Word of the Day for Wednesday July 9, 2008

emolument \ih-MOL-yuh-muhnt\, noun:

• The wages or perquisites arising from office, employment, or labor; gain; compensation.

sep

• Someone Else's Problem

I thought we would have problems with that project, but it's SEP now that the manager has been fired.

Trivia

What were the most popular baby names for boys and girls in 1946—the first year of the baby boom generation?

• Boys, James; girls, Mary.

Today in History

• Wimbledon: the precursor to the tennis tournament first began; only Gentlemen's Singles was played (1877)
• Johnny Weissmuller: swam 100 meters freestyle in 58.6 seconds, thus breaking the minute barrier (1922)
• Grateful Dead: psychedelic rock-country-jazz band played its last concert, a month before the death of lead singer Jerry Garcia (1995)

Today's Birthdays

• Elias Howe (1819-1867): inventor, sewing machine
• Hassan II (1929-1999): king of Morocco; British PM Edward Heath (1916-2005) shared his birth date
• Donald Rumsfeld (76): former US secretary of defense
• David Hockney (71): pop artist, photographer, designer
• Brian Dennehy (70): Tony-winning actor; also, performers Richard Roundtree (66), OJ Simpson (61), Chris Cooper (57), Jimmy Smits (53), Tom Hanks (52), Enrique Murciano (35) and Fred Savage (32)
• Dean Koontz (63): bestselling thriller writer
• Courtney Love (44): rock singer; singers Ed Ames (81), Lee Hazelwood (79) and John Tesh (56) were also born on this date