Anactoria is a woman mentioned in the work of the ancient Greek poet
Sappho (pictured), who wrote in the late 7th and early 6th centuries
BCE. Sappho names Anactoria as the object of her desire in a poem
numbered as fragment 16. Another of her poems, fragment 31, is
traditionally called the "Ode to Anactoria", although no name appears in
it. As portrayed by Sappho, Anactoria is likely to have been an
aristocratic follower of hers, of marriageable age. The English poet
Algernon Charles Swinburne's "Anactoria" was published in 1866 and is
written from the point of view of Sappho, who expresses her lust for
Anactoria in a long, sexually explicit monologue written in rhyming
couplets of iambic pentameter. Swinburne's poem created a sensation by
openly approaching then-taboo topics such as lesbianism and dystheism.
Anactoria later featured in an 1896 play by H. V. Sutherland and in the
1961 poetic series "Three Letters to Anaktoria" by Robert Lowell.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anactoria>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1897:
Ranavalona III, the last sovereign ruler of the Kingdom of
Madagascar, was deposed by French military forces.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranavalona_III>
1928:
Indian physicist C. V. Raman and his colleagues discovered
what is now known as Raman scattering, for which he later became the
first Asian to win the Nobel Prize in Physics.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._V._Raman>
1975:
A London Underground train failed to stop at the terminal
Moorgate station, crashing and causing the deaths of 43 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moorgate_tube_crash>
2002:
During a period of religious violence in Gujarat, India, mobs
of Hindus attacked Muslims in Naroda Patiya and in Chamanpura, resulting
in 166 deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulbarg_Society_massacre>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
24-hour clock:
A timekeeping convention in which the 24 hours of the day are treated as
a single period rather than two sets of 12 hours, with the result that
midnight is indicated as 00:00 (or sometimes 24:00), and the hours from
1:00 to 11:00 p.m. as 13:00 to 23:00.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/24-hour_clock>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Truly man is a marvellously vain, diverse, and undulating object.
It is hard to found any constant and uniform judgement on him.
--Michel de Montaigne
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michel_de_Montaigne>
John Wick is a 2014 American action thriller film directed by Chad
Stahelski and written by Derek Kolstad. The film stars Keanu Reeves
(pictured) as John Wick, a retired hitman who seeks revenge against the
men who killed his dog, a final gift from his deceased wife. It also
stars Michael Nyqvist, Alfie Allen, Adrianne Palicki, Bridget Moynahan,
Dean Winters, Ian McShane, John Leguizamo, and Willem Dafoe. Principal
photography began in October 2013, on a $20 million to $30 million
budget, and concluded in December. Stahelski and Leitch focused on long,
highly choreographed single takes to convey action. Following a
successful marketing campaign, John Wick, which was released on
October 24, 2014, became a modest success, grossing $86 million
worldwide. It received applause for its style and its action sequences.
John Wick is seen as having revitalized the action genre and began a
successful franchise that includes four other films, a prequel
television series, as well as video games and comic books.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wick_%28film%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1814:
Peninsular War: In the south of France, Spanish, British and
Portuguese soldiers under the command of the Marquess of Wellington
defeated French soldiers in the Battle of Orthez, causing the French to
retreat east.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Orthez>
1988:
The Armenian community of Sumgait in Azerbaijan was the target
of a violent pogrom (memorial pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumgait_pogrom>
1996:
The multimedia franchise Pokémon was launched with the release
of the video games Pocket Monsters Red and Green.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Red,_Blue,_and_Yellow>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
101:
(Canada, US, alone or postpositive, chiefly humorous) Of a fact,
subject, etc.: basic, beginner-level, elementary. [...]
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/101>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
It has always seemed strange to me … The things we admire in
men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and
feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits
we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and
self-interest are the traits of success.
--John Steinbeck
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Steinbeck>
The Roswell incident is a conspiracy theory that alleges that debris
from a United States Army Air Forces balloon (pictured) recovered in
1947 near Roswell, New Mexico, was part of a crashed extraterrestrial
spacecraft. The debris was from the top-secret Project Mogul, which used
high-altitude balloons to detect nuclear tests. Roswell Army Air Field
personnel, unaware of Mogul, gathered the material and announced the
recovery of a "flying disc"; the statement was retracted within a day.
