research into how he decides which eggs to keep and which to eat reveals that size matters: male gobies tend to eat the largest eggs. In many species, large babies mean a higher chance for survival—and thus, they are the most protected members of the family—but the sand goby knows that the largest eggs take longest to hatch. Pops snacks on the eggs that would take the longest to develop so he can get out of there and back to mating as soon as possible. Assassin Bug With a name like “assassin bug” you’d hardly expect this insect to be sweet, but filial cannibalism is still pretty gruesome. The male assassin bug is tasked with protecting his eggs until they hatch. His tactic mostly involves eating the eggs on the outside edges of the brood, which are otherwise most likely to fall victim to parasitic wasps. This defensive strategy is so hardwired that the bugs do it even in laboratory settings completely devoid of any potential parasites. Scientists believe this is because eating the eggs doesn’t only protect the insects against possible parasites, but also provides the male assassin bug with ample nutrients when his guard duty leaves him unable to forage. Interestingly, assassin bugs do have a bit of a soft spot—the males are some of the only insects that are willing to adopt broods from other fathers. (They don’t eat any extra eggs when their kids are adopted.) Source: 5 of the Worst Fathers In the Animal Kingdom

What's the Word: BUNBURYING pronunciation: [BUN-bər-ee-ing] Part of speech: verb Origin: British English, 19th century Meaning: 1. (Humorous) Avoiding one's duties and responsibilities by claiming to have appointments to see a fictitious person. Examples: "My boss had a habit of Bunburying out of his obligation to meet the CEO each time she visited our office." "As a student, I tried Bunburying my way out of an exam, but my teacher didn’t believe me." About Bunburying “Bunburying” is a verb based on the character of Bunbury in Oscar Wilde’s 1895 play “The Importance of Being Earnest.” Did you Know? English author Oscar Wilde coined the term “Bunburying” in his play “The Importance of Being Earnest,” as a verb that evoked a character named Bunbury. Though Bunbury is discussed in the play, he never appears onstage — Bunbury is a fictitious character whom another character references to create excuses that get him out of situations he wishes to leave. As a humorous verb, “Bunburying” means inventing a made-up appointment with a fictitious person in order to avoid one’s responsibilities.

Fact of the Day - RADIUM Did you know... Radium is, quite famously, not good for you. Its effects on the body are deleterious, not that anyone realized this when Marie Curie discovered the alkaline earth metal in 1898 — a scientific breakthrough that led to her winning the 1911 Nobel Prize in chemistry. Before long, the dangerously false belief that radium had health benefits began to spread: It was added to everything from toothpaste and hair gel to food and drinks, with glow-in-the-dark paints made from radium still sold into the 1970s. It was marketed as being good for any “common ailment,” with radioactive water sold in small jars that shops claimed would “aid nature” and act as a natural “vitalizer.” Of course, none of this was true — exposure to even a small amount of radium can eventually prove fatal. Curie had no way of knowing this at the time, just as she didn’t have the slightest inkling that her notebooks would remain radioactive for more than 1,500 years after her death. She was known to store such elements out in the open and even walk around her lab with them in her pockets, as she enjoyed how they “looked like faint, fairy lights.” Marie Curie also won a second Nobel Prize. Marie Curie wasn’t just the first woman to win a Nobel Prize — she was also the first person to win two and remains the only person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in two different scientific fields. Her first award came eight years before her Nobel Prize in chemistry, when she and her husband Pierre Curie won the 1903 Nobel Prize in physics for their work in radioactivity. More than two decades later, their daughter Irène Joliot-Curie won the 1935 Nobel Prize in chemistry along with her husband Frédéric Joliot for synthesizing new radioactive elements. Source: Radium was added to food and drinks because it was thought to have health benefits.

