Wednesday, January 28, 2009

yielding \YEEL-ding\, adjective:

1. not resisting; compliant
2. not stiff or rigid; easily bent or shaped

by 1340 from yield, Old English geldan/gieldan "to pay," from Proto Germanic *geldanan "pay," perhaps from Proto Indo-European *ghel-to- "I pay," found only in Balto-Slavic and Germanic. Yielding in sense of "giving up" is c 1425 and "giving way" is by 1588.

BlackBerry Prayer

• The supplicating position one assumes when grasping the popular six-ounce wireless combination e-mailer/phone known as the BlackBerry between your palms and thumb-tapping messages on its QWERTY keyboard.

The MUNI is filled with people doing their morning Blackberry Prayer rituals.

Trivia

What do the different colored twist ties and tags on packaged loaves of bread indicate?

• The day the bread is delivered to local stores. Fresh bread is usually delivered five days a week. Although colors may vary according to region or manufacturer, most bakeries start with blue on Monday, and continue through the week alphabetically with green on Tuesday, red on Thursday, white on Friday, and yellow on Saturday.

Today in History:

• Diet of Worms: general assembly of the Holy Roman Empire began; it ended four months later with Martin Luther being declared an outlaw (1521)
• Carnegie Institute: Andrew Carnegie established this private scientific research foundation after the US government refused his gift of $10 million to finance the advancement of knowledge (1902)
• "We Are the World": Michael Jackson/Lionel Richie song that raised millions for famine relief in Africa was recorded by 45 popular performers (1985)
• Challenger: space shuttle exploded 73 seconds after its launch, killing all on board — Francis Scobee, Gregory Jarvis, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnick, Michael Smith and Christa McAuliffe (1986)

Today's Birthdays:

• Henry VII (1457-1509): King of England
• Jackson Pollock (1912-1956): abstract artist famous for dripping and pouring his paint
• Alan Alda (73): actor, writer and activist; also, actors Susan Howard (65), Marthe Keller (64), Harley Jane Kozak (52), Kathryn Morris (40) and Elijah Wood (28)
• Nicolas Sarkozy (54): president of France
• Nick Price (52): golf hall-of-famer
• Frank Darabont (50): director, The Shawshank Redemption; director Ernst Lubitsch (1892-1947) shared this birth date
• Dan Spitz (45): lead guitarist for thrash metal band Anthrax; also, musicians Artur Rubinstein (1887-1982), Sarah McLachlan (41), Joey Fatone, Jr. (32) and Nick Carter (29)