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July 30, 2026
Jul 30, 2026
Word
pastiche
noun
Definition
  1. a musical, literary, or artistic work that imitates the style of previous work or is made up of selections from different works
  2. hodgepodge
Example
The director's new murder mystery is a clever pastiche of the 1950s noir films he watched as a boy.
Origin
It all began with macaroni. Our word "pastiche" is from French, but the French word was in turn borrowed from Italian, where the word is "pasticcio." "Pasticcio" is what the Italians called a kind of "macaroni pie" (from the word "pasta"). English-speakers familiar with this multilayered dish had begun to apply the name to various sorts of potpourris or hodgepodges (musical, literary, or otherwise) by the 18th century. For over a hundred years English speakers were happy with "pasticcio," until we discovered the French word "pastiche" sometime in the latter part of the 1800s. Although we still occasionally use "pasticcio" in its extended meaning, "pastiche" is now much more common.
Webster's Dictionary
Idiom
box the compass
Make a complete turnabout or reversal, as in With a change of ownership, the editorial page boxed the compass politically, now supporting the Senator. Originally this was (and continues to be) a nautical term, meaning "repeat the 32 points of the compass in order." In the early 1800s it began to be used figuratively.
The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms
Fun facts
  1. Pigs can get sunburn.
  2. You blink over 10,000,000 times a year.
Snapple's under-the-cap 'Real Facts'
Artist
Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov
Jul 16, 1806 - Jul 3, 1858

Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov was a Russian painter who adhered to the waning tradition of Neoclassicism but found little sympathy with his contemporaries. He was born and died in St. Petersburg. He has been called the master of one work, for it took 20 years to complete his magnum opus The Appearance of Christ Before the People.

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Wikipedia, Google Arts & Culture
Historical figure
Carlos Prío Socarrás
Jul 14, 1903 - Apr 5, 1977

Carlos Prío Socarrás was the President of Cuba from 1948 until he was deposed by a military coup led by Fulgencio Batista on March 10, 1952, three months before new elections were to be held. He was the first president of Cuba to be born in an independent Cuba and the last to gain his post through universal, contested elections. He is sometimes called Charles Prio Socarras in English.

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Wikipedia, Google Arts & Culture
Historic event
Mercury-Atlas 9
May 15, 1963 - May 16, 1963

Mercury-Atlas 9 was the final crewed space mission of the U.S. Mercury program, launched on May 15, 1963 from Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The spacecraft, named Faith 7, completed 22 Earth orbits before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, piloted by astronaut Gordon Cooper, then a United States Air Force major. The Atlas rocket was No. 130-D, and the Mercury spacecraft was No. 20. This mission marks the last time an American was launched alone to conduct an entirely solo orbital mission.

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Wikipedia, Google Arts & Culture