OED's 2021 Word of the Year

The lexicographers at the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has been chosen Vax as the 2021 Word of the Year.

The word Vax is defined as, "a colloquialism meaning either vaccine or vaccination as a noun and vaccinate as a verb." And, as any Scrabble player will be quick to point out, the 2021 Word of the Year will score you a cool 13 points in the board game — not too shabby for a three-letter word.


I nearly forgot - Since it's the third Thursday in November, it's that time of the year - Le Beaujolais nouveau est arrivé !

It's Beaujolais Nouveaux Day (hopefully the reversal of the tarriffs on French wine will happen soon.)


November 18, 1928 -

Happy Birthday Mickey Mouse (even though this is his third appearance in a cartoon.) I never argue with a corporation that has Darth Vader as a board member.



Steamboat Willie, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, was released on this date.


November 18, 1931 -
The groundbreaking film, Mädchen in Uniform, premiered in Berlin, on this date.



The Nazi regime tried to burn all the copies of this movie. They couldn't, as prints had been distributed around the world, including the United States and Japan and many other nations, by the time they came to power in 1933.


November 18, 1956 -
Fats Domino appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show on this date and performed Blueberry Hill. Before the song became a rock and roll standard it had been recorded by various artists including Louis Armstrong, The Glenn Miller Orchestra, Gene Autry and Jimmy Dorsey.



The version by Fats Domino was ranked No.82 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.


November 18, 1959 -
The Biblical spectaculars to end all spectaculars, Ben-Hur, starring Charlton Heston, had its world premiere in New York, on this date.



Kirk Douglas was offered the role of Messala but turned it down, because he didn't want to play a "second-rate baddie". Douglas wanted to play Judah Ben-Hur, whose Jewishness appealed to him, but he was too old and Charlton Heston had already been cast. The experience motivated Douglas to develop his own epic, Spartacus, which was partially designed to compete against Ben-Hur.


November 18, 1972 -
Steely Dan's first single Do It Again was released on this date.



This was the breakout hit from Steely Dan's first album. Like many of their songs, it's hard to make sense of the lyrics, which seem to be about some combination of addiction, second chances and the inevitability of fate. It's an example of a Steely Dan song that doesn't make literal sense, but creates a mood.


November 18, 1987 -
Bernardo Bertolucci's magnificent take on Pu Yi, The Last Emperor, premiered in NYC on this date.



During filming of the immense coronation scene in the Forbidden City, Queen Elizabeth II was in Beijing on a state visit. The production was given priority over her by the Chinese authorities and she was therefore unable to visit the Forbidden City.


November 18, 1992 -
The Seinfeld episode, The Contest premiered on this date. It was a controversial episode which later won an Emmy and was named the number one episode of all time by TV Guide magazine.



The word "masturbation" (the subject of the episode) is never mentioned. The script originally did use the word, but Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David thought that the episode would be funnier and less controversial without it. David claims that if NBC had rejected the episode he would have quit. NBC received only 31 complaints from viewers.


November 18, 1992 -
The biopic of the influential Black Nationalist leader, Malcolm X, premiered on this date.



This was the first non-documentary film that was given permission to film in Mecca. The film's second unit filmed all the scenes there.


November 18, 2005 -
20th Century Fox bio-pix Walk The Line, based on the life of Johnny Cash, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, opened in US on this date.



The scene in which Johnny Cash pulls the sink off the wall was not scripted; Joaquin Phoenix actually pulled it off the wall.


Another moment of edifying culture.


Today in History:
November 18, 1307 -
After refusing to salute the Habsburg badge at Altdorf on Lake Lucerne, local child services authorities in Uri, Switzerland reported that a William Tell shot an apple off his son's head on this date.



- Charges may still be pending. Tell may or may not also have assassinated local tyrannical Austrian ruler Gessler, as well.


November 18, 1421 -
It was a lovely November, but a certain beautiful young woman walked about in a daze, heavy of heart and despairing of hope. She was betrothed to a rich and cruel young man who didn’t love her. Then she met a boyishly handsome young ruffian who loved her for who she really was. His every sentiment seemed to echo those in her own soul, sentiments that had gone too long unanswered; his smile radiated warmth and joy, and quickened her blooming young heart, which had withered too long from neglect; his touch sent shivers down her spine, which had always consisted of numerous vertebrae. They fell in love abruptly and completely.

Sadly, the sea broke through the dikes, and they were drowned along with 100,000 other less interesting people, in Dort, the Netherlands in the St. Elizabeth flood, on this date.


November 18, 1477 -
William Caxton published the first book printed in England, on this date. The book was a translation of The Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers, by Frenchman Guillaume de Tignoville. The translation to English was performed by Anthony Wodville, Earl Rivers, who had devoted a considerable portion of his life to the study of philosophers' dictes.

Wodville first formulated the theory that the length of a philosopher's dicte was less important than its thrust. He has also been credited with originating the theory that a philosopher's dicte was commensurate with his shoe size. Neither theory is given much credence by contemporary philosophers, most of whom appear to be dicteless anyway.


November 18, 1686 -
Louis XIV's, King of France, anal fistula was operated on this date, by surgeon Charles Francois Felix, with great success, in front of the horrified yet fascinated court. To prepare for the operation Felix practiced his surgery on anuses of the peasantry, with some fatalities at first but improving his technique in time for the royal bung.

This is what passed for entertainment at the french royal court.


November 18, 1922 -
Marcel Proust, a pioneer of the modern novel (A la Recherche du Temps Perdu), died at 51 on this date.

While it is generally agreed upon that he died of pneumonia and a pulmonary abscess, I believe he was crushed by the sheer weight of the unedited proof of his massive novel.



(Please feel pleased as punch with yourself that you've read about Proust twice in one week.)


November 18, 1963 -
Bell Telephone placed the touch-tone telephone in service to customers in Pennsylvania on this date. The phones were manufactured by Western Electric Manufacturing and feature ten buttons (not twelve) set into a round back so that they resemble the earlier rotary phone.



The company first revealed push-button telephones at the 1962 World Fair in Seattle after approximately two years of customer testing.


November 18, 1966 -
After this final "meatless" day of sacrifice, the American Roman Catholic Church would withdraw its edict forbidding meat consumption on Fridays.

No one knows how much the American Meat Institute 'donated' to the church on that day.


November 18, 1970 -
Singer/polygamist Jerry Lee Lewis divorced his third wife Myra Gail, after 12 years of marriage. Not only was she jailbait when they got married (being his 13-year-old third cousin at the time), but Lewis was married to Jane Mitcham at the time.

It's so hard to keep details like the number of wives you have straight in your mind.


November 18, 1978 -
Congressman Leo Ryan was slain at the People's Temple compound in Guyana, after which over 900 members of the cult led by the Reverend Jim Jones drank cyanide laced Flavor Aid (a Kool Aid knockoff), including over 270 children. It was probably not a pretty sight.



The Kraft Foods Company would like you guys to stop making those damn 'drink the Kool Aid' jokes

- it wasn't them.


November 18, 1985 -
Cartoon strips approached their zenith on this date.

The comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, created by Bill Watterson, was first published on this date. We first learn of Hobbes' love for tuna fish.


Before you go - Now here's a commercial we can actual catch here in the states, Chase Unlimited, with Catherine O'Hara recreating her iconic role from the very funny, Home Alone:



I'm still not quite sure what Kevin Hart's actual job is, other than being famous?

And so it goes