Thursday, April 2, 2009

gambol \GAM-buhl\, intransitive verb:

1. To dance and skip about in play; to frolic.
2. A skipping or leaping about in frolic.

Gambol, earlier gambolde or gambalde, comes from Medieval French gambade, "a leaping or skipping," from Late Latin gamba, "hock (of a horse), leg," from Greek kampe, "a joint or bend."

LDOC

• Last Day Of Class. Used by students in away messages and Facebook status updates to denote their sheer enthusiasm at realizing the semester has come to an end. Exponentially more exciting when it is the LDOC of the year or LDOC of school (i.e. the end of high school, college, or professional school). Not coined by Duke University, although they try to claim such.

Facebook status: "Jane Doe is LDOC!!!!"
Away message: "LDOC, baby!"
Flyer: "Come celebrate the LDOC by playing in the fountains!"
Trivia
According to Pablo Picasso’s mother, what was the first word spoken by her budding artist son?

• Pencil—in Spanish baby talk. The word he used was piz, a shortened form of lápiz, Spanish for “pencil.”

Today in History:

• Florida: Juan Ponce de León discovered this state's flowery coast, naming it for Pascua florida ("flowery Easter"); he was searching for the Fountain of Youth (1513)
• "The world must be made safe for democracy": with these words, US President Woodrow Wilson urged Congress to enter WWI (1917)
• Falkland Islands War: Argentina invaded British-occupied Falkland Islands; Argentina's defeat within a few months discredited its military government, and civilian rule was restored the following year (1982)

Today's Birthdays:

• Casanova (1725-1798): legendary adventurer, author, lover; he wrote Histoire de ma vie; plus, writer Émile Zola (1840-1902)
• Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904): sculptor of the Statue of Liberty; artist Max Ernst (1891-1976) was also born on this date
• Dr. Demento (68): radio DJ of novelty songs and parodies; musicians Marvin Gaye (1939-1984), Larry Coryell (66), Emmylou Harris (62) and Jesse Carmichael (30) share this birth date
• Don Sutton (64): MLB hall-of-famer; also, NFL player Bill Romanowski (43)
• Chris Meloni (48): Law and Order: SVU's detective Elliot Stabler; also, actors Alec Guinness (1914-2000); Linda Hunt (64), Pamela Reed (60), Clark Gregg (47), Adam Rodriguez (34), Bethany Joy Galeotti (28) and Jesse Plemons (21)

Quote:

• "Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale." — Hans Christian Andersen