Fact of the Day - EXPRESSION Did you know... Pipe organs have a little something to do with it. If we say that someone is “pulling out all the stops,” then we mean that they’re holding nothing back and making every conceivable effort to do or accomplish something. The expression is familiar to most speakers of the English language—but where did the phrase come from? What exactly are these stops, and for that matter, why are we pulling them all out? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, stop in this sense was initially “sometimes vaguely used for ‘note’, ‘key’, ‘tune’ ” as far back at the 16th century. Eventually, though, it came to refer to the rounded handles, switches, or button-like stoppers typically found around the keyboard of a pipe organ, which are called “organ stops” or “stop knobs.” To understand why someone might pull them all out, though, we first need to know a little bit more about how an organ actually works. In simple terms, the pipes of an organ are essentially gigantic whistles, and make a sound only when air is forced or blown through them. Each individual pipe makes a different note (corresponding to the keys or pedals of the organ), while the pipes themselves are arranged in multiple musical sets, called “ranks,” each of which produces a different kind of tone or musical effect. The notes produced by some ranks will have a softer, mellower tone, for instance, while others might be brasher, shriller, or far more resonant. Depending on its size, the number of ranks or sets of pipes an organ has might range from just a few to in the hundreds, allowing an organist to produce a host of different sounds and tonal textures on the same instrument. Using the organ stops, they can switch between different ranks as required throughout a performance. The stops on an organ control the airflow into the pipes, thereby allowing them to produce sound. “Pulling out” a stop removes a slider at the base of each rank of pipes, opening them up to the air passing through the instrument (either by bellows or an electronic blower), and ultimately changing the tone of the music being played. Each stop has a name corresponding to the kind of tone color or musical effect that the pipes to which it is connected produce. Stops labeled things like trumpet, tuba, and trombone, for instance, produce harsher, brassier sounds, while the unda stop, or unda maris, produces a softer, undulating sound, meant quite literally to evoke a “wave of the sea.” A skilled player will often open several stops at once to combine sounds from multiple ranks of pipes to create a richer tone overall. With lots of pipes sounding at the same time, the volume of the organ increases. Pulling out all of the stops—so that every rank of pipes sounds simultaneously—would therefore theoretically produce the loudest, grandest, and most impressive sound of all (if not a rather cacophonous one). That’s the idea behind the expression pulling out all the stops. The figurative use meaning “make a considerable effort” emerged in the mid-1800s, with the English poet Matthew Arnold credited with its earliest use in an essay published in 1865. “Proud as I am of my connection with the University of Oxford, I can truly say, that knowing how unpopular a task one is undertaking when one tries to pull out a few more stops in that powerful but at present somewhat narrow-toned organ, the modern Englishman, I have always sought to stand by myself, and to compromise others as little as possible,” he wrote. Since then, different versions of the phrase have cropped up, but the idea—and the musical theory behind it—remains the same. Source: Where Does the Expression ‘Pull Out All the Stops’ Come From?

Fact of the Day - MENOPAUSE Did you know.... The wide-ranging symptoms and timing of menopause have caused some confusion. Like Mercury retrograde, menopause is blamed for a constellation of unpleasant or inexplicable events. Women in their forties or even younger hold menopause responsible when they experience a wide array of physical symptoms, like irregular periods, aches and pains, mood swings, weight gain, insomnia, fatigue, and bursts of hunger—but they may be misattributing these annoyances. It turns out that many women don’t know when menopause actually starts. According to a February 2025 poll of 1068 women by The Ohio State University, 61 percent of respondents believed they’ll hit menopause in their forties. And while some will, the National Institute on Aging reports the average age of menopause onset is actually 52, though it can be hard to tell where the dividing line is. Perimenopause vs. Menopause Some women may mistake perimenopause symptoms for menopause itself. The medical definition of perimenopause is when your period is irregular by at least seven days for a minimum of 10 months—so when that happens (and if you’re keeping track), you know you’ve started perimenopause. Menopause itself, defined as the point in a woman’s life when her period permanently stops, hasn’t actually started until 12 full months have passed without menstruation occurring. Perimenopause (peri- means “near” or “around”) is the phase when your body begins to prepare for menopause. Your hormone levels start to fluctuate, causing mood swings, hot flashes, problems sleeping, and irregular periods. It usually begins when you’re in your mid-forties and lasts for eight to 10 years before menopause starts in your early fifties, according to the Cleveland Clinic. That being said, the age when menopause starts can really fluctuate from person to person. A study from the Turkish Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology found that health, socioeconomic, and hereditary factors can affect its timing. Some of those factors include your mother’s age when she hit menopause, the age you got your first period, how long you were in your mother’s womb, whether you used birth control pills, the stability of your cycle before perimenopause, how many children you have, your weight, use of cigarettes and alcohol, the amount of physical activity you get, education level, socioeconomic status, if you’ve had an ovary removed, the amount of lead in your blood, how much fat you eat, and more. Menopause: Still a Medical Mystery Ultimately, we may never be able to pinpoint an exact age that perimenopause and menopause begin, thanks to all of those factors. Plus, women’s healthcare—especially menopause—remains under-researched even though menopause affects 100 percent of 50 percent of the population. According to findings from Harvard Medical School, 99 percent of preclinical models of aging don’t take the effects of menopause into account, meaning that these guidelines for treating age-related conditions don’t reflect reality. That’s partially because scientists lack the proper lab animals for menopause studies, such as female animals and those that have given birth. Most studies use male animals, and historical research overwhelmingly favors men. Additionally, menopause is quite rare in the animal world—only a few mammals, including chimpanzees and killer whales, are known to go through it. Source: When Does Menopause Actually Start?

