Sunday, July 15, 2012

tub-thumper \TUB-thump-er\ noun

• a vociferous supporter (as of a cause)

Tub-thumpers are a noisy (and sometimes amusing) lot. The earliest ones were preachers or public speakers with a predisposition for pounding their fists on the pulpit or lectern — perhaps to wake up their listeners! Back in the 17th century, the word "tub" was sometimes used as a synonym of "pulpit"; John Dryden, for example, used the word thus in 1680 when he wrote, "Jack Presbyter shall here erect his throne, Knock out a tub with preaching once a day." "Tub-thumper" has been naming loud, impassioned speakers since at least 1662, when it was used by a writer named Hugh Foulis to describe "a sort of people ... antick in their Devotions…."

wog { /wäg/ (n.) offensive slang. 1925-30, from 'Golliwogg': a 19th century blackface doll; or alternately, an acronym of '(W)orthy (O)riental (G)entleman' }

British English:

1. *racist* a black African or dark-skinned South Asian (usually Indian or Pakistani)
2. *Anglocentric* a non-Briton or non-Englishman: "The wogs start at Calais" (across the English Channel in France) -- British proverb

Australian English:

1. a non-Anglo-Celtic European, esp. from Southern or Eastern Europe (e.g. Greek, Italian, Balkan, Slavic, etc.)
2. an Asian, esp. a West Asian (e.g. Lebanese, Turkish, Armenian, Iranian, etc.), but now also inclusive of South Asians and Pacific Islanders

USAGE: Until 1973 Australia had a white-only immigration policy, so the term used mainly as a racial slur in Britain was applied to ethnic European immigrants of the post-WWII "populate or perish" era. By now it has greatly lost its sting, and many ethnic Australians have reclaimed it as a jocular term, with some cleverly riffing on it (e.g. 'clog wog' for a Dutchman, 'frog wog' for a Frenchman). Since the 70s, the wog label has been extended to include newer immigrants arriving from the Middle East and other parts of Asia, and many have come to identify strongly with it, facing resistance from more assimilated European wogs who harbor racist and anti-Muslim attitudes. The term is almost completely unknown in the United States and Canada, but in Britain it remains extremely offensive, somewhat akin to 'nigger'.

Trivia

.

History

• margarine: Hippolyte Mège Mouriés got a patent for the butter substitute in France (1869)
• Reconstruction: Georgia became the last of the Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union after the American Civil War (1870)
• Second Battle of the Marne: World War I fight began; the Allies' victory halted the German advance toward Paris (1918)
• MSNBC: the 24-hour all-news network debuted on cable TV and the Internet (1996)
• the Mozilla Foundation: was founded to govern development of the open source Mozilla project; it's the creator of the Firefox browser and other web products (2003)

Birthdays 

• Rembrandt Van Rijn 1606
• Clement Clarke Moore 1779
• William Winter 1836
• Dorothy Fields 1905
• Richard W. Armour 1906
• Cowboy Copas 1913
• Philip Carey 1925
• Non Clow Martin 1927
• Clive Cussler 1931
• Julian Bream 1933
• Alex Karras 1935
• Ken Kercheval 1935
• Patrick Wayne 1939
• Tommy Dee 1940
• Millie Jackson 1944
• Jan-Michael Vincent 1944
• Peter Lewis 1945 - Musician (Moby Grape)
• Linda Ronstadt 1946
• Trevor Horn 1949 - Musician (Buggles, YES)
• Rick Kehoe 1951
• Terry O'Quinn 1952 - Actor ("Lost")
• Jeff Carlisi 1952 - Musician (.38 Special)
• David Pack 1953 - Musician (Ambrosia)
• Joe Satriani 1956 - Musician
• Marc Bell 1956 - Musician (The Ramones)
• Ian Curtis 1956 - Musician (Joy Division)
• Kim Alexis 1960
• William Aames 1960
• Forest Whitaker 1961
• Lolita Davidovich 1961
• Brigitte Nielsen 1963 - Actress
• Phillip Fisher 1967 - Musician (Fishbone)
• Stan Kirsch 1968
• Scott Foley 1972
• Brian Austin Green 1973 (Mr Megan Fox)