Sunday, June 14, 2009

aver \uh-VUR\, transitive verb:

1. To affirm with confidence; to declare in a positive manner, as in confidence of asserting the truth.
2. (Law) To assert, claim, or declare as a fact.

Aver is from Old French-Medieval French averer, from Medieval Latin adverare, to confirm as authentic, from Latin ad-, ad- + Medieval Latin verare, from Latin verus, true. Other words deriving from verus are very, which sometimes has the sense of "true"; verify, to prove the truth of; and verdict, a decision or judgment, literally a "true-saying" (verus + dictum, saying).

Let you go

• I want to get off the phone now because I hate talking to you, but I'll pretend that I'm being polite by letting you go back to whatever boring crap you would be doing if you weren't talking to me.

Them: So then he said it was benign but I should probably get it removed. And I said-You: Wow! That's nuts! Hey look, I'm sure you've got a lot of stuff to take care of. I'm gonna let you go. Bye.

Them: Oh, uh, yeah. Bye.

Trivia
How wide is the 155-mile-long demilitarized zone that divides North and South Korea?

• 2 1/2 miles. The heavily fortified DMZ was established in 1953 at the end of the Korean War.

Today in History:

• US Army: was founded to fight the British (1775)
• California Republic: aka the Bear Flag Republic, was declared by settlers while California was still ruled by Mexico (1846)
• UNIVAC I: the first commercial computer was dedicated at the US Census Bureau (1951)
• Pledge of Allegiance: President Eisenhower signed the order inserting the words "under God" (1954)
• Falkland Islands: military dispute ended as Argentine forces surrendered to the British (1982)

Today's Birthdays:

• Charles-Augustin de Coulomb (1736-1806): physicist
• Margaret Bourke-White (1904-1971): photo-journalist
• Gene Barry (90): star of Bat Masterson, Burke's Law; other actors born on this date include Jack Bannon (69), Will Patton (55), Yasmine Bleeth (41) and Traylor Howard (38)
• Che Guevara (1928-1967): revolutionary
• Donald Trump (63): real estate mogul
• Boy George (48): singer with androgynous look
• Steffi Graf (40): tennis pro; also, champion athlete Eric Heiden (51)
• Diablo Cody (31): award-winning author of Juno; also, writers Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896), Vasile Alecsandri (1821-1890), Jerzy Kosinski (1933-1991) and Peter Mayle (70)