Monday, May 11, 2009

bombinate \BOM-buh-nayt\, intransitive verb:

• To buzz; to hum; to drone.

Bombinate is from Late Latin bombinatus, past participle of bombinare, alteration of Latin bombilare, from bombus, "a boom."

approval from corporate

• A term used to designate that the spouse in control of the household finances has given approval to make a large purchase.

Me: Did you get approval from corporate to purchase that $350 digital storage device?
Tim: Yes, with the proviso "If you think we really need it."
Trivia

What well-known U.S. company manufactured mechanical horse clippers and sheep-shearing equipment before diversifying into small electrical household appliances?

• Sunbeam, which originally was known as the Chicago Flexible Shaft Company.

Today in History:

• Minnesota: became the 32nd US state; its name is Sioux for "cloudy water" (1858)
• Israel: was admitted to the United Nations (1949)
• Deep Blue: IBM's supercomputer defeated world champion Garry Kasparov in game 6 of their chess tournament (1997)
• The B.F. Goodrich Company reinvented the wheel on this date in 1947, when it announced the development of the tubeless tire.
• euro: the currency's first coin was struck in a French mint

Today's Birthdays:

• Chang and Eng Bunker (1811-1874): conjoined twins
• Irving Berlin (1888-1989): prolific songwriter of some of America's favorite songs, "White Christmas" and "God Bless America"
• Martha Graham (1894-1991): choreographer and modern dancer
• Salvador Dali (1904-1989): surrealist painter
• Camilo José Cela (1916-2002): Nobel Prize-winner in Literature
• Richard Feynman (1918-1988): Nobel Prize-winning physicist who wrote Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
• Natasha Richardson (1965-2009): Tony Award-winning actor who died earlier this year from injuries sustained in a skiing accident; also, actors Shohreh Aghdashloo and Frances Fisher (both 57), Coby Bell (34) and Jonathan Jackson (27)