To obscure the source of the debris, the Army reported that it was a
conventional weather balloon. In 1978, retired Air Force officer Jesse
Marcel revealed that the weather balloon had been a cover story and
speculated that the debris was extraterrestrial. This became the basis
for long-lasting and increasingly complex and contradictory UFO
conspiracy theories, none of which have any factual basis. The
conspiracy narrative has become a common trope in fiction. The town of
Roswell promotes itself as a UFO tourism destination.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roswell_incident>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1914:
RMS Britannic, the third and largest Olympic-class ocean liner
of the White Star Line after RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic, was launched
at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMHS_Britannic>
1979:
The Superliner railcar entered revenue service with Amtrak.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superliner_%28railcar%29>
1995:
Barings Bank, the oldest merchant bank in London, was declared
insolvent after its head derivatives trader in Singapore, Nick Leeson,
lost £827 million while making unauthorised trades on futures
contracts.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Leeson>
2014:
Former editor-in-chief of Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao Kevin
Lau was stabbed, prompting concerns and protests about media freedom.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knife_attack_on_Kevin_Lau>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
zymurgy:
1. Synonym of zymology (“the chemistry of fermentation with yeasts,
especially the science involved in beermaking and winemaking”)
2. The practice of using fermentation to produce alcoholic beverages.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/zymurgy>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Those are rare who fall without becoming degraded; there is a
point, moreover, at which the unfortunate and the infamous are
associated and confounded in a single word, a fatal word, Les
Misérables.
--Les Misérables
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Les_Mis%C3%A9rables>
Martha Bradley (fl. 1740s – 1755) was a British cookery book
writer. Little is known about her life, except that she published the
cookery book The British Housewife (pictured) in 1756 and worked as a
cook for more than 30 years in the fashionable spa town of Bath,
Somerset. The British Housewife was released as a 42-issue partwork
between January and October 1756. It was published in a two-volume book
form in 1758, and is more than a thousand pages long. It is likely that
Bradley was dead before the partwork was published. The book follows the
French style of nouvelle cuisine, distinguishing Bradley from other
female cookery book writers at the time, who focused on a British style
of food preparation. The work is carefully organised and the recipes
taken from other authors are amended, suggesting she was a knowledgeable
and experienced cook, able to improve on existing dishes. Because of the
length of the book, it was not reprinted until 1996; as a result, few
modern writers have written extensively on Bradley or her work.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Bradley>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1933:
USS Ranger, the United States Navy's first purpose-built
aircraft carrier, was launched.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Ranger_%28CV-4%29>
1951:
After being postponed due to World War II, the inaugural Pan
American Games opened in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_American_Games>
1994:
Israeli physician Baruch Goldstein opened fire on Palestinian
Muslims praying at the mosque in Hebron's Cave of the Patriarchs,
killing 29 people and wounding 125 others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_the_Patriarchs_massacre>
2009:
At their headquarters in Pilkhana, members of the Bangladesh
Rifles began a mutiny that resulted in 82 deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh_Rifles_revolt>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
yelm:
1. (UK, dialectal) A bundle of straw laid out straight, chiefly to be
used for thatching; a helm.
2. (transitive) To choose and lay out (straw) straight to be used for
animal fodder or thatching; to helm.
3. (intransitive) To choose and lay out straw straight to be used for
animal fodder or thatching; to helm.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/yelm>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I don't know why nobody told you how to unfold your love I don't
know how someone controlled you They bought and sold you.
