Monday, April 27, 2009

ken \KEN\, noun:

1. Perception; understanding; knowledge.
2. The range of vision.
3. View; sight.

Ken is from Middle English kennen, from Old English cennan, "to declare, to make known."
Dr Google

• A person medically qualified by Google's search engine to diagnose symptoms of sickness.

Mrs. Smith: My son has Dengue fever. I searched it on Google.

Dr. James: Really? That's what Google says? Send him to emergency immediately!

Dr. James: *note to self: Mrs. Smith's Son is fine. Mrs. Smith however has a case of Dr Google.

Trivia

How did Zonker Harris, the hippie in the Doonesbury comic strip, become a titled member of the British aristocracy?

• He bought a title from Lords-R-Us with lottery winnings. The title, Viscount St. Austell-in-the-Moor Biggleswade-Brixham, cost him $17,000.

Today in History:

• Battle of Dunbar: Scots were massacred by the English as the Wars of Scottish Independence began (1296)
• Ferdinand Magellan: the leader of the first expedition to circumnavigate the globe was killed by Philippine natives in the Battle of Mactan (1521)
• Paradise Lost: John Milton, blind and impoverished, sold the copyright for his epic poem for £10 (1667)
• SS Sultana: the worst maritime disaster in US history occurred when the wooden steamboat exploded and sank on the Mississippi near Memphis, killing up to 1,800 former Union POWs recently released from Confederate prison camps (1865)

Today's Birthdays:

• Samuel Morse (1791-1872): inventor of the telegraph and Morse Code
• Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885): 18th POTUS
• Walter Lantz (1900-1994): animator, Woody Woodpecker
• Jack Klugman (87): Oscar Madison on The Odd Couple; actors Anouk Aimée (77), Judy Carne (70) and James LeGros (47) were also born on this date
• Coretta Scott King (1927-2006): civil rights activist and widow of Martin Luther King, Jr.
• August Wilson (1945-2005): Pulitzer Prize-winner for Fences and The Piano Lesson; other writers who shared this birth date include Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) and C. Day Lewis (1904-1972)
• Sheena Easton (50): singer, actress; others in the world of music born on this date include broadcaster Casey Kasem (77) and singers Cuba Gooding (65) and Ace Frehley (58)