Definition: (noun) A member of a ship’s crew who performs manual labor.
Synonyms: deckhand.
Usage: He worked as a roustabout on the Mississippi from the time he was a boy.
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Month: June 2023
The Pied Piper Abducts the Children of Hamelin (1284)
According to a centuries-old legend set in Hamelin, Germany, the Pied Piper was hired by local residents in 1284 to rid the town of rats, which he did by charming them with music and leading them to the river to drown. When the citizens refused to pay him the agreed upon price, he exacted his revenge by charming away their children. Famous versions of the legend were immortalized by Goethe, Robert Browning, and the Brothers Grimm. What historic events may have inspired the tale? Discuss
Pearl S. Buck (1892)
Buck was raised in China by her American missionary parents and left the country but a few times before she was 40. She drew upon her experiences there in her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Good Earth, which describes the struggles of a Chinese peasant and his slave wife. Together with Sons and A House Divided, it forms a trilogy, part of the body of work that earned Buck the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938. Buck also wrote five novels under what pseudonym? Discuss
good job
An informal expression of praise for having done something well. (It can also be used sarcastically to mean the opposite.) Watch the video
Fermentation
Fermentation is the process by which a living cell obtains energy by breaking down simple sugars and other molecules without using oxygen. It occurs in different chemical sequences in different species of organisms. In alcoholic fermentation, known to humans for at least 7,000 years, the glucose molecule is degraded to two molecules of the two-carbon alcohol, ethanol, and to two molecules of carbon dioxide. What serious illness can result from eating fermented food? Discuss
touchstone
Custer Dies at the Battle of the Little Bighorn (1876)
Popularly known as “Custer’s Last Stand,” the Battle of the Little Bighorn occurred during the US government’s campaign to force the Cheyenne and Sioux onto reservations using federal troops. Upon encountering a large encampment of the tribes, General George Custer launched an early attack with a party of approximately 200 soldiers. The troops were annihilated by the vastly larger force, and Custer himself was killed during the battle along with two of his brothers. Who led the Indian alliance? Discuss
George Orwell (1903)
Best known by his pseudonym George Orwell, Eric Arthur Blair was a British novelist and essayist famed for his scathingly satirical and frighteningly political novels: the anti-Soviet fable Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, a prophetic novel that portrays the catastrophic excesses of state control over the individual. Orwell was distrustful of all political parties and ideologies, and this sentiment is reflected in much of his work. What are some of his other novels? Discuss
good graces
Favorable, kindly, or approving regard or treatment. Usually used in the phrase “in someone’s good graces” or some variation thereof. Watch the video
Horus
In Egyptian religion, Horus was the falcon-headed sky god whose eyes were the Sun and the Moon. One of the most important of the Egyptian deities, he was the son of Osiris, ruler of the underworld, and Isis, the principal goddess. In a famous myth, Horus avenged the murder of his father by defeating Set, the god of evil and darkness. According to the myth, what injury did Horus sustain in the fight? Discuss