Friday, May 8, 2009

aliment \AL-uh-muhnt\, noun:

1. Something that nourishes or feeds; nutriment.
2. Something that sustains a state of mind or body; sustenance.
3. To give nourishment to; to nourish or sustain.

Aliment is derived from Latin alimentum, from alere, "to nourish." It is related to alimony.
wwjkd

• What Would James Kirk Do? When stuck in a life-threatening, impossible situation with no realistic plausible means of escape, only a plan thought up by James "Jim" Kirk would work.

Person 1: OK, were stuck in an underground cavern on a distant planet with no access to the surface.
Person 2: We need a plan. WWJKD?
Trivia
In the world of animal hybrids, what is a wholphin?

• It’s a cross between a bottlenose dolphin and a false killer whale. Two were born in captivity at Sea Life Park in Hawaii, and there have been undocumented sightings of others in the wild. The name is sometimes spelled wolphin.

Today in History:

• Mississippi River: was reached by Spanish conquistador Hernando do Soto (1541)
• pyroclastic flow: Martinique's Mt. Pelée erupted a cloud of hot gas, ash and rock, killing 40,000 people (1902)
• eye bank: a collection of corneas donated after death was established for the first time, in New York City (1944)
• V-E Day: the UK and US celebrated their victory over Nazi Germany, a day after Germany signed an unconditional surrender (1945)

Today's Birthdays:

• Jean-Henri Dunant (1828-1910): founder of the International Red Cross
• Harry S. Truman (1884-1972): haberdasher who became the 33rd POTUS
• David Attenborough (83): environmentalist who pioneered the nature documentary
• Don Rickles (83): caustic comedian
• Thomas Pynchon (72): author of V. and Gravity's Rainbow; other writers born on this date include Peter Benchley (69) Jaws, Edward Gibbon (1737-1794), Thomas Costain (1885-1965), Edmund Wilson (1895-1972) and Romain Gary (1914-1980)
• Keith Jarrett (64): jazz and classical pianist/composer; musicians Philip Bailey (58), Chris Frantz (58), Alex Van Halen (56) and Enrique Iglesias (34) share this birth date