The word for today is… milquetoast (adjective): 1 : of a person : timid, meek, or unassertive 2 : lacking in character or vigor Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : Caspar Milquetoast was a comic strip character created in 1924 by the American cartoonist Harold T. Webster. The strip, called “The Timid Soul,” ran every
The word for today is… ostracize (verb): 1 : to exile by ostracism 2 : to exclude from a group by common consent Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : In ancient Greece, prominent citizens whose power or influence threatened the stability of the state could be exiled by a practice called ostracism. Voters would
“She may be young but she only likes old things, and modern music it ain’t to her taste”— Death Cab for Cutie, “Monday Morning” — Death Cab for Cutie, “Monday Morning” In record-collecting circles, we often joke about what we call “Ebay Prices”: people on Ebay who’ve vaguely
Some time ago, I was browsing through an antique shop when, to my delight, I chanced upon an old bakelite radio. This is almost exactly the same as the one my family used to have! I told the proprietor. “What colour was it?” she asked. When I told her it
The word for today is… fomite (noun): an object (such as a dish, doorknob, or article of clothing) that may be contaminated with infectious agents (such as bacteria or viruses) and serve in their transmission Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : Disinfectant on your hands keeps us healthier and fomites no longer
The word for today is… commodious (adjective): 1 : comfortably or conveniently spacious 2 archaic : handy, serviceable Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : Although it’s now used to mean “roomy,” in the 18th century “commodious” was regularly used to mean “handy” or “serviceable,” a meaning that is true to the word’s
The word for today is… interloper (noun): one that interlopes: such as a : one that intrudes in a place or sphere of activity b : an illegal or unlicensed trader Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : When English speakers combined “inter-” with “-loper” in the late 1500s, they already had a word landloper
Kurt Mahlburg mercatornet.com Kurt Mahlburg is a writer and author, and an emerging Australian voice on culture and the Christian faith. He has a passion for both the philosophical and the personal, drawing on his background as a graduate architect, a primary school teacher, a missionary, and a young
Tolkien fans are awaiting the much-hyped Amazon Lord of the Rings tv series not with bated breath, but trepidation. Please, Amazon, don’t fuck it up, is the most frequent comment in fan groups. “A fool’s hope,” as Gandalf would say. Fans are already wincing as a domino-
JM White Dr Philip Nitschke founded the Voluntary Euthanasia Research Foundation now called Exit International. Assisted dying became legal in New Zealand in November 2021. Three hundred and fifty deaths were expected in the first year, but due to second thoughts when the reality appears – as often occurs – that number
The word for today is… wistful (adjective): 1 : full of yearning or desire tinged with melancholy 2 : musingly sad Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : Are you yearning to know the history of wistful? If so, I can ease your melancholy a little by telling you that wistful comes from a combination
Jonah Lynch brownstone.org Jonah Lynch has a doctorate in theology from the Gregorian University in Rome, an M.Ed. in education from The George Washington University, and a B.Sc. in physics from McGill. He conducts research in digital humanities and lives in Italy. Here we are, all of
Toby Rogers brownstone.org Toby Rogers has a Ph.D. in political economy from the University of Sydney in Australia and a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of California, Berkeley. His research focus is on regulatory capture and corruption in the pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Rogers does grassroots
The word for today is… pantheon (noun): 1a : the gods of a people especially b : a temple dedicated to all the gods 2 : a group of illustrious or notable persons or things I 3 : a building serving as the burial place of or containing memorials to the famous dead of
I stopped giving to charity years ago but the final straw was, after donating $100 to the Red Cross for the Australian bushfires in 2020, learning that the charity decided to take its usual 10% for “administration fees”. In this case, those amounted to $10 million, in a country with
The word for today is… calculus (noun): 1a : a method of computation or calculation in a special notation (as of logic or symbolic logic) b : the mathematical methods comprising differential and integral calculus 2 : calculation 3a : a concretion usually of mineral salts around organic material found especially in hollow organs
