Thursday, April 23, 2009

paladin \PAL-uh-din\, noun:

1. A knight-errant; a distinguished champion of a medieval king or prince; as, the paladins of Charlemagne.
2. A champion of a cause.

Paladin derives from Late Latin palatinus, "an officer of the palace," from Latin palatium, "royal residence, palace," from Palatium, one of the seven hills of Rome, on which Augustus had his residence.

recalculating rap

• The stream of the word "recalculating" coming from your car's GPS when the car changes direction, loses signal, etc.

"When the car went through that mile long tunnel, our GPS was doing the recalculating rap all the through."

Trivia

What was the topic of the very first Top Ten List on The Late Show with David Letterman?

• The Top Ten Things That Almost Rhyme With Peas. The list, presented on September 18, 1985, from ten to one, was: heats, rice, moss, ties, needs, lens, ice, nurse, leaks, and meats.

Today in History:

• Order of the Garter: oldest existing order of knights was founded by King Edward III of England (1348)
• Baedeker blitz: a series of German Luftwaffe raids on the English cities of Exeter, Bath, Norwich and York began in retaliation for the RAF bombing of Lübeck (1942)
• New Coke: Coca-Cola launched its marketing flop (1985)

Today's Birthdays:

• James Buchanan (1791-1868): the 15th (and the only bachelor) US president; he was criticized for failing to prevent the Civil War; also, New Zealand PM Frederick Whitaker (1812-1891) and Canadian PM Lester Pearson (1897-1972)
• Max Planck (1858-1947): physicist responsible for quantum theory
• Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953): composer of the ballet, Romeo and Juliet
• Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977): novelist, Lolita; mystery writer Ngaio Marsh (1895-1982) shared this birth date
• J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851): landscape painter
• Valerie Bertinelli (49): actor and spokesperson for Jenny Craig; also, actors David Birney and Lee Majors (both 70), Blair Brown (63), James Russo (56), Judy Davis (54), George Lopez (48), Melina Kanakaredes (42) and Kal Penn (32)