What's the Word: POTHER pronunciation: [PAH-thər] Part of speech: noun Origin: Unknown, late 16th century Meaning: 1. A commotion or fuss. Examples: "Andrew does his grocery shopping when the stores open to avoid the pother of rush-hour shoppers." "Despite the different ages of the campers, it was a relaxing week with no pother to speak of." About Pother The etymological origin of “pother” is unclear. It may be related to the Dutch “peuteren” (meaning “to rummage” or “poke”), but it also bears resemblance to the English “potter” (meaning “to prod”) or “pudder” (meaning “to make a fuss”). Did you Know? While “pother” is a close synonym for “bother” (“worry, effort, or difficulty"), it actually entered English a few centuries earlier. It’s related to a couple of other early English words — “potter” (meaning “to prod”) and “pudder” (meaning “to fuss”) — but like “pother,” these have mostly fallen out of use in modern English. What a pother, indeed.

What's the Word: PARONOMASIA pronunciation: [pehr-ə-noh-MEY-zhə] Part of speech: noun Origin: Latin, 16th century Meaning: 1. A play on words; a pun. Examples: "My favorite paronomasia is: ‘The difference between a hippo and a Zippo is that a hippo is very heavy, while a Zippo is a little lighter.’" "I thought ‘paronomasia’ sounded like a terrible illness, but I learned in English class it’s just a fancy word for a pun." About Paronomasia Paronomasia is a loanword from Latin, based on the ancient Greek "παρονομασία" (or "paronomasía," meaning "play upon words which sound alike"). Did you Know? While puns have been called the lowest form of humor, there can be some sophisticated wordplay involved in paronomasia (the formal name for puns). The essence of a classic paronomasia is not just a word with multiple meanings, but one in which the conflicting meanings all sound plausible. Paronomasia often employs homophones (different words that sound alike, as in, "When I realized my favorite jeans were fading, I felt like dyeing"), homographs (different words with identical spellings, such as, "I shed a tear when I saw the tear in my shirt"), and homonyms (a combination of the two, as in, "The bare bear bared its teeth").

Fact of the Day - BICYCLES Did you know.... The Wright brothers are best known for their historical flight over Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903, but years before the siblings made aviation history, they were busy running a bicycle shop in western Ohio. Wilbur Wright and his younger brother Orville had long dreamed of gliding through the wild blue yonder, but it would take years of work to finance their costly first attempts. In the 1880s, the brothers undertook their first joint business, a small printing shop in Dayton that churned out local newspapers, church pamphlets, and bicycle parts catalogs. By 1892 the brothers had moved from printing for bicycle companies to starting their own, inspired by their shared passion for cycling; Wilbur reportedly loved leisurely rides through the countryside, while Orville was known for participating in bike races. The Wright Cycle Company initially offered repairs and rentals, but as cycling became more popular, the brothers turned to manufacturing their own designs in an effort to compete with the dozens of nearby bike shops. Their first model, the “Wright Special,” was released in May 1896, followed by the “Van Cleve.” Together, Wilbur and Orville hand-built around 300 bikes per year during their peak production years before 1900, using the profits to fund their flight experiments. By 1908, they had abandoned their shop to focus solely on aeronautics. Today, only five antique Van Cleve bikes exist, two of which remain in the brothers’ hometown at the Wright Brothers National Museum in Dayton. Wilbur and Orville Wright flew together only one time. Before takeoff at Kitty Hawk in 1903, the Wright brothers had to decide who would man their one-passenger plane for the first time, making the decision with a coin toss. But even when the duo expanded their planes to two-seaters, they were rarely airborne together, sharing only one flight during their lives. Orville and Wilbur reportedly promised their father they would never fly together because of the risk of a plane crash; the brothers gave their word, which also ensured that one of them could continue their aeronautical work in case of a fatal accident. In September 1908, Orville did survive the world’s first deadly plane crash, during a demonstration for the U.S. Army (his passenger was U.S. Army Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge). The accident, however, didn’t deter Orville or his brother, and two years later the siblings shared their only joint flight, soaring for six minutes while their father watched from the ground. Afterward, Orville took the excited 82-year-old on the sole flight of his life. Source: Before they built airplanes, the Wright brothers owned a bicycle shop.