--George Harrison
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Harrison>
Overdrawn at the Memory Bank is a 1984 science-fiction television film
starring Raul Julia and Linda Griffiths (pictured). Based on a 1976
short story by John Varley from the Eight Worlds series, the film takes
place in a dystopian future where an employee at a conglomerate, played
by Julia, gets trapped inside the company's computer, where he is
monitored and later abetted by a character played by Griffiths as he
affects the real world. It was co-produced by Canada's RSL Films in
Toronto and the New York television station WNET. Because of its limited
budget, the motion picture was shot on videotape instead of film and was
pre-sold to small American cable companies. It premiered on CBC
Television in 1984 and was broadcast on American Playhouse in 1985. The
film had a mixed reception from critics. Overdrawn at the Memory Bank
was featured in the eighth-season finale of the comedy television series
Mystery Science Theater 3000 in 1997.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overdrawn_at_the_Memory_Bank>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1809:
Napoleonic Wars: French admiral Louis Thomas Villaret de
Joyeuse unconditionally surrendered to British forces, ending their
invasion of Martinique and beginning a five-year occupation of the
island.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Martinique_%281809%29>
1979:
Uganda–Tanzania War: Ugandan government forces fled Masaka as
the Tanzania People's Defence Force bombarded and captured the town.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Masaka>
1989:
United Airlines Flight 811 experienced uncontrolled
decompression after leaving Honolulu International Airport, Hawaii,
blowing seats out of the aircraft and killing nine passengers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_811>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
xenagogue:
(obsolete, rare) One who guides strangers; a guide or tour guide.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/xenagogue>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Tomorrow will be the third anniversary of the large-scale war
against Ukraine: a painful and shameful occasion for the whole of
humanity! As I reiterate my closeness to the suffering Ukrainian people,
I invite you to remember the victims of all armed conflicts, and to pray
for the gift of peace in Palestine, Israel and throughout the Middle
East, Myanmar, Kivu and Sudan. In recent days I have received many
messages of affection, and I have been particularly struck by the
letters and drawings from children. Thank you for this closeness, and
for the prayers of comfort I have received from all over the world! I
entrust you all to the intercession of Mary, and I ask you to pray for
me.
--Pope Francis
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pope_Francis>
Donald Forrester Brown (23 February 1890 – 1 October 1916) was a
New Zealand recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for
valour in the face of the enemy that could be awarded at that time to
members of the British and Commonwealth armed forces. Born in Dunedin,
Brown was a farmer when the First World War began. In late 1915, he
volunteered for service abroad with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force
(NZEF) and was posted to the 2nd Battalion, the Otago Infantry Regiment.
Fighting on the Western Front, he performed the actions that led to the
award of the Victoria Cross in September 1916 during the Battle of
Flers–Courcelette, part of the Somme offensive. As he was killed
several days later during the Battle of Le Transloy, the award was made
posthumously. His Victoria Cross was the second to be awarded to a
soldier serving with the NZEF during the war and was the first earned in
an action on the Western Front.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Forrester_Brown>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1854:
The Orange River Convention was signed in Bloemfontein, with
the United Kingdom agreeing to recognise the independence of the Orange
Free State in present-day South Africa.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_River_Convention>
1886:
American inventor Charles Martin Hall discovered an inexpensive
method of producing aluminium.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Martin_Hall>
1987:
SN 1987A, the first supernova that modern astronomers were
able to study in great detail, was observed from Earth occurring in the
Large Magellanic Cloud.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SN_1987A>
2021:
Riots in four Ecuadorian prisons, caused by gang rivalries,
resulted in the deaths of 79 inmates.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_2021_Ecuadorian_prison_riots>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
wamble-cropped:
1. Nauseated; also, feeling sick or unsettled in the stomach.
2. (figurative) Feeling uneasy; anxious, worried.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wamble-cropped>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The Greek word for philosopher (philosophos) connotes a
distinction from sophos. It signifies the lover of wisdom (knowledge) as
distinguished from him who considers himself wise in the possession of
knowledge. This meaning of the word still endures: the essence of
philosophy is not the possession of the truth but the search for truth.
… Philosophy means to be on the way. Its questions are more essential
than its answers, and every answer becomes a new question.
--Karl Jaspers
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Karl_Jaspers>
Eddie Gerard (February 22, 1890 – August 7, 1937) was a Canadian
ice hockey player, coach, and manager. Born in Ottawa, Ontario, he
played professionally for ten seasons for the Ottawa Senators, as a left
winger for three years before switching to defence. He was the first
player to win the Stanley Cup four years in a row, from 1920 to 1923,
three times with the Senators and once as an injury replacement player
with the Toronto St. Patricks. After his playing career he served as a
coach and manager, working with the Montreal Maroons from 1925 until
1929, and winning the Stanley Cup in 1926. He coached the New York
Americans for two seasons before returning to the Maroons for two more
seasons, then ended his career coaching the St. Louis Eagles in 1934.
Regarded as one of the best defenders of his era, Gerard was one of the
original nine players inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1945. He
was also inducted into the Canada's Sports Hall of Fame.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Gerard>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1959:
Lee Petty won the first edition of the Daytona 500, a NASCAR
auto race at the Daytona International Speedway in Florida.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1959_Daytona_500>
1974:
Samuel Byck attempted to hijack an aircraft at
Baltimore/Washington International Airport with the intention of
crashing it into the White House to assassinate U.S. president Richard
Nixon, but he was stopped by police.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Byck>
2019:
A group broke into the North Korean embassy in Madrid, Spain,
and stole several mobile telephones and digital storage devices.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korean_Embassy_in_Madrid_incident>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
vexation:
1. (uncountable) The action of vexing, annoying, or irritating someone
or something; (countable) an instance of this.
2. (uncountable) The action of physically annoying or irritating a
person or an animal; (countable) an instance of this; also, a physical
discomfort or disorder.
3. (law, uncountable) The action of vexing or annoying someone by
bringing unjustified legal proceedings against them; (countable) an
instance of this.
4. (uncountable) The state of being vexed, annoyed, or irritated;
annoyance, irritation; also, disappointment, discontentment,
unhappiness; (countable) an instance of this.
5. (uncountable) The state of being mentally distressed or troubled.
6. (uncountable) The state of being physically annoyed or irritated.
7. (countable) A source of mental distress or trouble; an affliction, a
woe; also, a source of annoyance or irritation; an annoyance, an
irritant.
8. (obsolete, uncountable) The action of using force or violence on
someone or something; (countable) an instance of this.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vexation>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened
by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in
different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities,
is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more
formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which
result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose
in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of
some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his
competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own
elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty. Without looking forward to
an extremity of this kind, (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely
out of sight,) the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party
are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to
discourage and restrain it.
--George Washington
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Washington>
The Virgo interferometer is a large-scale scientific instrument near
Pisa, Italy, for detecting gravitational waves. The detector measures
minuscule length variations in its two 3-kilometre (1.9-mile) arms
induced by the passage of gravitational waves. The project, named after
the Virgo galaxy cluster, was first approved in 1992 and construction
was completed in 2003. After undergoing important upgrades between 2011
and 2016 (during which LIGO made the first detection of gravitational
waves), Virgo made its first detection on 14 August 2017. This was
followed by the detection of GW170817, the only gravitational wave also
observed with classical methods (optical, gamma-ray, X-ray and radio
telescopes) as of 2024. Virgo is managed by the Virgo Collaboration,
gathering 940 members in 20 countries, in cooperation with similar
detectors such as LIGO and KAGRA.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgo_interferometer>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1862:
American Civil War: The Confederate Army began an attempt to
gain control of the Southwest with a major victory in the Battle of
Valverde.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Valverde>
1952:
A number of student protesters demanding the establishment of
Bengali as an official language were killed by police in Dhaka, East
Pakistan.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengali_language_movement>
1965:
American Black nationalist Malcolm X was assassinated while
giving a speech in New York City's Audubon Ballroom.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_X>
1973:
After accidentally straying into Israeli-occupied airspace,
Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 was shot down by two fighter aircraft,
killing 108 of the 113 people on board.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libyan_Arab_Airlines_Flight_114>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
universal grinder:
(linguistics) A notional mechanism whereby countable nouns are made
uncountable.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/universal_grinder>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
To each according to his threat advantage does not count as a
principle of justice.
--John Rawls
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Rawls>
Tesla has labor disputes in the United States, Germany and Sweden,
including an ongoing strike in Sweden. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, has
expressed his opposition to unions on Twitter (now called X). These
tweets are currently under scrutiny by US courts to determine whether
they are protected free speech or unlawful. All unionization efforts at
the Tesla Fremont Factory and Gigafactory New York in the United States
have been unsuccessful. In Germany, Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg and
Tesla Automation have elected works councils, but they have not signed
collective bargaining agreements with the German trade union IG Metall
(members pictured). The Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg works council is
divided into pro-union and anti-union factions. In Sweden, mechanics who
are members of the trade union IF Metall have been on strike since
October 27, 2023, making it the longest strike in Sweden since 1938.
