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March 5, 2026
Mar 5, 2026
Word
bludge
verb, chiefly Australia & New Zealand
Definition
  1. to avoid work or responsibility
  2. to get something from or live on another by imposing on hospitality or good nature : sponge
Example
"If I want to go to Rotto, I’ll catch the ferry or bludge a ride on the new boat of one of my commodity-boomed nouveau riche friends." (Phil Haberland, The [Perth, Australia] Guardian Express, March 6, 2007)
Origin
Though they can be annoying, people who bludge -- bludgers -- are relatively harmless. On the other hand, a bully armed with a bludgeon -- a "bludgeoner" -- can cause serious harm. In the 19th century, "bludgeoner" was shortened to "bludger" and used as a slang word for "pimp." That "bludger" was certainly a kind of bully, one apparently willing to wield a bludgeon now and then to insure his livelihood. In the early 20th century, "bludge" became the verb for what a bludger does. By then, a somewhat softened "bludger" had appeared in Australia and New Zealand: the pimping and the bullying were eliminated, and the parasitical tendencies reduced to mere cadging or sponging.
Webster's Dictionary
Idiom
build on sand
Use an unstable foundation, as in If you buy nothing but high-risk stocks, your portfolio will be built on sand. This metaphor appears in the New Testament, where Jesus likens those who do not heed his sayings to a foolish man who builds his house on sand, which then is washed away by rain, flood, and wind (Matthew 7:24--27). [c. 1600]
The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms
Fun facts
  1. A rhinoceros horn is made of compacted hair.
  2. The chicken is the closest living relative of Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Snapple's under-the-cap 'Real Facts'
Artist
Steve McQueen
Born Oct 9, 1969

Sir Steven Rodney McQueen CBE is a British film director, film producer, screenwriter, and video artist. For his 2013 film 12 Years a Slave, a historical drama adaptation of an 1853 slave narrative memoir, he won an Academy Award, BAFTA Award for Best Film, and Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama, as a producer, and he also received the award for Best Director from the New York Film Critics Circle. McQueen is the first black filmmaker to win an Academy Award for Best Picture.

McQueen frequently collaborates with actor Michael Fassbender, who has starred in three of McQueen's four feature films. McQueen's other feature films are Hunger, a historical drama about the 1981 Irish hunger strike, Shame, a drama about an executive struggling with sex addiction, and 12 Years a Slave.

For his artwork, McQueen has received the Turner Prize, the highest award given to a British visual artist. In 2006, he produced Queen and Country, which commemorates the deaths of British soldiers in Iraq by presenting their portraits as a sheet of stamps. For services to the visual arts, he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2011.

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Wikipedia, Google Arts & Culture
Historical figure
Robert Baden-Powell
Feb 22, 1857 - Jan 8, 1941

Lieutenant General Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, OM, GCMG, GCVO, KCB, KStJ, DL, was a British Army officer, writer, founder and first Chief Scout of the world-wide Scout Movement, and founder, with his sister Agnes, of the world-wide Girl Guide / Girl Scout Movement. Baden-Powell authored the first editions of the seminal work Scouting for Boys, which was an inspiration for the Scout Movement.

Educated at Charterhouse in Surrey, Baden-Powell served in the British Army from 1876 until 1910 in India and Africa. In 1899, during the Second Boer War in South Africa, Baden-Powell successfully defended the town in the Siege of Mafeking. Several of his military books, written for military reconnaissance and scout training in his African years, were also read by boys. In 1907, he held a demonstration camp, the Brownsea Island Scout camp, which is now seen as the beginning of Scouting. Based on his earlier books, particularly Aids to Scouting, he wrote Scouting for Boys, published in 1908 by Sir Arthur Pearson, for boy readership. In 1910 Baden-Powell retired from the army and formed The Scout Association.

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Wikipedia, Google Arts & Culture
Historic event
Cuban Missile Crisis
Oct 16, 1962 - Oct 28, 1962

The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis of 1962, the Caribbean Crisis, or the Missile Scare, was a 13-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union initiated by Soviet ballistic missile deployment in Cuba. The confrontation is often considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war.

In response to the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961 and the presence of American Jupiter ballistic missiles in Italy and Turkey, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev agreed to Cuba's request to place nuclear missiles on the island to deter a future invasion. An agreement was reached during a secret meeting between Khrushchev and Fidel Castro in July 1962, and construction of a number of missile launch facilities started later that summer.

Meanwhile, the 1962 United States elections were under way, and the White House had denied charges for months that it was ignoring dangerous Soviet missiles 90 miles from Florida. The missile preparations were confirmed when an Air Force U-2 spy plane produced clear photographic evidence of medium-range and intermediate-range ballistic missile facilities.

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Wikipedia, Google Arts & Culture
Quote
The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into smaller manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.
Mark Twain