The bright red flower called the poinsettia has become a traditional part of American Christmas celebrations. But the flower’s common name, which, while it sounds exotic, has nothing to do with the native name for the plant, is a reference to an American diplomat of whom a 1929 edition of the Baltimore Evening Sun wrote “His Career was as flamboyantly colorful as the poinsettia, and yet he is almost forgotten.”
A ‘collective noun’ is a noun used to refer to a group of things as a whole–simple ones include a “group”, a “flock”, or a “pack”. The English language especially, however, has a tradition of whimsical, comical, or absurd names for specific groups of things.
In August of 1944 the allies were rushing to "cork the bottle" of the Falaise pocket. For the men of the First Polish Armored Division, Normandy was not merely a campaign to liberate France; it was a personal reckoning with the regime that had shattered their homeland.