Dark Nexus

The Business Plot

In 1933, retired US Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler claimed that business tycoons were plotting to use a veterans’ organization to overthrow President Franklin D Roosevelt and install a fascist dictator. The media ridiculed the claim, but a congressional committee concluded that his allegations were credible. Although historians question whether a coup was close to execution, most agree that a political conspiracy was at least contemplated. What businessmen were implicated in the plot? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

lettered

Definition: (adjective) Highly educated; having extensive information or understanding.

Synonyms: knowledgeable, well-read, learned.

Usage: They are few in number, but it is a choice audience, a lettered audience.
Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Blowing the Midwinter Horn

The custom of Midwinterhoorn Blazen in the province of Overijssel, Netherlands, is believed to have originated more than 2,000 years ago. The local farmers make their winter horns out of pieces of birch wood, and they produce a piercing wail that carries for miles over the frozen countryside. Although in pagan times the blowing of the horns was thought to rid the earth of evil spirits, today the horns announce the coming of Christ. In Oldenzaal, a special melody composed by the area’s champion hornblower is played beginning at dawn on Advent Eve and continuing until Three Kings’ Day (Epiphany). Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough

Sarah Churchill was one of the most influential women in British history. A childhood friend of Queen Anne, she served as a lady of the bedchamber after Anne’s marriage, and when Anne acceded to the throne in 1702, Sarah enjoyed great favor at court along with her husband, the duke of Marlborough. She was a strong-willed woman and her influence grew until her Whig sympathies alienated Anne, who dismissed her in 1711. Who are a few of her famous descendents? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

penitent

Definition: (adjective) Feeling or expressing remorse for misdeeds.

Synonyms: repentant.

Usage: She now presented herself, with an elaborate apology, and with the nearest approach to a penitent expression of which her face was capable.
Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Ngondo Festival

For the majority of the Sawa, a coastal ethnic group in Cameroon, guidance comes from the Jengu water spirits. The annual Ngondo Festival is a special occasion for Sawa chiefs to petition these spirits for prophecies and warnings and to communicate those messages to a gathered assembly. The event, which lasts a few weeks, takes place on the banks of the Wouri River in the country’s most populous city, Douala. Various cultural activities accompany the discernment process of the festival. Activities preceding the water feast include traditional wrestling competitions, a canoe race, and a Miss Ngondo pageant. Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

The Achaemenid Empire

At its height, the Achaemenid Empire reached from Macedonia to northern India and from the Caucasus Mountains to the Persian Gulf. It derives its name from Achaemenes, who is thought to have lived in the early 7th century BCE. Its greatest rulers were Cyrus II, who established the Persian Empire and from whose reign it is dated; Darius I, who secured the borders from external threats; and Xerxes I, who completed many of Darius’s public works. What event brought an end to the empire? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

censer

Definition: (noun) A container for burning incense (especially one that is swung on a chain in a religious ritual).

Synonyms: thurible.

Usage: The organ was muttering, censers were swinging, candles were glinting on the distant altar, and robed priests were filing silently past them.
Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Codices

A codex is a manuscript book, especially of Scripture, early literature, or ancient mythological or historical annals. The oldest extant Greek codex is a biblical manuscript from the 4th century BCE. Codices were developed separately by pre-Columbian Mesoamericans after 1000 CE. The earliest type of manuscript in the form of a modern book—a collection of pages stitched together along one side—the codex replaced earlier rolls of papyrus and wax tablets. What advantages did it provide over them? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

disparage

Definition: (verb) To speak of in a slighting or disrespectful way.

Synonyms: belittle, pick at.

Usage: When it came to the principal’s attention that Mrs. Smith regularly disparaged her students’ efforts, she was removed from the classroom and reprimanded.
Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary