Saturday, February 28, 2009

pedant \PED-nt\, noun:

• a person who makes a show of detailed knowledge, esp. relying on books; also, a narrow-minded teacher or scholar

c 1586, "schoolmaster," from Middle French pédant, from Italian pedante "teacher, schoolmaster," apparently an alteration of Late Latin paedagogantem, from paedagogare. Meaning "person who trumpets minor points of learning" first recorded 1593.

Marty McFly Complex

• A character flaw of pride, in which a individual will take unnecessary risks or do dangerous acts if their courage is questioned, such as being called a chicken or a coward.
• Marty McFly in Back To The Future
• Jim Stark in Rebel Without a Cause

Jim said that he won't enter the race because he was afraid of getting hurt, but then Tim called him a coward and he had to prove him wrong because of his Marty McFly Complex

Trivia

What U.S. city was the first to have a subway?

• Boston. Its subway opened on September 1, 1897. London was the first city in the world to have a subway. It opened in 1863.

Today in History:

• Methodism: Anglican clergyman and evangelist John Wesley chartered the first Methodist church (1784)
• M*A*S*H: the final episode — "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" — aired; it was the top-rated TV episode in the US (1983)
• Olof Palme: the Swedish prime minister and his wife were shot to death in Stockholm (1986)
• Waco siege: 51-day standoff began with a gun battle between federal agents and members of the cloistered Branch Davidian sect; the agents were attempting to arrest leader David Koresh on a weapons charge (1993)

Today's Birthdays:

• Bugsy Siegel (1906-1947): gangster responsible for building up Las Vegas
• Tommy Tune (70): dancer and choreographer
• Mario Andretti (69): champion racecar driver; another winning racer born today is Smarty Jones (8)
• Robert Sean Leonard (40): House's Dr. James Wilson; also, actors Zero Mostel (1915-1977), Charles Durning (86), Gavin McLeod (78), Frank Bonner (67), Kelly Bishop (65), Bubba Smith (64), Mercedes Ruehl (61), Bernadette Peters (61), John Turturro (52) and Rae Dawn Chong (48)