Friday, August 12, 2011

mundify \MUHN-duh-fahy\, verb:

• To purge or purify.

Mundify is built from two Latin roots, mundi-, "to clean," and ficare, "to do."

Carnal Tunnel Syndrome

• A tingling or numbness or a sharp, piercing pain shooting through the wrist as a direct result of engaging in pleasuring one's self while watching excessive porn.

Leisure Suit Larry is suffering from Carnal Tunnel Syndrome ever since his divorce was final 6 months ago.

Trivia

Who was pictured on the first $5 bill authorized by the U.S. in 1861? How about the first $10 bill?

• Hamilton was on the $5 bill: Lincoln on the $10 bill—the reverse of today’s $5 and $10 bills.

History

• Chicago: the Windy City was founded with a population of 350 (1833)


• Isaac Singer: got a patent for his sewing machine (1851)


• Spanish-American War: peace protocol was signed; Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines were ceded to the US and Cuba was released from Spanish rule (1898)


• IBM-PC: IBM introduced its first personal computer, which contained an Intel chip and Microsoft's DOS operating system (1981)


• Sue: the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever found was discovered in South Dakota; she now resides in Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History (1990)


• Kursk: Russian nuclear submarine sank in the Barents Sea, killing the whole of its 118-member crew (2000)

Birthdays

• Linda O'Neil (38): actress and the most popular body model that you probably never heard of.


• George IV (1762-1830): king of Great Britain


• Katharine Lee Bates (1859-1929): poet who wrote "America the Beautiful"; plus, writers Robert Southey (1774-1843), Jacinto Benavente (1866-1954), Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876-1958) and Ann M. Martin (56)


• Cecil B. DeMille (1881-1959): director of blockbusters like The Ten Commandments; plus, director John Derek (1926-1998)


• Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961): theoretical physicist, Schrödinger's equation


• Mark Knopfler (62): composer, guitarist, rock singer; also, jazzman Pat Metheny (57)


• Peter Krause (46): Nate Fisher in Six Feet Under and Adam Braverman in Parenthood; also, actors Cantinflas (1911-1993), George Hamilton (72), Bruce Greenwood (55), Michael Ian Black (40), Rebecca Gayheart (39), Casey Affleck (36), and Maggie Lawson and Dominique Swain (both 30)


• Pete Sampras (40): tennis champ; also baseball hall-of-famer Christy Mathewson (1880-1925)

Read more: http://www.answers.com/

Thursday, August 11, 2011

billet \BIL-it\, verb:

1. To provide or obtain lodging.

2. To direct (a soldier) by ticket, note, or verbal order, where to lodge.

noun:

1. Lodging for a soldier, student, etc., as in a private home or nonmilitary public building.

2. A small chunk of wood; a short section of a log, especially one cut for fuel.

Billet stems from the French billet, "official register." The word relates to the English bill.

Mental virginity

• The general state of mind characterized by complete ignorance about sex and human reproduction.

Dude they think that sex ed teaches us a heck of a lot of stuff we didn't know, but the truth is, we lost our mental virginity a while back.

Totally dude.

*high five

Trivia

What animal was given the Latin name Avahi cleesei in honor of actor-funnyman John Cleese?

• Not a python—a woolly lemur. It was named for Cleese, who played a lemur-loving zookeeper in the 1997 film comedy Fierce Creatures and hosted a 1998 documentary about the endangered species titled Operation Lemur.

History

• SOS: Arapahoe became the first American ship to use the distress signal (1909)


• Alcatraz: island prison in San Francisco Bay received its first civilian inmates (1934)


• Hussein ibn Talal: 16-year-old was proclaimed king of Jordan after his father was declared mentally unfit (1952)


• Watts riots: civil disturbances in Los Angeles left 34 dead (1965)


• The Mall of America: the most-visited mall in the world opened on the site of Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minnesota (1992)

Birthdays

• Friedrich Ludwig Jahn (1778-1852): father of gymnastics


• Alex Haley (1921-1992): author of Roots; also, writers Eduard Devrient (1801-1877), Hugh MacDiarmid (1892-1978) and Louise Bogan (1897-1970)


• Jerry Falwell (1933-2007): Moral Majority founder


• Steve Wozniak (61): cofounder of Apple Computers


• Hulk Hogan (58): wrestler/actor, host of NBC's American Gladiators


• Julia Anne Clarke (39): aka Julie Clarke, Playmate 03/91, actress, model, hardbody

Read more: http://www.answers.com/

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

willowwacks \WIL-oh-waks\, noun:

• A wooded, uninhabited area.