Fact of the day - BURIED BONES Did you know.... Dogs can tear up a lawn with an overwhelming desire to dig and bury things. If you’ve ever found your dog’s favorite toy nestled between pillows or under a pile of loose dirt in the backyard, then you’ve probably come to understand that dogs like to bury things. Like many of their behaviors, digging is an instinct. But where does that impulse come from? Why Dogs Like to Bury Food, Toys, and Other Objects Cesar’s Way explains that before dogs were domesticated and enjoyed bags of processed dog food set out in a bowl by their helpful human friends, they were responsible for feeding themselves. If they caught a meal, it was important to keep other dogs from running off with it. To help protect their food supply, it was necessary to bury it. Obscuring it under dirt helped keep other dogs off the scent. This behavior persists even when a dog knows some kibble is on the menu. It may also manifest itself when a dog has more on its plate than it can enjoy at any one time. The ground is a good place to keep something for later. But food isn’t the only reason a dog will start digging. If they’ve nabbed something of yours, like a television remote, they may be expressing a desire to play. A dog may bury its own toys, too. They could be doing this because they feel possessive over the object or fear it’ll be taken away; they may be trying to hide it so other dogs (or even people) can’t steal it. Their desire to buy a toy or other household item could be a response to boredom or anxiety as well. Do All Dogs Breeds Like to Dig Holes? Some dog breeds are more prone to digging than others. Terriers, dachshunds, beagles, basset hounds, and miniature schnauzers go burrowing more often than others, though pretty much any dog will exhibit the behavior at times. While there’s nothing inherently harmful about it, you should always be sure a dog in your backyard isn’t being exposed to any lawn care products or other chemicals that could prove harmful. And if you are worried about your pup digging too many holes in your backyard, there are several steps you can take to curb the behavior. You should also probably keep your remote in a safe place, before the dog decides to relocate it for you. Source: Why Do Dogs Like to Bury Things?

What's the Word: CONCINNITY pronunciation: [kən-SIN-ih-tee] Part of speech: noun Origin: Latin, 16th century Meaning: 1. The skillful and harmonious arrangement or fitting together of the different parts of something. 2. Studied elegance of literary or artistic style. Examples: "The combined effect of the performances, stage sets, and dazzling lighting made the Broadway show a model of concinnity." "Masha seeks out art that displays a complex concinnity of African influences." About Concinnity “Concinnity” is based on the Latin “concinnitās” (meaning “skillfully put together”). Did you Know? Year after year, critics rate the 1972 film “The Godfather” as one of the finest movies ever made. Perhaps its concinnity elevates Francis Ford Coppola’s classic film above all other gangster movies. The film's masterful script contains memorable and easily quotable lines, and it’s also legendarily well acted by Marlon Brando, as the titular Godfather, and Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, and James Caan, among others. The film is carefully shot to exude a unique aesthetic that creates a world of its own — and the soundtrack is likewise notably memorable. The concinnity of these forces is at the root of the success of “The Godfather.”

What's the Word: CANTILLATE pronunciation: [KAN-til-eyt] Part of speech: verb Origin: Latin, 19th century Meaning: 1. Chant or intone. Examples: "Micah practiced for months to learn how to cantillate in Hebrew during his bar mitzvah." "While my father cooked supper, he amused us by cantillating a narration of every step of the recipe." About Cantillate “Cantillate” is based on the Latin “cantillō,” meaning “to hum” or “to chirp.” Did you Know? “Cantillate” describes a hybrid musical recitation or chanting, specifically the kind heard in Jewish synagogues. During synagogue services, readings are not simply read aloud — they are cantillated. The text includes specific marks to instruct those cantillating how and when to sing words and syllables as musical notes. The purpose of cantillation is to ritualize religious readings, rather than to bring the assembled worshippers together in song, as with Christian hymn singing. Different Jewish traditions cantillate in different styles and rely on different melodies.

Fact of the Day - APRIL FISH Did you know.... What do you call someone who’s fallen for a prank? There’s no punchline here — in most English-speaking places, you’d probably just call them gullible. But in France, you might use the term poisson d’avril, meaning “April fish.” The centuries-old name is linked to a 1508 poem by Renaissance composer and writer Eloy d’Amerval, who used the phrase to describe the springtime spawn of fish as the easiest to catch; young and hungry April fish were considered more susceptible to hooks than older fish swimming around at other times of year. Today, celebrating “April fish” in France — as well as Belgium, Canada, and Italy — is akin to April Fools’ Day elsewhere, complete with pranks; one popular form of foolery includes taping paper fish on the backs of the unsuspecting. While the first reference to poisson d’avril comes from d’Amerval’s poem, historians aren’t sure just how old the April Fools’ holiday is. It’s often linked to Hilaria, a festival celebrated by the ancient Romans and held at the end of March to commemorate the resurrection of the god Attis. However, many historians believe that while Hilaria participants would disguise themselves and imitate others, there’s little evidence that it’s the predecessor of April Fools’. Other theories suggest that April 1 trickery stems from switching to the Gregorian calendar. One such explanation dates to 1564, the year French King Charles IX moved to standardize January 1 as the start of the new year, which had often been celebrated on Christmas, Easter, or during Holy Week (the seven days before Easter). Despite the royal edict, some French people kept with the Holy Week tradition and celebrated the new year in late March to early April, becoming the first “April fools.” The BBC once claimed spaghetti noodles grew on trees. The most convincing April Fools’ pranks often come from the most unexpected sources, which could be why the BBC has a history of successful hoaxes. This includes a 1957 joke, considered to be one of the first April Fools’ TV pranks, wherein the British broadcaster aired a two-and-a-half-minute segment claiming spaghetti noodles grew on trees in Switzerland. Footage showed Swiss noodle harvesters on ladders collecting noodles and drying them in the sun before dining on a large pasta dinner. While the prank likely would have fallen flat today, spaghetti wasn’t commonly eaten in the U.K. during the 1950s, which meant the dish was entirely unfamiliar to most viewers. But the hoax didn’t just prank viewers. Many BBC staffers were also fooled after being purposefully kept in the dark about the fictitious story — the production brainchild of cameraman Charles de Jaeger and a small crew — and were taken aback by a deluge of callers looking to acquire their own spaghetti trees. Source: On April Fools’ Day, France celebrates “April fish.”

