… that today is Crossword Puzzle Day? Arthur Wynne published a new “word-cross” puzzle in the New York World in England on this day in 1913. The editor had asked Wynne to invent a new game for the paper’s Sunday entertainment section. Four weeks after the puzzle first appeared, typesetters at the newspaper inadvertently transposed the words in the title to read “Cross-Word.” The name stuck — and so did the puzzle!
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Today’s Inspirational Quote:
“Being kind to yourself in thoughts, words, and actions is as important as being kind to others.”
… that today is First Softball Game Day? In 1887, the game of softball started on this day at the Farragut Boat Club in Chicago when Yale and Harvard Alumni wrapped up a boxing glove and started to hit the “ball” with a broomstick. Eventually the game was played outdoors. Trivia fans: In Chicago, the parks and school grounds were small so the ball had to be larger to stay in the park. Thus, the 16-inch diameter became the size of choice.
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Today’s Inspirational Quote:
“An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward. So, when life is dragging you back with difficulties, it means that it’s going to launch you into something great.”
BathosBAY-thosPart of speech: nounOrigin: Greek, mid 17th century
1(especially in a literary work) an effect of anticlimax created by an unintentional lapse in mood from the sublime to the trivial or ridiculous.
Examples of Bathos in a sentence “The ridiculous climax left everyone with a deep sense of bathos.” “The avant-garde play left the audience in bathos and confusion.”
At enlightened companies, leaders are smart enough to ask, “how do we make things better for our customers?” They realize that this simple ratchet leads to loyalty, word of mouth and more customers.
At monopolies or companies that seek to act like them, the question is, “how do we make things better for us?”
Nurdlenər-dlPart of speech: nounOrigin: Unknown, 1990s
1A very small pellet of plastic which serves as raw material in the manufacture of plastic products.
Examples of Nurdle in a sentence “Jess filled the box with nurdles, hoping to protect the tea cups inside.” “Eric cleaned the beach every weekend, hoping to stop the dangerous environmental effect of nurdles.”
… that today is Hobbit Premiere Day? The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – the first of the Hobbit film series – premiered in Wellington, New Zealand, on this day in 2012. Celebrate today by watching your favorite movie with friends and family!
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Today’s Inspirational Quote:
“Your peace is more important than driving yourself crazy trying to understand why something happened the way it did. Let it go.”
Just like time keeps moving forward so must you. Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going. (Sam Levenson) ========== You don’t figure out how to live by thinking about it, but by living life. Everything has been figured out, except how to live. (Jean-Paul Sartre)
Grow forever, never yield. Strike swiftly, aim true. Power, progress, peace. Actions bring results. Forever free. Strength lies in unity. Forwards in unity. Spirits guide us, spirits watch over us. We can, we will, we did. Deeds not words.
Like Receiving Your Own Gift. ——————— Eyes Of The Devil. ——————— Starting A Fire In A Rainstorm. ——————— When Comfort Turns To Discomfort. ——————— There’s More In A Mine Than Precious Metals. ———————
One of the strangest pejoratives that has come up in this new divisive political era is the idea of calling someone a “globalist.” It’s particularly popular in far right circles. If someone believes in NATO, if someone can see the obvious self-interest that the United States has in basing troops on the Korean Peninsula, or if they like doing trade deals with other countries, then they are clearly a World Bank-loving globalist who is betraying their own country in favor of some traitorous preference for everyone else in the world.
Of course, this is all nonsense, if only because most of the so-called “globalist interests” have been very good for America over the last 80 years. It’s also interesting when you consider that, at least in Stoicism, there is not really a contradiction between nationalism (or even empires) and internationalism.
Epictetus said that each of us is a citizen of our own land, but “also a member of the great city of gods and men.” Marcus Aurelius, the head of an enormous empire, reminded himself daily to love the world as much as he loved his native city. You can be a good neighbor and a good parent at the same time, just like you can be a successful businessman without engaging in anti-competitive behavior.
The truth is, it’s easier to myopically focus on your own interests. It’s easy to put yourself in one category and everyone else in another (barbarians, we used to call them). When we think this way, the world becomes zero-sum and violent and scary. But when we can zoom out a bit and see how arbitrary most borders and boundaries are, how much things have been and remain in flux, how similar we all are—how most of us all want the same things—then collaboration and concerted action become possible. Andfar more gets done when we work together than when we fight each other.
Like us, the Romans weren’t perfect. They didn’t live up to their own rhetoric, they fought wars of conquest and committed atrocities. Seneca lived in a society built on slavery, yet he was ahead of his time enough to urge his fellow Romans to “remember that he whom you call your slave sprang from the same stock, is smiled upon by the same skies, and on equal terms with yourself, breathes, lives, and dies.”
We should remember that today and always. Don’t let broken or angry or racist people poison your mind. Don’t let them tear down the principles that have not only brought billions of citizens of this planet out of poverty and prevents millions of people just like you from dying in needless conflicts. Sympatheia. We are all part of a larger whole. We are in this together.
If you live on this planet, you’re a globalist. You have to be.
P.S. Our sympatheia challenge coin serves as a practical, tangible reminder of how we are all connected, and how we are obliged to care about the welfare of our fellow human beings. You can check it out in the Daily Stoic store.
… that today is Believe It or Not Day? On this day in 1918, Robert Ripley began his Believe It or Not column in The New York Globe. Subjects ranged from sports feats to little known facts about unusual and exotic sites. Ripley also included items submitted by readers, ranging from unusually shaped vegetables to oddly marked domestic animals, all documented by photographs and then depicted by Ripley’s drawings.
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Today’s Inspirational Quote:
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day.”
Black Girl Thoughts addresses the dangers of racism in America, alongside the complacency and silence it brings...with a dash of my personal life experiences.
"I have enough time to rest, but I don't have a minute to waste". Come and catch me with your wise words and we will have some fun with our words of wisdom.
Black Girl Thoughts addresses the dangers of racism in America, alongside the complacency and silence it brings...with a dash of my personal life experiences.
"I have enough time to rest, but I don't have a minute to waste". Come and catch me with your wise words and we will have some fun with our words of wisdom.
Black Girl Thoughts addresses the dangers of racism in America, alongside the complacency and silence it brings...with a dash of my personal life experiences.
"I have enough time to rest, but I don't have a minute to waste". Come and catch me with your wise words and we will have some fun with our words of wisdom.
