Friday, April 24, 2009

gainsay \gayn-SAY; GAYN-say\, transitive verb:

1. To deny or dispute; to declare false or invalid.
2. To oppose; to contradict.

Gainsay comes from Middle English geinseien, from gein-, "against" (from Old English gegn-, gean-) + sayen, "to say," from Old English secgan.

Tweet-Dropping

• When a twitter user has a one-way conversation with a celebrity so that to the users followers, it seems like they are talking to a celebrity and thus are instantly 端ber-cool in the eyes of their followers, when in fact they are a loser with nothing better to do than have a fake conversation with themselves. Similar to name dropping IRL, but even more annoying and even less likely to be true.

Tweet-Dropper: @BritneySpears How did the barbecue go? I heard Justin Timberlake was there too >.<>

Tweet-Dropper (A few minutes later, without a reply from Britney): @BritneySpears Haha yes, I suppose after a while it got pretty normal for both of you, you must go to loads of the same things!

Tweet-Dropper (Again few minutes later, still without any replies from Britney): Yeah, it's been great! How do you squeeze so much into 140 chars lol? =P

Tweet-Dropper's Follower: Wow, this guy I'm following is having a conversation with THE Britney Spears!

Tweet-Dropper (To self): They are totally falling for my Tweet-Dropping!

Trivia
What role did the British gunboats Mimi and Toutou play in World War II?

• The British hauled the two 40-foot-long mahogany boats 2,000 miles overland through the African bush to Lake Tanganyika to take on the German navy. Their story inspired the book, and later the movie classic, The African Queen.

Today in History:

• Trojan horse: traditional date of the ancient Greeks' ruse to gain entry into Troy (1184 BCE)
• Library of Congress: was established with $5,000; today it has 18 million books and 100 million other items in 470 languages (1800)
• Hersheypark: amusement park opened in Hershey, Pennsylvania, for the exclusive use of Hershey Chocolate Company's employees; it was later opened to the public (1907)
• Easter Uprising: unsuccessful Irish rebellion against British rule began (1916)

Today's Birthdays:

• Henri-Philippe Pétain (1856-1951): WWI general and head of the Vichy government
• Willem de Kooning (1904-1997): abstract expressionist painter
• Sue Grafton (69): writer of detective novels; also, authors Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) and Robert Penn Warren (1905-1989)
• Barbra Streisand (67): award-winning singer and actress; other performers born today include Shirley MacLaine (75), Michael Parks (69), Doug Clifford (64), Eric Bogosian (56), Djimon Hounsou and Cedric the Entertainer (both 44), Derek Luke (35), Eric Balfour (32) and who's High Pitch? Kelly Clarkson (27)
• Omar Vizquel (42): defensive shortstop who won 9 consecutive Gold Gloves; baseball players Chipper Jones (37) and Carlos Beltran (32) share his birth date