If an animal does something, they call it instinct. If we do exactly the same thing for the same reason, they call it intelligence.
-Will Cuppy, humorist and journalist (23 Aug 1884-1949)
2026/08/26
2026/08/25
2026/08/18
Todays Thought
Someone needs to explain to me why wanting clean drinking water makes you an activist and why proposing to destroy water with chemical warfare doesn't make a corporation a terrorist.
-Winona LaDuke, activist, environmentalist, economist, and writer (b. 18 Aug 1959)
2026/08/08
Todays Thought
You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.
-James Baldwin, writer (2 Aug 1924-1987)
Todays Thought
What a child doesn't receive he can seldom later give.
-P.D. James (Phyllis Dorothy James), novelist (3 Aug 1920-2014)
2026/07/27
Todays Thought
The propagandist’s purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human.
-Aldous Huxley, novelist (26 Jul 1894-1963)
2026/07/23
Todays Word
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg
bellwether
PRONUNCIATION:
(BEL-weth-uhr) 
MEANING:
noun:
1. An indicator of future trends.
2. A leader or trendsetter.
1. An indicator of future trends.
2. A leader or trendsetter.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Old English belle (bell) + wether (castrated ram). Earliest documented use: c. 1440.
NOTES:
No weather here. A wether is a castrated male sheep, and a bellwether was the wether that led the flock while wearing a bell. The bell let the shepherd know where the flock was, and the wether was a more manageable fellow than an intact ram. Eventually the word wandered out of the pasture and into politics, business, and journalism, where bellwethers now lead trends or indicate where the herd is headed.
USAGE:
“Walmart, the supermarket bellwether for middle America, reported that transactions in the first quarter this year rose at their fastest pace since 2024.”
A Firm Mattress; The Economist (London, UK); Jun 27, 2026.
See more usage examples of bellwether in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.
A Firm Mattress; The Economist (London, UK); Jun 27, 2026.
See more usage examples of bellwether in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.
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The propagandist’s purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human. -Aldous Huxley, novelist (26 Ju...
