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/