Friday, April 17, 2009

ephemeral \ih-FEM-er-ul\, adjective:

1. Beginning and ending in a day; existing only, or no longer than, a day; as, an ephemeral flower.
2. Short-lived; existing or continuing for a short time only.

Ephemeral derives from Greek ephemeros, from epi, upon + hemera, day.
erectoral vote

1. A vote on something that means dick.
2. A vote on something where the outcome is someone or everyone gets dicked.

"I just voted to raise taxes to stimulate the economy, yet they're spending money to bail out those big business shitheads. Well, that sure was an erectoral vote."

Trivia
In days of yore, what was a henchman?

• A horseman, or groom. The word, derived from Old English, is a combination of hengest (horse) and man.

Today in History:

• Bay of Pigs: unsuccessful invasion of Cuba was launched by US-supported exiles (1961)
• Shea Stadium: Queens, New York, baseball park opened (1964); it served the Mets for 44 years before being demolished to make room for parking for the new Citi Field
• Cambodia: fell to the Khmer Rouge with the capture of Phnom Penh, resulting in genocidal killing fields (1975)

Today's Birthdays:

• Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971): former premier of the USSR; Sri Lankan PM Sirimavo Bandaranaike (1916-2000) shared this birth date
• Harry Reasoner (1923-1991): journalist, anchor of ABC Evening News, 60 Minutes; journalist William Simms (1806-1870) was also born on this date
• Cynthia Ozick (81): short-story writer and novelist; other writers born on this date include Isak Dinesen (1885-1962), Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) and Nick Hornby (52)
• Don Kirshner (75): rock promoter; musicians born on this date include Jan Hammer (61), Liz Phair (42) and Victoria Beckham (35)
• Jennifer Garner (37): actor, Alias, Juno; also, actors Sean Bean (50), Lela Rochon (45) and William Mapother (44)