Saturday, July 11, 2009

gauche \GOHSH\, adjective:

• Lacking social polish; tactless; awkward; clumsy.

Gauche is from the French for left, awkward.
march of dimes

• A procession or gathering of attractive females.

Guy at mall: "Damn, look at those women, it's a regular march of dimes."
Trivia

Parts of which U.S. president’s vertebrae have been exhibited at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C.?

• James A. Garfield’s. The museum has displayed three of his vertebrae, showing the path taken by the bullet fired into his back by assassin Charles Guiteau in July 1881.

Today in History:

• Niagara Movement: W.E.B. Du Bois and other African-Americans united to call for an end to racial discrimination (1905)
• Skylab: after six years in space, the space station reentered Earth's atmosphere (1979)
• Mumbai train bombings: seven blasts set off in pressure cookers took more than 200 lives (2006)

Today's Birthdays:

• Robert, the Bruce (1274-1329): king of an independent Scotland
• John Quincy Adams (1767-1848): POTUS, sec'y of state, and architect of the Monroe Doctrine
• James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903): portraitist
• E.B. White (1899-1985): literary stylist who revised William Strunk's Elements of Style and wrote Charlotte's Web; editor Thomas Bowdler (1754-1825) shared this birth date
• Suzanne Vega (50): singer/songwriter, "Luka"; other musicians born on this date include Kirk Whalum (51), Richie Sambora (50) and Lil' Kim (34)
• Justin Chambers (39): Alex Karev on Grey's Anatomy; also, actors Yul Brynner (1920-1985), Susan Seaforth Hayes (66), Bruce McGill (59), Stephen Lang (57), Sela Ward (53), Lisa Rinna (46), Greg Grunberg (43) and Michael Rosenbaum (37)