Friday, May 1, 2009

risible \RIZ-uh-buhl\, adjective:

1. Capable of laughing; disposed to laugh.
2. Exciting or provoking laughter; worthy of laughter; laughable; amusing.
3. Relating to, connected with, or used in laughter; as, "risible muscles."

Risible comes from Late Latin risibilis, from the past participle of Latin ridere, "to laugh, to laugh at." The noun form is risibility.

youtube moment

• A moment or short event where you wish you had a video camera with you. The video equivalent of a kodak moment.

It was a perfect youtube moment when Chris tripped and fell down a whole flight of stairs.
Trivia
What are chirospasms?

• Writers’ cramps—spasms of the muscles of the hand. (An alternate spelling is cheirospasms.)

Today in History:

• Empire State Building: world's tallest building (at the time) opened after 410 days of construction (1931)
• Citizen Kane: Orson Welles' film masterpiece loosely depicting — and criticizing — newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst debuted in New York City (1931)
• Cheerios: General Mills introduced the first oat-based ready-to-eat breakfast cereal (1941)
• North Korea: was established with Kim Il Sung as premier; he maintained power for the next 46 years (1948)
• Iraq War: George W. Bush declared the successful end of major combat operations in Iraq (2003)

Today's Birthdays:

• Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852): general who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo
• Joseph Heller (1923-1999): author, Catch-22; writers Joseph Addison (1672-1719) and José de Alencar (1829-1877) also share this birth date
• Scott Carpenter (84): one of the original Project Mercury astronauts, he was the second American to orbit Earth
• Judy Collins (70): folksinger and social activist; other singers born today include Rita Coolidge (64), Wayne Hancock (44), Tim McGraw (42) and D'Arcy (41)
• Wes Anderson (40): director and screenwriter, The Royal Tenenbaums; director John Woo (63) was also born on this date