Definition: (adjective) Difficult or impossible to pronounce correctly.
Synonyms: unutterable.
Usage: The foreign dignitary had an unpronounceable last name.
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Source: The Free Dictionary
Month: October 2017
Aging robot arm gets spacewalk surgery
Two astronauts ventured outside the International Space Station early Thursday to carry out what amounts to hand transplant surgery on the lab’s Canadian-built robot arm, removing a crippled grapple fixture on one end of the arm and replacing it with … Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Most Lopsided College Football Game in US History (1916)
In 1916, Tennessee’s tiny Cumberland University canceled its football program, disbanding its team. Nevertheless, Georgia Tech’s football coach, John Heisman, threatened the school with a $3,000 fine—a large sum of money at the time—if its team failed to show up to their scheduled game. Cumberland was forced to recruit new players to face Georgia Tech, and the trouncing they received is said to have been revenge for a baseball game in which Cumberland allegedly cheated. What was the final score? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Black Cowboys Parade
A salute to the black cowboys who helped settle the West has been held since 1975 in Oakland, California. Hundreds of mounted cowboys and marching bands participate in the parade, the only one of its kind in the nation. There are also arts and crafts exhibits and food booths. Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Joel Emmanuel Hägglund, AKA Joe Hill (1879)
A Swedish-American labor activist and songwriter in the early 1900s, Hill penned songs such as “The Preacher and the Slave,” in which he coined the phrase “pie in the sky.” In 1915, he was convicted on circumstantial evidence of killing a grocer and his son. To the labor movement, Hill’s execution made him a martyr. Because he did not want to be buried in Utah, his ashes were shipped to supporters around the world. What intriguing evidence, found in his coat, seemed to support his innocence? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Fire Balloons
During World War II, Japan attempted to attack the US mainland by floating hydrogen-filled balloons equipped with incendiary devices across the Pacific Ocean. In 1944 and 1945, the Japanese launched over 9,000 of the weapons, which were designed to kill, destroy property, and start fires. Although, at the request of the US government, fire balloon incidents were not reported by the press at the time, about 300 such bombs are known to have reached N America. Of these, how many caused casualties? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
abyssal
Definition: (adjective) Of or relating to the great depths of the oceans.
Synonyms: abysmal, unfathomable.
Usage: The crew was put on full alert as the submarine reached the abyssal depths of the ocean.
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Source: The Free Dictionary
Old tattoo to blame for woman’s ‘cancer’
Doctors in Australia suspected that a woman had a type of cancer called lymphoma, but they were stunned when they put her enlarged lymph node under a microscope — and instead found black tattoo pigment from 15 years ago to which her immune system was just now … Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat Is Assassinated (1981)
As president, Sadat led Egypt in a 1973 war with Israel that bolstered his popularity throughout the Arab world, even though the war was a military loss. However, after he negotiated a peace treaty with Israel in the Camp David Accords—an initiative for which he shared a Nobel Peace Prize—his popularity in the Arab world plummeted. During an annual military parade, he was ambushed and killed by extremists. What three people made a rare simultaneous appearance at his funeral? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Ivy Day
October 6 is the anniversary of the death of Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-1891), the famous Irish statesman and leader of the Home Rule Party. He is a symbol of Irish pride and independence, and his name appears frequently in Irish literature, particularly the poetry of William Butler Yeats and the short story in James Joyce’s Dubliners called “Ivy Day in the Committee Room.” It is somewhat ironic that the sprig of green ivy traditionally worn on this day—chosen by Parnell himself as an emblem—is a color he apparently intensely disliked. Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary