The 2023 Collins Dictionary word of the year

While not as famous as the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), The Collins Dictionary has been naming their word of the year since 2013. This year they have chosen AI as the 2023 Word of the Year.

A few years back, if you mentioned the acronym “AI” in common parlance, you would have had to be explaining that you are referring to artificial intelligence. Fast forward to 2023 and that is far from the case. You speak about AI and you will enter a conversation with someone who is a little scared about losing their job to a machine. Ever since ChatGPT was launched in November 2022, online searches for AI have surged. The AI market is projected to grow by nearly 800 per cent to around $1.8 trillion, according to the World Economic Forum.

The Collins Dictionary was first published in 1824 and now contains over 4.5 billion words.

So now you know.


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.



The chariot race required 15,000 extras on a set constructed on 18 acres of backlot at Cinecitta Studios outside Rome. Tour buses visited the set every hour. Eighteen chariots were built, with half being used for practice. The race took five weeks to film.


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



The song became a hit in both the US and UK, earning the group a lot of press coverage. The group's sound was very unusual, and when asked to explain it, they sometimes described it as "smart rock."


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



In real life, when Puyi met Empress Cixi, he screamed in terror. He later described seeing an eerie yellow curtain with an ugly thin face behind it. She was displeased, and had one of her servants offer him candy. When he screamed even louder, she had him taken away. She died the next day.


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.



This episode was based on a real-life "contest" that Larry David had with friends of his which lasted several months. David won. He had wanted to write an episode based on the contest earlier in the series, but he was unsure of what the cast's reaction would be.


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



To prepare for his role, Denzel Washington avoided eating pork, attended Fruit of Islam classes and learned to Lindy Hop. He was so in character that he even knew which pair of glasses Malcolm X was wearing on a particular day.


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.



Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon performed all of the songs themselves, without being dubbed. They also learned to play their instruments (guitar and auto-harp, respectively) from scratch.

Don't forget to tune in to The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour today


Today in History:
November 18, 1307 -
Next up on Dateline: Uri - 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. So when you're hungry, Treet yourself with canned meat!


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 - Once again, in a truly British fashion the sports wear company Barbour has somehow tied Shaun the Sheep, re-waxing of a coat (apparently the key to the entry into British aristocracy) and Christmas into a 90 second commercial -



It's cuteness can not be denied, and it's always great to see the Aardman’s collaboration.

Cranberries (done right, they make the meal.)



And so it goes