Willowwacks is of uncertain origin.

collateral whiz

• The 5% of a man's whiz missing the toilet, sprinkling over the toilet seat.

While 95% of Chad's whiz may have found its mark, I'm worried about the other 5%, the collateral whiz.

Trivia

When it comes to two-letter Internet country codes, .us stands for the United States. What countries are represented by .es and .is?

• Spain and Iceland, respectively.

History

• Ferdinand Magellan: set sail from Seville to circumnavigate the globe; of the five ships that set out under his command, only one — the Victoria — returned to Spain (1519)


• Smithsonian Institution: was created with $500,000 left by English scientist James Smithson (1846)


• Son of Sam: New York serial killer David Berkowitz was arrested (1977)


• Yuri Malenchenko: Ukrainian cosmonaut became the first person to be married in space, to a woman on the ground in Texas (2003)

Birthdays

• Herbert Hoover (1874-1964): 31st POTUS, believed in private enterprise


• Jorge Amado (1912-2001): novelist, Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands; plus, writer Alfred Döblin (1878-1957)


• Ian Anderson (64): musician, Jethro Tull; also, singers Jimmy Dean (1928-2010), Eddie Fisher (83), Ronnie Spector (68), Patti Austin (61), Jon Farriss (50) and Aaron Hall (47)


• Antonio Banderas (51): actor/voice actor, The Mask of Zorro, Puss in Boots in the Shrek sequels; also, actors Rhonda Fleming (88), Kate O'Mara (72), James Reynolds (65), Daniel Hugh Kelly (59), Rosanna Arquette (52), Justin Theroux (40), Angie Harmon (39) and Ryan Eggold (27)


• Phoolan Devi (1963-2001): gang leader who became a member of India's Parliament

Read more: http://www.answers.com/

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

amaranthine \am-uh-RAN-thin\, adjective:

1. Unfading; everlasting.

2. Of or like the amaranth flower.

3. Of purplish-red color.

Amaranthine is a form of the Greek amarantos, "everlasting," ascribed to an imaginary flower that never fades.

humblebrag

• Subtly letting others now about how fantastic your life is while undercutting it with a bit of self-effacing humor or "woe is me" gloss.

Uggggh just ate about fifteen piece of chocolate gotta learn to control myself when flying first class or they'll cancel my modelling contract LOL :p #humblebrag

Trivia

In the Star Wars galaxy, what was the name of Han Solo’s home planet?

• Corellia.

History

• Tower of Pisa: construction on the campanile began; it would take 200 years to complete, and the uneven settling of the foundation would cause it to lean (1173)


• Sistine Chapel: the private chapel of the popes was consecrated and its first mass was celebrated (1483)


• Webster-Ashburton Treaty: established much of the border between the US and Canada (1842)


• 1936 Summer Olympics: Jesse Owens became the first American to win four gold medals in one Olympiad (1936)


• Nagasaki: atom bomb called the Fat Man, dropped by the Bockscar, devastated a second Japanese city (1945)


• Singapore: seceded from and became independent of Malaysia (1965)


• Richard M. Nixon: officially left office as America's 37th president and the first one to resign; vice president Gerald Ford became president (1974)

Birthdays

• Jean Piaget (1896-1980): specialist in developmental psychology


• P.L. Travers (1899-1996): author, Mary Poppins; plus, writers Izaak Walton (1593-1683), John Dryden (1631 [O.S.]-1700), Gaston Paris (1839-1903) and Philip Larkin (1922-1985)


• Rod Laver (73): tennis great; athletes Ralph Houk (92), Bob Cousy (83), Ken Norton (68), Brett Hull (47), Deion Sanders (44) and Chamique Holdsclaw (34) were also born on this date


• Eric Bana (43): time-traveler Henry DeTamble in The Time Traveler's Wife; also, actors Robert Shaw (1927-1978), David Steinberg (69), Sam Elliott (67), Melanie Griffith (54), Amanda Bearse (53), Whitney Houston (48), Gillian Anderson (43), Jessica Capshaw (35) and Audrey Tatou (33)

Read more: http://www.answers.com/

Monday, August 8, 2011

chaptalize \SHAP-tuh-lahyz\, verb:

• To increase the alcohol in a wine by adding sugar.

