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February 15, 2026
Feb 15, 2026
Word
guttural
adjective
Definition
  1. articulated in the throat
  2. formed with the back of the tongue touching or near the soft palate
  3. being or marked by utterance that is strange, unpleasant, or disagreeable
Example
The only response we could get from him was an inarticulate guttural grunt.
Origin
Though it is now used to describe many sounds or utterances which strike the listener as harsh or disagreeable, the adjective "guttural" was originally applied only to sounds and utterances produced in the throat. This is reflected in the word's Latin root -- "guttur," meaning "throat." Despite the similarity in sound, "guttural" is not related to the English word "gutter," which comes (by way of Anglo-French) from Latin "gutta," meaning "drop."
Webster's Dictionary
Idiom
spin a yarn
Tell a story, especially a long drawn-out or totally fanciful one, as in This author really knows how to spin a yarn, or Whenever he's late he spins some yarn about a crisis. Originally a nautical term dating from about 1800, this expression probably owes its life to the fact that it embodies a double meaning, yarn signifying both "spun fiber" and "a tale."
The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms
Fun facts
  1. There are 119 grooves on the edge of a quarter.
  2. The square dance is the official dance of the state of Washington.
Snapple's under-the-cap 'Real Facts'
Artist
Kehinde Wiley
Born Feb 28, 1977

Kehinde Wiley is an American portrait painter based in New York City, who is known for his highly naturalistic paintings of black people. He was commissioned in 2017 to paint a portrait of former President Barack Obama for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, which has portraits of all the US presidents. The Columbus Museum of Art, which hosted an exhibition of his work in 2007, describes his work as follows: "Wiley has gained recent acclaim for his heroic portraits which address the image and status of young African-American men in contemporary culture."

Wiley's portrait of Obama was unveiled on February 12, 2018. He and Amy Sherald, whose portrait of former First Lady Michelle Obama was simultaneously unveiled, are the first black artists to paint official portraits of the president or First Lady for the National Portrait Gallery.

Some observers criticized the selection of Wiley for the commission because he had earlier produced two painting variations of Judith Beheading Holofernes, in which he depicts African-American women holding the severed heads of white women. Wiley said that this is a "play on the 'kill whitey' thing".

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Wikipedia, Google Arts & Culture
Historical figure
Alexander III of Russia
Mar 10, 1845 - Nov 1, 1894

Alexander III was Emperor of Russia, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from 13 March 1881 until his death on 1 November 1894. He was highly reactionary and reversed some of the liberal reforms of his father, Alexander II. Under the influence of Konstantin Pobedonostsev he opposed any reform that limited his autocratic rule. During his reign, Russia fought no major wars; he was therefore styled "The Peacemaker".

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Wikipedia, Google Arts & Culture
Historic event
Space Shuttle Challenger disaster

The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster was a fatal incident in the United States space program that occurred on Tuesday, January 28, 1986, when the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members aboard. The crew consisted of five NASA astronauts, one payload specialist, and a civilian schoolteacher. The mission carried the designation STS-51-L and was the tenth flight for the Challenger orbiter.

The spacecraft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11:39 a.m. EST. The disintegration of the vehicle began after a joint in its right solid rocket booster failed at liftoff. The failure was caused by the failure of O-ring seals used in the joint that were not designed to handle the unusually cold conditions that existed at this launch. The seals' failure caused a breach in the SRB joint, allowing pressurized burning gas from within the solid rocket motor to reach the outside and impinge upon the adjacent SRB aft field joint attachment hardware and external fuel tank. This led to the separation of the right-hand SRB's aft field joint attachment and the structural failure of the external tank.

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Wikipedia, Google Arts & Culture
Quote
In my whole life, I have known no wise people who didn't read all the time – none, zero.
Charlie Munger