December 16, 2008

fabricate \FAB-ri-keyt\, verb:

1. to make, build, or construct
2. to make up, invent
3. to fake or forge a document or signature

by 1598, from Latin fabricare, from fabrica "fabric"

Ponzi Crawl

• A pub crawl that adds a new person to buy a round at each location. Each new person is promised that they will get free drinks at all the future bars if they buy this round. Obviously, whoever joins the ponzi crawl last gets screwed!

Let's get some suckers to buy us beer on a ponzi crawl this weekend.

Trivia

How much does the average human eyeball weigh?

• About 1 ounce.

Today in History:

• Boston Tea Party: American colonists dressed as natives threw over 300 chests of tea from British ships into Boston Harbor, protesting taxes and the Tea Act; the British response was the Intolerable Acts (1773)
• Battle of the Bulge: German attack began in the Ardennes region of southern Belgium in WWII (1944)
• Millau Viaduct: the tallest vehicular bridge in the world, located in southern France, was opened to traffic (2004)

Today's Birthdays:

• Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536): first of Henry VIII's six wives
• Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): composer of nine symphonies and the "Moonlight" Sonata
• Jane Austen (1775-1817): author, Pride and Prejudice; also, writers George Santayana (1863-1952), Noel Coward (1899-1973), V.S. Pritchett (1900-1997), Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008) & Philip K. Dick (1928-1982)
• Margaret Mead (1901-1978): culture anthropologist
• Liv Ullmann (70): actor, best known for her roles in Ingmar Bergman films; also, actors Ben Cross (61), Alison LaPlaca (49), Sam Robards and Jon Tenney (both 47), Benjamin Bratt (45) and Hallee Hirsh (21)
• Steven Bochco (65): TV producer, Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue

Wikiquote quote of the day:

• Perhaps it is better to be un-sane and happy, than sane and un-happy. But it is the best of all to be sane and happy. Whether our descendants can achieve that goal will be the greatest challenge of the future. Indeed, it may well decide whether we have any future.

--Arthur C. Clarke (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke)