Friday, January 23, 2009

sallow \SAL-oh\, adjective:

• having a sickly, yellowish color

Old English salo "dusky, dark," from Proto Germanic *salwa-, from Proto Indo-European base *sal- "dirty, gray."

shyPod

• When one is hesitant about sharing the contents of his or her iPod.

Because Doug downloaded Britney Spears' "Toxic" he was totally shyPod when Dru wanted to take a peek at his Library.
Trivia

In the popular Harry Potter book series, what magical property does the gillyweed plant have?

• It enables the person who eats it to temporarily grow gills and breathe underwater. Its effect lasts about an hour.

Today in History:

• Election Day: date for national elections was set by US Congress as the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November (1845)
• Elizabeth Blackwell: graduated first in her class from Geneva Medical College, becoming the first female physician in the US (1849)
• Daniel Pearl: reporter for The Wall Street Journal was kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan; he was killed less than a month later (2002)

Today's Birthdays:

• Édouard Manet (1832-1883): impressionist painter
• Sergei Eisenstein (1898-1948): filmmaker
• Derek Walcott (79): Nobel Prize-winning poet and playwright; other writers born on this date include Stendhal (1783-1842) and Camilla Collett (1813-1895)
• Chesley Sullenberger: hero pilot of US Airways flight 1549
• Antonio Villaraigosa (56): mayor of LA; also, politicians Frank Lautenberg (85) and Thomas R. Carper (62)
• Mariska Hargitay (45): actor, Law and Order: SVU; also, actors Jeanne Moreau (81), Chita Rivera (76), Lou Antonio (75), Gil Gerard (66), Rutger Hauer (65), Richard Dean Anderson (59), Gail O'Grady (46) and Tiffani Thiessen (35)

Quote:

• "We learn geology the morning after the earthquake." — Ralph Waldo Emerson