Chaptalize comes from the French chaptaliser, which is in turn named for the French chemist J. A. Chaptal.

debt ceiling chicken

• A game where everyone in Congress refuses to agree on a deal to raise the debt ceiling until the last possible minute. It's like regular chicken, but instead of driving cars at each other, politicians are using the economy.

John Boehner: I don't give a shit if our country turns into Mad Max 2. I'm going to win this game of debt ceiling chicken.

Barack Obama: Challenge accepted!

Trivia

What ordinance about bigamy was issued in Nuremburg, Germany, in 1650, two years after the Thirty Years War ended?

• The parliament ruled that for the next 10 years, in order to rebuild the city’s devastated population, each male citizen would be permitted to have two wives.

History

• Mont Blanc: the tallest Alp was summited for the first time, by Frenchmen Jacques Balmat and Michel-Gabriel Paccard (1786)


• mimeograph: was patented by Thomas A. Edison (1876)


• Great Train Robbery: 15 thieves stole more than £2m. from a London-bound traveling post office after stopping the train with a false red signal in Buckinghamshire (1963)


• Richard Nixon: announced his resignation from the presidency in the wake of Watergate, six years to the day after he was nominated by the Republican Party (1974)

Birthdays

• Emiliano Zapata (1879-1919): rebel leader of the Mexican revolution


• Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (1896-1953): Pulitzer Prize-winner for The Yearling; plus, winner of the first Pulitzer Prize for poetry Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)


• Paul Dirac (1902-1984): mathematician and physicist who won a Nobel Prize for work on atomic theory


• Dino De Laurentiis (92): film producer, Serpico; also, director/producer Martin Brest (60)


• Dustin Hoffman (74): award-winning actor, Rain Man; plus, actors Esther Williams (90), Connie Stevens (73), Keith Carradine (62), Donny Most (58), Tawny Cypress (35), Michael Urie (31) and Meagan Good (30)


• Drew Lachey (35): singer/dancer, 98 Degrees, DWTS; also, musicians Mel Tillis (79), Phil Balsley (72), The Edge (50), Kool Moe Dee (49) and JC Chasez (35)

Read more: http://www.answers.com/

Sunday, August 7, 2011

nervure \NUR-vyoor\, noun:

• A vein, as of a leaf or the wing of an insect.

Nervure is French for "rib."

chiptease

• When you buy a bag of chips thinking that it will be full of chips but when you open the bag it's barely full.

I bought a bag of chips out of the vending machine and there was only 5 chips in the bag, what a Chiptease!

Trivia

In the popular Margaret Mitchell novel Gone with the Wind, how many children did Scarlett O’Hara have?

• Three—each with a different husband. The first was a son, Wade; the second, a daughter, Ella; the third, a daughter, Bonnie. The first two children were eliminated from the 1939 movie.

History

• Purple Heart: the military decoration was instituted by George Washington (1782)
• Ulysses: a US appeals court ruled that the James Joyce novel was not obscene and therefore should not be banned (1934)
• Kon-Tiki: the balsa wood raft made it across the Pacific, crashing at the end on a reef in the Tuomotu Islands; this demonstrated that pre-Columbian South Americans could have reached and settled Polynesia (1947)
• Gulf of Tonkin resolution: US Congress authorized President Lyndon B. Johnson to use military force in Vietnam (1964)
• Lynne Cox: swims the frigid Bering Strait, becoming the first person to swim from the US to the Soviet Union (1987)
• Twin Towers: Philippe Petit walked a tightrope between the towers of New York's World Trade Center (1974)
• US embassy bombings: simultaneous al-Qaeda attacks in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killed over 200 people and wounded thousands (1998)

Birthdays

• Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga (1533-1594): soldier and poet, La Araucana
• Mata Hari (1876-1917): dancer/spy
• Louis Leakey (1903-1972): paleoanthropologist
• B.J. Thomas (69): country/pop singer, "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head"; also, musicians Bruce Dickinson (53) and Marcus Roberts (48)
• Garrison Keillor (69): writer/host of A Prairie Home Companion
• David Duchovny (51): actor, The X-Files, Californication; also, performers Stan Freberg (85), Wayne Knight (56), Harold Perrineau (48) and Charlize Theron (36)
• Jimmy Wales (45): founder of Wikipedia
• Sidney Crosby (24): center for Pittsburgh Penguins; runners Abebe Bikila (1932-1973) and Alberto Salazar (53) share this birth date

Read more: http://www.answers.com/

Saturday, August 6, 2011

moxie \MOK-see\, noun:

1. Vigor; verve; pep.

2. Courage and aggressiveness.

3. Skill; know-how.

Moxie enters common speech from the 1908 Moxie, a trademark name registered 1924 for a bitter non-alcoholic beverage; it was used as far back as 1876 as the name of a patent medicine advertised to "build up your nerve," and it is perhaps ultimately from a New England tribal word.

platonic relationship

• When a woman officially declares a man to be in her 'friend zone'.

Man: "I love you"

Woman: "I love you, too"

Man: *leans in for a kiss*

Woman: *magically turns it into a hug* "You're such a great friend."

Man: *is now in a forced platonic relationship*

Trivia

What symbols were combined to create the antiwar peace symbol?

• The naval semaphore signals for “N” and “D”—shorthand for nuclear disarmament.

History

• Holy Roman Empire: came to an end with the abdication of Francis II (1806)
• Bolivia: declared independence from Spain (1825)
• electric chair: was first used as method of execution, on murderer William Kemmler at New York's Auburn Prison (1890)
• Gertrude Ederle: became the first woman to swim the English Channel (1926)
• Enola Gay: US bomber dropped an atomic weapon on Hiroshima, killing over 60,000 instantly; it was the first-ever use of nuclear warfare (1945)
• Voting Rights Act: was signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson; it prohibited states from imposing racial discrimination at the polls based on literacy or financial ability (1965)
• Gerry Adams: the Sinn Féin president and British PM Tony Blair meet; it's the first time in 76 years that a British leader met with an IRA ally (1997)

Birthdays

• Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892): Victorian age poet, "The Lady of Shalott"
• Sir Alexander Fleming (1881-1955): bacteriologist who discovered penicillin
• Richard Hofstadter (1916-1970): Pulitzer Prize-winning historian
• Andy Warhol (1928-1987): pop artist who had his "fifteen minutes of fame"
• Jeremy Ratchford (46): actor, Cold Case; also, actors Lucille Ball (1911-1989), Robert Mitchum (1917-1997), Peter Bonerz (73), Dorian Harewood (61), Catherine Hicks (60), Michelle Yeoh (49), Merrin Dungey (40), David Campbell (38), Vera Farmiga and Ever Carradine (both 37), Soleil Moon Frye (35), and Stepfanie Kramer (54)
• Geri Halliwell (39): the former Ginger Spice; musicians Charlie Haden (74), Pat MacDonald (59) and Patsy and Peggy Lynn (both 46) were also born on this date

Read more: http://www.answers.com/

Friday, August 5, 2011

overslaugh \OH-ver-slaw\, verb:

• To pass over or disregard (a person) by giving a promotion, position, etc., to another instead.

Overslaugh derives from the Dutch overslaan, with slaan meaning "to strike."

Microwave inflation

• When the cooking time of food needs to be adjusted to account for a weaker or stronger microwave.

The microwave at my dorm room is older than the one at my house, so when I make a bag of popcorn, I have to adjust for microwave inflation.

Trivia

What was the favorite song of Ross Geller’s pet Capuchin monkey, Marcel, on the TV sitcom Friends?

• “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”

History

• federal income tax: was levied for the first time in the US; it aimed to help pay the bills for the Civil War and was rescinded in 1872 (1861)
• "Damn the torpedoes": famous order was given by Union Admiral David G. Farragut as he led his fleet at Mobile Bay during the Civil War (1864)
• Little Orphan Annie: Harold Gray's comic strip debuted (1924)
• Nelson Mandela: South African resistance leader and later president was arrested and jailed; his imprisonment lasted till 1990 (1962)
• Marilyn Monroe: was found dead after overdosing on sleeping pills (1962)
• Test Ban Treaty: the US, Britain and the Soviet Union agreed to prohibit nuclear weapon tests underwater, in the atmosphere and in outer space (1963)

Birthdays

• Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893): author of novels and short stories, "The Necklace"
• Harold Holt (1908-1967): Australian PM
• Neil Armstrong (81): first human to walk on the moon
• Erika Slezak (65): Victoria Lord on One Life to Live; other actors born on this date include Zakes Mokae (1934-2009), John Saxon (75), Loni Anderson (65), Holly Palance (61), Maureen McCormick (55) and Jonathan Silverman (45)
• Patrick Ewing (49): former NY Knicks basketball star
• Adam "MCA" Yauch (47): filmmaker who began as a rapper with the Beastie Boys

Read more: http://www.answers.com/

Thursday, August 4, 2011

aesopian \ee-SOH-pee-uhn\, adjective:

1. Conveying meaning by hint, euphemism, innuendo, or the like.

2. Pertaining to, or characteristic of Aesop or his fables.

Aesopian gets this general sense from its original meaning as a reference to the inferential nature of Aesop's fables.