Fact of the Day - BEDROOM COMMUNITIES Did you know... These planned communities became popular in the U.S. after World War II. In 2009, Ed Verner, a resident and business owner in Plant City, Florida, wrote to The Tampa Tribune to complain about a label that was frequently becoming associated with his town. “More often than I’d like, I hear Plant City being referred to as a ‘bedroom community,’ ” he said. “We are much more than this tag would imply.” But what is a bedroom community—and where did the term come from? What’s a Bedroom Community? According to Merriam-Webster, a bedroom community is a community of people—often based in a small satellite town or suburb of a larger city, and with little to no industrial areas of its own—that serves as a residential base for workers who are employed elsewhere. Where Did the Phrase Come From? Bedroom community has been in recorded use since the 20th century. The term alludes to the fact that although the workers who live in these communities call them home, they do little when they’re there except sleep before heading off to work again the following morning. (They’re also sometimes called “commuter towns,” “bedroom towns,” or, if you’re in the UK, “dormitory towns.”) Bedroom communities emerged at the tail end of the industrial era, when large residential areas and suburbs began to be specially built far away from the crime and grime of the city to provide housing for the local workforce. According to Karen Christensen and David Levinson in their book Encyclopedia of Community, these communities took off in the U.S. after World War II, and the workforce was more white collar than blue: “As parts of the industrial economy grew and many cities became increasingly dense and polluted, the middle- and upper-income classes sought to separate their work lives from their home lives.” These outlying communities were easily reachable and commutable from city centers and industrial areas, and they became a clean and welcome choice of living space for workers looking to lay down roots or start a family. (And, as Levinson and Christensen note, “bedroom communities supported the societal ideal of further segregating gender roles. The wife stayed home and kept house while her husband traveled a significant distance away from home to earn the household income.”) But with so many workers installed into a single area—all of whom left first thing in the morning, and only returned home in the evening—these outlying commuter areas soon became little more than suburban “bedrooms,” hence their name. As for Verner—who was also chairman of the Chamber of Commerce—he objected to the label for Plant City because it had a hospital and a library, a municipal government and city hall, and a university and an airport, among other things. “Does a bedroom community have character and a soul?” he mused. “Plant City offers all these amenities and more.” Source: Why Are Some Towns Called “Bedroom Communities”?

What's the Word: PIRANDELLIAN pronunciation: [pir-ən-DEL-ee-ən] Part of speech: adjective Origin: Proper name, 20th century Meaning: 1. Describing drama in which actors become inseparable and indistinct from the characters that they play. 2. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of the works of Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936), Italian dramatist and poet. Examples: "The experimental play mixed fiction and reality in a truly Pirandellian manner." "Not all audiences respond favorably to the Pirandellian move of merging characters with the real-life identities of the actors who play them." About Pirandellian “Pirandellian” is based on the proper name of Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello, plus the suffix “–ian.” Did you Know? “Pirandellian” is a word based on Italian playwright and author Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936), best known for writing challenging plays that were the foundation for a movement called the Theater of the Absurd. Plays by Pirandello (who won the 1934 Nobel Prize in literature) drew attention to the relationship between the characters and the actors who played them. In these plays, actors often portrayed characters that partly included the identities of the actors themselves. As a result, “Pirandellian” became a term to describe the dramatic merging of actors and their characters, such as when actor and writer Larry David plays a fictional character named “Larry David” on the hit show “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

What's the Word: FANTOD pronunciation: [FAN-tod] Part of speech: noun Origin: Unknown, 19th century Meaning: 1. A state or attack of uneasiness or unreasonableness. Examples: "The innkeeper was nice enough, but the B&B gave me the fantods, so we left after just one night." "The uneasiness ahead of a workweek is called “the Sunday scaries,” but that feeling can be called “the fantods” on any day." About Fantod The origin of “fantod” is unclear, but it may be related to “fantastic” or “fatigue,” with the Welsh ending “-od,” indicating plurality in animals. Did you Know? “Fantod” usually appears in the plural — in part because its “-od” ending may be a Welsh plural. So rather than hear of a singular “fantod,” we’re likelier to hear of “the fantods.” This expression — describing a feeling of vague uneasiness — is very similar in meaning to “the willies” or “the heebie-jeebies,” though having been first noted in the mid-19th century, “the fantods” predates both of those terms.

