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March 14, 2026
Mar 14, 2026
Word
thimblerig
verb
Definition
  1. to cheat by trickery
  2. to swindle by a trick in which a small ball or pea is quickly shifted from under one to another of three small cups to fool the spectator guessing its location
Example
The appraiser looked closely at the painting and then reluctantly told us that we had been thimblerigged into buying a worthless copy.
Origin
The game of thimblerig seems innocent enough. The thimblerigger places a little ball, pea, or other small object under one of three thimbles or cups. He or she deftly scoots the cups around on a table, then asks the player to bet on which one hides the object. But thimbleriggers are masters of sleight of hand and can move and manipulate the object unfairly-so the guileless player doesn't stand a chance of winning. (The poor bettor is probably unaware that "rig" has meant "to manipulate or control usually by deceptive or dishonest means" since the 1800s.) When the same sham is played with nutshells, it's called a "shell game," and there's a related game played with cards known as "three-card monte."
Webster's Dictionary
Idiom
kill two birds with one stone
Achieve two ends with a single effort, as in As long as I was in town on business, I thought I'd kill two birds and visit my uncle too. This expression is so well known that it is often shortened, as in the example. [c. 1600]
The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms
Fun facts
  1. Some bears build nests in trees to sunbathe and rest.
  2. Many butterflies and moths are able to taste with their feet.
Snapple's under-the-cap 'Real Facts'
Artist
Elizabeth Nourse
Oct 26, 1859 - Oct 8, 1938

Elizabeth Nourse was a realist-style genre, portrait, and landscape painter born in Mt. Healthy, Ohio, in the Cincinnati area. She also worked in decorative painting and sculpture. Described by her contemporaries as "the first woman painter of America" and "the dean of American woman painters in France and one of the most eminent contemporary artists of her sex," Nourse was the first American woman to be voted into the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. She also had the honor of having one of her paintings purchased by the French government and included in the Luxembourg Museum's permanent collection. Nourse's style was described by Los Angeles critic Henry J. Seldis as a "forerunner of social realist painting."

Some of Nourse's works are displayed at the Cincinnati Art Museum.

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Wikipedia, Google Arts & Culture
Historical figure
Michelle Obama
Born Jan 17, 1964

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is an American lawyer and author who was the first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. She is married to the 44th President of the United States Barack Obama. She is the first African-American First Lady of the United States.

Raised on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, Obama is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School. In her early legal career, she worked at the law firm Sidley Austin where she met Barack Obama. She subsequently worked in non-profits and as the associate dean of Student Services at the University of Chicago as well as the vice president for Community and External Affairs of the University of Chicago Medical Center. Michelle married Barack in 1992, and they have two daughters.

Obama campaigned for her husband's presidential bid throughout 2007 and 2008, delivering a keynote address at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. She returned to speak for him at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. During the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, she delivered a speech in support of the Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, a former first lady.

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Wikipedia, Google Arts & Culture
Historic event
Protests of 1968
1968

The protests of 1968 comprised a worldwide escalation of social conflicts, predominantly characterized by popular rebellions against military and bureaucratic elites, who responded with an escalation of political repression.

In the United States, these protests marked a turning point for the civil rights movement, which produced revolutionary movements like the Black Panther Party. In reaction to the Tet Offensive, protests also sparked a broad movement in opposition to the Vietnam War all over the United States as well as in London, Paris, Berlin and Rome. Mass socialist movements grew not only in the United States but also in most European countries. The most spectacular manifestation of these was the May 1968 protests in France, in which students linked up with wildcat strikes of up to ten million workers, and for a few days the movement seemed capable of overthrowing the government.

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Wikipedia, Google Arts & Culture
Quote
The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.
Mark Twain