Yesterday's puzzle: LAGER rearranges into LARGE, REGAL, and GLARE.
Word of the day
juggernaut
(JUG-er-nawt)
Means: A huge, unstoppable force that flattens everything in its path.
Etymology: From Hindi Jagannath, "lord of the world," a form of the god Krishna worshipped at Puri, India. Every summer his statue rides through town on an enormous wooden chariot pulled by thousands of people. A 14th-century European friar wrote home that worshippers threw themselves under the wheels, the story grew in the retelling, and English ended up with a word for anything you can't stop.
"Bring up the '85 Bears and he'll spend twenty minutes explaining why they were the greatest juggernaut in NFL history."
Design of the day
Art Deco
When Walter Chrysler put up his skyscraper in 1930, architect William Van Alen dressed it like one of his cars. The 31st floor has a frieze of stylized hubcaps and fenders, with giant steel copies of Chrysler's winged radiator caps on the corners, and the famous eagles up on the 61st floor are modeled on Chrysler hood ornaments. That's Art Deco: chevrons, sunbursts, bold geometry, and polished metal that made machines look glamorous. The cars of the day wore the same look. Check the chrome grille, long hood, and swept fenders on the 1931 Chrysler Imperial.
The beer cap with the crimped edge is called a crown cork, and a Baltimore machinist named William Painter patented it in 1892. Before that, bottles were plugged with corks or wire-and-rubber stoppers that leaked. The standard cap today has 21 teeth. Painter's other big contribution was advice: he told one of his salesmen, King C. Gillette, to invent something people would use once and throw away. Gillette came up with the disposable razor blade.
My wife and I tried role-play last night. She pretended to be a woman who wanted sex, and I pretended I could stay awake past ten.
Puzzle
Mystery word
SNOLLYGOSTER is a 12-letter noun, 19th-century American slang that may come from a Pennsylvania Dutch phrase meaning "quick spirit." It still pops up in political fights now and then. What does it mean?
A. A small, noisy shorebird
B. A shrewd, unprincipled person, usually a politician