Perhaps the USSR were feeling nice & confident that day, juuuust about to launch the nukes...but when that NES purchase went through they lost their motivation & threw in the towel.

What's the Word: RUTHFUL pronunciation: [ROOTH-fəl] Part of speech: adjective Origin: English, 13th century Meaning: 1. Full of sorrow; sorrowful; woeful; rueful. 2. Full of ruth or pity; merciful; compassionate. Examples: "Even though our Great Dane is a pampered creature, my husband always gets ruthful when the dog whines at not being allowed to sleep in our bed." "My grandfather was a ruthful man who took great pride in helping neighbors in their times of need." About Ruthful “Ruthful” was formed within English, based on the word “ruth,” an early term for compassion or sadness at the suffering of others. Did you Know? Most people are more familiar with the opposite of “ruthful” — “ruthless” — but both are based on the early Middle English word “ruth,” describing sadness for the suffering of others, or compassion. (In Middle English, “ruth” had dozens of spellings, from “rauþe” to “ræuðe” to “reuþthe” to the more recognizable “ruith” and “reweth.”) To be ruthful, therefore, is to have so much compassion — “ruth” — that one is filled with sorrow at the sufferings of others. By contrast, to be ruthless is to act without any sorrow for others’ pain and suffering.

What's the Word: VESPERTINE pronunciation: [VES-pər-tahyn] Part of speech: adjective Origin: Latin, 16th century Meaning: 1. Relating to, occurring, or active in the evening. Examples: "The pub is lovely in the daytime, but it comes alive when the vespertine crowd arrives after supper." "There are a few different vespertine animals, including owls, living in our acre of forest." About Vespertine “Vespertine” is based on the Latin “vespertīnus,” meaning “evening.” Did you Know? While there are many crepuscular animals — those active at dawn and dusk — the animals active only in evening are described as “vespertine.” (Those active in the predawn hours, meanwhile, are known as “matutinal.”) The best-known vespertine animals are bats and owls, but many insects also appear during the vespertine hours, and there are even vespertine flowers, which bloom in the evening. However, "vespertine" does not describe the whole night: The creatures and plants that continue their activity all night are nocturnal, not vespertine.

Fact of the Day - STICK OUT LIKE A SORE THUMB Did you know... The phrase dates back to the 19th century, but it took a fictional 20th century detective to take its popularity to new heights. When we say something “sticks out like a store thumb,” we mean it’s conspicuous, obvious, or unusual (and typically not in a good way). It’s an expression you’ve probably used before without thinking—but if you do stop to think about it, you quickly realize that it’s a fairly bizarre thing to say. As Willow put it in an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “Sore thumbs. Do they really stick out? I mean, have you ever seen a thumb and gone, ‘Wow! That baby is sore!’” So where does stick out like a sore thumb come from? Ultimately, its origins are unclear, but we likely do have one person to thank for popularizing the phrase. A History of Sticking Out, Sore Thumbs and All Conspicuous things have been “sticking out” in English since the 17th century. And over the years, everything from “a lighthouse” to “a fly in the cream” to “a bumble bee on a bald man’s head” have been added to the end of sticking out to create a more memorable metaphor. Sore thumb is no exception: It calls to mind a painfully bright red digit—perhaps the result of being hit with a hammer by a clumsy DIY-er—held away from the rest of the hand. The sore thumb version of the phrase seems to have first popped up in newspapers in the U.S. around the mid 1800s. In March 1874, California’s The Oakland Tribune declared that an unfinished courthouse dome “may stick out something like a sore thumb.” The phrase even made it to the Australian papers in 1884, when they quoted “a New York trader” who opined that “an advertisement … should stick out like a sore thumb.” According to Google Ngrams, the more popular version of the phrase at the time was stick up like a sore thumb, which spiked in usage in the 1920s. It was used in the 1926 novelization of a Broadway play called The Bat by Mary Roberts Rinehart, when one character declares that “A good many people rather fancy themselves as detectives and run around looking for clues under the impression that a clue is a big and vital factor that sticks up like—well, like a sore thumb.” The novel, though credited to Rinehart, was actually ghostwritten by the author and poet Stephen Vincent Benét (better known for his Pulitzer-winning epic John Brown’s Body). Stands out like a sore thumb was also popular at the time—and it’s that version of the phrase that was snapped up by different author, who would go on to take sticks out like a sore thumb to a different level entirely. Enter Perry Mason In the 1930s and ’40s, the author Erle Stanley Gardner repeatedly used sore thumb expressions in a handful of his Perry Mason series of legal thrillers; his earliest usage was in 1936’s The Case of the Sleepwalker’s Niece: “ ‘No,’ he said, ‘that’s the one thing in the case that stands out like a sore thumb, now that I stop to think of it.’ ” In 1941’s The Case of the Sleepwalker’s Husband, Gardner used the version of the phrase we’re most likely to use today: “A private detective in that atmosphere would stick out like a sore thumb on a waiter serving soup.” Gardner’s Perry Mason novels, which number more than 80, proved enormously successful: They sold hundreds of millions of copies around the world, and were adapted for television (first in 1957, with Raymond Burr as the titular detective, and then again in 2020, with Matthew Rhys). Ultimately, the author’s apparent fondness for sticks out like a sore thumb phrase helped to popularize it even more widely in informal English in the mid-20th century—and conspicuous things have been sticking out like sore thumbs ever since. Source: Where Did the Saying ‘Stick Out Like a Sore Thumb’ Come From?

