Word of the Day for Monday, March 3, 2008

recherche \ruh-sher-SHAY\, adjective:

1. Uncommon; exotic; rare.
2. Exquisite; choice.
3. Excessively refined; affected.
4. Pretentious; overblown.

Urban Word of the Day: subprime

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=subprime&defid=2779151

• The term originated in the financial services industry to refer to lower-credit-score borrowers. However, thanks to continuous media use, a much broader audience was exposed to it in 2007 during the credit meltdown. Now, it is used to describe anything that is below standard or less than ideal.

This restaurant is subprime, let's get out of here!

Trivia

What car is mentioned in “Those Were the Days,” the theme song of the TV sitcom All in the Family?

• A LaSalle—the line goes, “Gee, our old LaSalle ran great.” LaSalle was a division of Cadillac that produced cars from 1927 to 1940.

Today in History

• Sunshine State: Florida was admitted as the 27th US state (1845)
• "The Star-Spangled Banner": became the official US national anthem (1931)
• Switzerland: citizens voted to join the United Nations, abandoning nearly 200 years of formal neutrality (2002)
• Steve Fossett: millionaire adventurer became the first person to fly around the world solo, without stopping or refueling; he touched down in central Kansas after a 67-hour, 23,000-mile journey (2005)

Today's Birthdays

• Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922): inventor of the telephone, teacher of the deaf; another inventor born on this date was George M. Pullman (1831-1897)
• Jessica Biel (26): actor, 7th Heaven, The Illusionist; other actors born on this date include Jean Harlow (1911-1937), Miranda Richardson (50), Julie Bowen (38) and David Faustino (34)
• Jackie Joyner-Kersee (46): track and field athlete who won multiple Olympic gold medals in heptathlon competitions