Gate Massage

• A TSA pat-down with a "happy landing."

I got a gate massage at the airport today. I feel great!

Trivia

Which three baseball Hall of Famers share the record for playing in the most All-Star games—24?

• Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Stan Musial.

History

• freedom of the press: a legal precedent was established when newspaper editor John Peter Zenger was acquitted of seditious libel; he had published criticism of the colonial governor of New York (1735)
• US Coast Guard: was launched as the Revenue-Marine, later called the Revenue Cutter Service (1790)
• Anne Frank: teenage Jewish diarist was discovered, along with her family, by Nazis; their hiding place was revealed by a Dutch informant and they were sent to concentration camps, where most perished (1944)
• Burkina Faso: West African republic received its new name meaning "land of upright people"; it was formerly called Upper Volta (1984)

Birthdays

• Elizabeth, the Queen Mother (1900-2002): wife of George VI, mother of Elizabeth II
• Louis Armstrong (1901-1971): jazz trumpeter
• Raoul Wallenberg (1912-1947?): Swedish diplomat/businessman who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews during WWII; in 1945, he was taken into custody by the Russians and disappeared
• Barack Obama (50): the 44th POTUS
• Roger Clemens (49): pitcher with the record for Cy Young Awards — 7; plus, runner Glenn Cunningham (1909-1988)
• Dennis Lehane (46): novelist, Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone; writers Knut Hamsun (1859-1952) and Robert Hayden (1913-1980) were also born on this date
• Daniel Dae Kim (43): Jin-Soo Kwon on Lost; also, actors Richard Belzer (67), Billy Bob Thornton (56), Lauren Tom (50), James Tupper (46) and Michael DeLuise (42)

Read more: http://www.answers.com/

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

hacienda \hah-see-EN-duh\, noun:

• A large estate, especially one used for farming or ranching.

Hacienda enters English from the Spanish word of the same meaning, which derives from the Latin facienda, "things to be done or made."

Boner Shock

• Expressions or actions performed that causes your boner to go into "shock" or go back into the flaccid stage.

That girl gave me boner shock when right before sex she said "I always forgets to take my birth control."

Trivia

What Hollywood figure’s first screen appearance was as the baby boy being christened in the famous baptism scene in The Godfather?

• Actress-director-producer Sofia Coppola, daughter of director Francis Ford Coppola. She was three weeks old when the scene was shot in 1971.

History

• Christopher Columbus: set sail from Palos, Spain, on the voyage that would take him to America (1492)
• La Scala: leading opera house opened in Milan with a production of Salieri's opera Europa riconosciuta, which was not performed again until December 7, 2004, when La Scala reopened after renovations (1788)
• NBA: the National Basketball League and the Basketball Association of America merged to form America's professional basketball league (1949)
• USS Nautilus: the world's first nuclear-powered submarine sailed over the North Pole underwater in a journey under the Arctic ice cap (1958)
• Air Traffic Controllers Strike: PATCO workers walked out, leading to the firing of nearly all air traffic controllers by President Ronald Reagan two days later; in the wake of this event, US labor unions were weakened (1981)
• Statue of Liberty: pedestal reopened to the public for first time since 9/11 (2004)

Birthdays

• Stanley Baldwin (1867-1947): British three-term prime minister; Tunisian president Habib Bourguiba (1903-2000) shared this birth date
• P.D. James (91): mystery writer; also, authors Henry Cuyler Bunner (1855-1896), Rupert Brooke (1887-1915), Ernie Pyle (1900-1945), Leon Uris (1924-2003) and Steven Millhauser (68)
• Tony Bennett (85): singer, "(I Left My Heart) in San Francisco"; also, musicians Richard Adler (90), Beverly Lee (70), B.B. Dickerson (62), Randy Scruggs (58) and James Hetfield (48)
• Martha Stewart (70): homemaker guru who's become a household name
• John C. McGinley (52): Perry Cox on Scrubs; also, actors Martin Sheen (71), Isaiah Washington (48), Brigid Brannagh (39) and Evangeline Lilly (32)
• Tom Brady (34): New England Patriots quarterback; plus, football coach Marv Levy (86) and hockey hall-of-famer Marcel Dionne (60)

Read more: http://www.answers.com/