Fact of the Day - ANYONE CAN BE SUED Did you know... In the world of politics, nobody is safe from a well-executed smear campaign. In 2007, Nebraska state senator Ernie Chambers sued God. As KETV Omaha reported at the time, Chambers’s lawsuit sought “a permanent injunction ordering God to cease certain harmful activities and the making of terroristic threats.” According to the mortal plaintiff, the immortal defendant had caused “fearsome floods, egregious earthquakes, horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornadoes, pestilential plagues, ferocious famines, devastating droughts, genocidal wars, birth defects, and the like” [PDF]. Chambers claimed he had tried to alert God of the impending lawsuit by shouting, “Come out, come out, wherever you are,” but the attempt failed to get the deity’s attention. Chambers further claimed that he had jurisdiction to sue the Almighty, since, “being Omnipresent, {He} is personally present in Douglas County." The lawsuit was absurd, but that was the point. The deliberation came in the midst of a controversial sexual assault case in which a district judge had barred the plaintiff, a Nebraska woman, from using the words rape or victim during trial. After two mistrials, the accuser sued the judge for violating her rights to free speech—but a federal judge deemed that lawsuit legally “frivolous” (that is, without merit). This came in the wake of a Nebraska statute that further restricted such frivolous lawsuits. For Chambers, this appears to have been a flashpoint. By suing God, he hoped to make a political statement: That a court should be required to hear a case, no matter how frivolous it might be. “The Constitution requires that the courthouse doors be open,” he said, “so you cannot prohibit the filing of suits. Anyone can sue anyone they choose, even God.” It wasn’t the first—or last—time somebody had sued a supernatural being. In 1971, a Pennsylvania inmate named Gerald Mayo sued “Satan and his servants” because they had “placed deliberate obstacles in plaintiff’s path and caused his downfall.” In 2007, a Romanian murderer attempted to sue God for “not protecting him from the Devil’s influence,” Eric Grundhauser wrote in Atlas Obscura. Both cases were dismissed. In August 2008, Chambers and God got their day in court, with Douglas County District Court judge Marlon Polk presiding and “an empty table reserved for God and God’s attorney,” according to the Associated Press. In a four-page decision, Polk dismissed the lawsuit because God’s home address was unlisted. Since the deity could not be properly summoned, the case could not move forward. Chambers saw this coming. Since God is omniscient, Chambers argued, He doesn’t need to be served because He already knows it’s coming. Judge Polk, however, didn’t budge. “Given that this court finds that there can never be service effectuated on the named defendant this action will be dismissed with prejudice,” he wrote. It should be noted that Chambers has a history of using absurdity to make broader political points. In his opposition to the state’s Concealed Handgun Permit Act [PDF], Chambers once offered an amendment suggesting a formula that claimed to help determine the maximum number of pistols a person could carry: It involved “multiplying the size of the licensee’s right shoe by three-times the girth of the licensee’s waist after a full meal, measured and certified by a professional tailor” [PDF]. Source: The Politician Who Sued God

