Saturday, June 6, 2009

mores \MOR-ayz; -eez\, plural noun:

1. The fixed customs of a particular group that are morally binding upon all members of the group.
2. Moral attitudes.
3. Customs; habits; ways.

Mores comes from Latin, plural of mos, "custom." It is related to moral.
Alt-tabbin'

• An act of quickly switching the current application to something work-appropriate when the boss walks in.

"My boss almost caught me looking at porn at work, good thing I was Alt-Tabbin'"
Trivia
What is the official state snack food of Illinois?

• Popcorn. It won the title in 2003 as the result of a campaign by second- and third-graders at an elementary school in Joliet, Illinois. The youngsters had been assigned to show how they could make a difference.

Today in History:

• D-Day: Allied invasion of France marked a turning point in WWII (1944)
• James Meredith: the first African-American to attend the University of Mississippi was shot and wounded on a highway during his March Against Fear (1966)
• Eastern Mediterranean Event: asteroid exploded in the air over the sea between Libya and Crete (2002)

Today's Birthdays:

• Diego Velázquez (1599-1660): baroque painter
• Nathan Hale (1755-1776): patriot of the American Revolution
• Thomas Mann (1875-1955): author of Death in Venice and The Magic Mountain; other writers born on this date include R. C. Sherriff (1896-1975) and Maxine Kumin (84)
• Roy Innis (75): civil rights leader, chairman of CORE
• Björn Borg (53): five-time Wimbledon champion
• Paul Giamatti (42): played John Adams in the eponymous HBO miniseries; actors Harvey Fierstein (55), Sandra Bernhard (54), Amanda Pays and Colin Quinn (both 49) and Max Casella (42) were also born on this date