Word of the Day for Sunday, April 6, 2008

importunate \im-POR-chuh-nit\, adjective:

• Troublesomely urgent; overly persistent in request or demand; unreasonably solicitous.

Urban Word of the Day: Touch Base
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Touch+Base&defid=866072

• To make contact; to cover all the possibilities. Comes from baseball where the runners need to touch the base to make a run legal. Mostly used by [asshat] salesmen and contractors when they want to talk to you over the phone to see if you're interested in something they have for sale, usually around dinner time.

"I'm just calling to Touch Base to see if you need our crappy product/service."
"No, fuck. Leave me alone."
Trivia
What celebrity TV chef got his start on a cooking show called How to Boil Water?

• Emeril Lagasse, who hosted the 1993 Food Network show.

Today in History

• Olympics: the first modern games opened in Athens (1896)
• North Pole: was visited for the first time, by Robert E. Peary and Matthew Henson (1909)
• Twinkie: sweet American snack was invented (1930)
• Teflon: non-stick coating was accidentally invented by Roy J. Plunkett (1938)

Today's Birthdays

• Raphael (1483-1520): Renaissance painter known for his Madonnas and The School of Athens
• Jean-Baptiste Rousseau (1671-1741): poet/dramatist
• James Mill (1773-1836): philosopher, economist and historian, founder of philosophical radicalism
• Harold Edgerton (1903-1990): electrical engineer who developed the electronic flash and stroboscope
• André Previn (79): pianist/composer/conductor knighted in 1996; won a presidential medal in 1998
• Barry Levinson (66): film writer/director/producer, Rain Man, Man of the Year
• Paul Rudd (39): actor, I Could Never Be Your Woman; other actors born today: Ivan Dixon (77), Billy Dee Williams (71), Marilu Henner (56) and Zach Braff (33)
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