Saturday, April 11, 2009

portend \por-TEND\, verb:

• To indicate (events, misfortunes, etc.) as in future; to foreshadow; to bode.

Portend comes from Latin portendere, to indicate, to predict, from por- (variant of pro-), before + tendere, to stretch out, to spread. Thus that which portends is that which stretches out before us into the future.

m4m

• Abbreviation for men seeking men in an online chat room; gh3y male

Chat room name Chicago m4m.

Trivia

What Sesame Street Muppet character was inspired by the popular TV cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants?

• TriangleBob TrianglePants.

Today in History:

• The Tramp: Charlie Chaplin's comic silent film was released (1915)
• Jackie Robinson: broke the color barrier in major league baseball, appearing in his first exhibition game (1947)
• Apollo 13: 3rd lunar landing mission launched; it was aborted midflight (1970)
• Uganda: Idi Amin's vicious military regime was overthrown (1979)

Today's Birthdays:

• Percy Lavon Julian (1899-1975): chemist who invented synthetic cortisone
• Oleg Cassini (1913-2006): fashion designer
• Joel Grey (77): Tony and Oscar winner, Cabaret; also, actors Louise Lasser (70), Peter Riegert and Meshach Taylor (both 62) and Bill Irwin (59)
• Ellen Goodman (68): Pulitzer-winning Boston Globe columnist; other writers born on this date include John Davidson (1857-1909), Quentin Reynolds (1902-1965), Attila József (1905-1937) and Leo Rosten (1908-1997) and John Milius (65)
• Jason Varitek (37): MLB catcher and switch hitter; sluggers Trot Nixon (35) and Mark Teixeira (29) share this birth date
• Joss Stone (22): rock singer/songwriter, Introducing Joss Stone