The strike has since spread, with other Swedish, Danish and Norwegian
unions calling for solidarity strikes.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_and_unions>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1959:
Canadian prime minister John Diefenbaker cancelled the Avro
CF-105 Arrow interceptor-aircraft program amid much political debate.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_CF-105_Arrow>
1970:
Wat Phra Dhammakaya, one of the largest Buddhist temples in
Thailand, was founded in Pathum Thani.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Phra_Dhammakaya>
1998:
At the age of 15, American figure skater Tara Lipinski became
the then-youngest winner of an Olympic gold medal in the history of the
Winter Olympic Games.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_Lipinski>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
tl;dr:
1. (chiefly Internet slang) Initialism of too long; didn't read (or
sometimes too long; don't read).
2. Used to indicate that one did not read a (long) text.
3. Used to introduce a short summary of an overly long text.
4. (chiefly Internet slang) A summary; the gist, the long and short.
5. (transitive) To provide a short summary of (a text, an event, etc.);
to summarize.
6. (intransitive) To provide a short summary of a text, an event, etc.;
to summarize.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tl%3Bdr>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
So weird, how our prejudices have given everyone their lane.
Middle Easterner does something, they're a terrorist. Black person does
something, they're gang-related, they're a thug. But if a white guy
walks into a church killing nine people there, what do they lead with on
the news? "And today, in an isolated incident, a lone gunman walked into
a church opening fire and killing nine people." It's always a lone
gunman. "A lone gunman with no ties to society whatsoever". They always
separate them as quickly as possible.
--Trevor Noah
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Trevor_Noah>
Benjamin F. McAdoo (1920–1981) was an American architect mainly active
in the Seattle area. Born in Pasadena, California, he was inspired to
study architecture by a mechanical-drawing class and the work of Paul R.
Williams. After working as a draftsman for local architectural firms and
the Corps of Engineers, he pursued his Bachelor of Architecture degree
at the University of Washington. The first licensed Black architect in
the state of Washington, his work featured a modernist aesthetic
influenced by the Northwest Regional style. After designing a number of
low-income houses and apartments throughout the 1950s, he was hired by
the Agency for International Development to design modular houses in
Jamaica. He returned to Seattle after a period of work in Washington,
D.C., and pursued civic commissions. Outside of work, he participated in
the NAACP, hosted a weekly radio show on racial issues for several
years, and unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the Washington House of
Representatives.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_F._McAdoo>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1814:
War of the Sixth Coalition: French troops led by Napoleon
forced the Army of Bohemia to retreat after it advanced dangerously
close to Paris.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Montereau>
1977:
The Xinjiang 61st Regiment Farm fire started during Chinese New
Year when a firecracker ignited the wreaths of late Mao Zedong, killing
694 personnel.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang_61st_Regiment_Farm_fire>
2014:
A series of violent events involving protesters, riot police,
and unknown shooters began in Kyiv that culminated in the ousting of
Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych five days later.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution_of_Dignity>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Rosie Lee:
(Cockney rhyming slang, originally military slang) Synonym of tea
(“(uncountable) a drink made by infusing dried leaves or buds of the tea
plant (Camellia sinensis) in hot water; (countable) a cup of this
drink”)
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Rosie_Lee>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Racial ignorance is a prison from which there is no escape
because there’re no doors. And there are old, old men, and old, old
women running institutions, governments, homes all over the world who
need to believe in their racism and need to have the victims of racism
concentrate all their creative abilities on them. And they are very
easily identified. They are the petulant ones who call themselves
proud, and they are the disdainful ones who call themselves fastidious,
and they are the mean-spirited ones who call themselves just. They
thrive on the failures of those unlike them; they are the ones who
measure their wealth by the desperation of the poor. They are the ones
who know personal success only when they can identify deficiencies in
other racial and ethnic groups. They are in prisons of their own
construction: and their ignorance and their stunted emotional growth
consistently boggle the mind.
--Toni Morrison
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Toni_Morrison>