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Word of the Day for Thursday February 9, 2006

(well,  okay. So it was yesterday. I don't check my Yahoo mail as often as I used to do. 
This is just one of my favorite dailies that I haven't changed over to GMail.

My reason for posting this one... well,  go ahead and read the def [if you're not sure as
to what it is.]  Lately, I've frequently thought we could use some more of these things in real life!)

  deus  ex machina \DAY-uhs-eks-MAH-kuh-nuh; -nah; -MAK-uh-nuh\,
  noun:
  1. In ancient Greek and Roman drama, a god introduced by means
  of a crane to unravel and resolve the plot.
  2.  Any  active  agent  who  appears  unexpectedly to solve an
  apparently insoluble difficulty.

    In  times  of  affluence  and  peace,  with technology that
    always  seems to arrive like a deus ex machina to solve any
    problem,   it   becomes   easy  to  believe  that  life  is
    perfectible.
    --Stephanie Gutmann, [1]The Kinder, Gentler Military

    But  we  also  need  the possibility of cataclysm, so that,
    when  situations seem hopeless, and beyond the power of any
    natural  force  to amend, we may still anticipate salvation
    from  a  messiah,  a conquering hero, a deus ex machina, or
    some  other  agent with power to fracture the unsupportable
    and institute the unobtainable.
    --Stephen Jay Gould, [2]Questioning the Millennium
    _________________________________________________________

  Deus ex machina is New Latin for "god from the machine"; it is
  a translation of the Greek theos ek mekhanes.

  Trivia:  The dramatic device dates from the 5th century BC and
  is  especially  associated with Euripides, one of the greatest
  classical tragedians.

References

  1. https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0684852918/ref%3Dnosim/lexico
  2. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0609605410/ref%3Dnosim/lexico

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation

  http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=9&q=deus%20ex%20machina

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