December 14, 2008

dastard \DAS-terd\, noun:

• a mean coward

c 1440, possibly from dast/dased "dull, stupid," past participle of dasen "to daze"
Put me in coach!

1. what you say to the coach when you're warming the bench, but you want to go in so you can win the game
2. what you say to the airline people when you want to sit in economy class

1) Put me in coach! I'm ready to play!
2) Put me in coach! Right between the 400 lb. bitch and the crying baby.
Trivia
On what surface is the sport known as bandy played?

• Ice. Played in Scandinavia, Russia, the Baltics, and Mongolia, bandy is similar to ice hockey but faster, because a ball is used rather than a puck and no action is permitted behind the goals. The sport, which originated in England in the late 18th century, is believed to be a forerunner of ice hockey.

Today's selected anniversaries:

• 1896: Glasgow Subway, the third oldest below-ground metro system in the world after the London Underground and the Budapest Metro, began operations in Glasgow, Scotland.
  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_Subway)
• 1911: Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his team became the first people to reach the South Pole. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Amundsen)
• 1918: The German Empire's defeat in World War I, and the stated fact that none of the Allies would ever accept a German-born prince as the King of Finland, led Frederick Charles to renounce the throne. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Frederick_Charles_of_Hesse)
• 1962: NASA's Mariner 2 became the world's first spacecraft to successfully fly by Venus. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariner_2)
• 1995: The Dayton Agreement was signed in Paris, France to end the Bosnian War.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dayton_Agreement)

Birthdays

• Tycho Brahe astronomer (1546)
• John Mercer Langston public official, diplomat, educator (1829)
• James Doolittle aviator, military leader (1896)
• Shirley Jackson writer (1919)
• Patty Duke actress (1946)
• Michael Owen soccer player (1979)
• Vanessa Anne Hudgens actor (1988)