Fact of the Day - ELIZABETH FREEMAN Did you know.... Freeman used the newly passed Massachusetts Constitution to her advantage. At a time of immense change in the United States, Elizabeth Freeman served as a beacon of hope for enslaved people everywhere when she changed the course of history in Massachusetts. The Case for Freedom It’s hard to nail down the precise details of Freeman’s life—much of what we know about her was written down by people close to her or later historians, but not recorded by Freeman herself. Known as “Mum Bett,” Freeman was, depending on the source, either born into slavery in the 1740s or sold into it at just 6 months old. She was later given to the Ashley family of Sheffield, Massachusetts. Freeman had no rights as an enslaved person and lived a life of hard domestic labor in the Ashley home, where she looked after the family’s children and took care of housekeeping and gardening responsibilities. The Ashleys were not kind to Freeman. At one point, Hannah Ashley became angry at Freeman’s sister and moved to strike her with a hot coal shovel (some sources claim Freeman’s daughter, not sister, was the intended target). Freeman intervened and was hit instead, an act that left a large burn on her arm. She wore the scar publicly for the rest of her life as a testament to the cruelty she faced. Freeman soon saw a way out of her situation. In 1780, the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was officially adopted, and with it came a new possibility for enslaved people in the commonwealth to take back their freedom. In addition to emphasizing the separation of powers into three distinct branches (executive, legislative, and judicial), the constitution also asserted individual rights and liberties, including the declaration that “all men are born free and equal.” Upon hearing this statement cried out in the town center, Freeman became angry at the hypocrisy of her enslavement as the town cheered for their new constitution. The next day, she went to the home of a local lawyer named Theodore Sedgwick and demanded justice for herself, saying, “I heard that paper read yesterday, that says all men are born equal and that every man has a right to freedom. I am not a dumb critter; won’t the law give me my freedom?” Freeman told Sedgwick that she wanted to sue the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for her freedom. The young lawyer agreed to represent her. The Trial That Led to Freedom Not long after Freeman made it clear she was suing Massachusetts, a man enslaved by the Ashleys joined her cause. Sedgwick brought the case, Brom and Bett v. Ashley, to the Berkshire Court of Common Pleas in May 1781. By this time, there had been about 30 suits led by enslaved people attempting to gain their freedom due to technicalities in the established system. Unlike those cases, Sedgwick argued in Brom and Bett v. Ashley that the new Massachusetts Constitution prohibited slavery and Mum Bett (Freeman) and Brom were not Ashley’s property. It was considered a pivotal “test case” for the document. Sedgwick obtained a court order (writ of replevin) directing John Ashley to release Freeman and Brom, but he refused. By August 1781, their case moved to the County Court of Common Pleas of Great Barrington. There, Sedgwick successfully argued that the Massachusetts Constitution banned slavery. On August 22, 1781, the jury declared Freeman and Brom free. After being granted her freedom, Mum Bett changed her name to the one we know now: Elizabeth Freeman. She later found employment as a paid worker for the Sedgwick household and became a prominent midwife in the community. At the time of her death in 1829, she counted a home, 20 acres of land, and some money among her possessions. Hundreds of people came to her funeral to pay their respects. Source: Elizabeth Freeman, the Formerly Enslaved Woman Who Successfully Sued for Her Freedom

What's the Word: OBTUND pronunciation: [ob-TUHND] Part of speech: verb Origin: Latin, 15th century Meaning: 1. Dull the sensitivity of; blunt; deaden. Examples: "Katherine bought a new shovel each winter and used it on the ice until she had obtunded it." "I was pleased to discover children’s aspirin obtunds the pain from canker sores." About Obtund “Obtund” is based on the Latin “obtundere,” which means “to dull.” It is based on the roots “ob-” (meaning “against”) and “tundere” (meaning “to beat”). Did you Know? “Obtund” means “to blunt” or “to render dull.” This meaning is built right into its Latin roots “ob-” and “tundere,” meaning “to beat against.” To obtund, originally, meant to blunt a physical object by repetitious force, the same way a shovel becomes dull the more often the digger collides with buried rocks. Today, “obtund” is often used in medical contexts, in which it describes not dulling tools but dulling sensitivity. For example, a topical anesthetic is used to obtund areas of skin or tissue that might otherwise be more sensitive.

What's the Word: LIBRATE pronunciation: [LAHY-brayt] Part of speech: verb Origin: Latin, 17th century Meaning: 1. Oscillate or seem to oscillate. Examples: "The wind was so strong that tall buildings were seen to librate against the sky." "Traditional metronomes librate to keep a beat." About Librate “Librate” comes from the Latin “lībrāta,” meaning “balance.” That term comes from the root “lībra,” meaning “a balance.” Did you Know? “Librate” means “to oscillate,” but the word also has a secondary definition of “to be poised; to balance oneself,” related to the Latin root meaning “balance.” Before electronic scales, weight was measured using balance scales, a device that consists of two pans attached to an oscillating bar that moves up and down until both pans are equal in weight and come into balance. The oscillating movement of this traditional balance — or “lībra,” as it was known in ancient Rome — is what the oscillating verb “librate” describes.