‘On this day in 1917, H. L. Mencken’s “A Neglected Anniversary,” his hoax article on the American invention of the bathtub, was published in the New York Evening Mail. Mencken’s lifelong campaign to deride and derail Main Street America — the “booboisie” — had a number of easy victories, but this joke succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. In the omniscient tone of newspaper editorials, Mencken lamented and reprimanded that such an august cultural moment as the seventy-fifth anniversary of the bathtub should arrive and “Not a plumber fired a salute or hung out a flag. Not a governor proclaimed a day of prayer. Not a newspaper called attention to the day.” This was worse than unhygienic; it was unpatriotic.’ Today in Literature

Although Mencken has generally been dismissed because of his racism and anti-Semitism, you can’t fault this curmudgeon’s generic misanthropy. While we’re on the topic, in honor of Mencken, here’s how you say “curmudgeon” in some other languages:

Nederlands (Dutch):

chagrijn, vrek

Français (French):

grincheux, râleur

Deutsch (German):

Griesgram

Ελληνική (Greek):

τζαναμπέτης, στραβόξυλο

Italiano (Italian):

bisbetico

Português (Portuguese):

avarento (m), rabugento (m)

Русский (Russian):

брюзга

Español (Spanish):

gruñón, malhumorado

Svenska (Swedish):

gnidare, bitvarg

中国话 (Simplified Chinese):

存心不良的人, 难以取悦的人

中國話 (Traditional Chinese):

存心不良的人, 難以取悅的人

日本語 (Japanese):

気難しい人

  العربيه (Arabic):

‏(الاسم) عجوز ذو طبع حاد‏

  עברית‬ (Hebrew):

‮רע, קמצן‬