Thursday, July 30, 2009

aplomb \uh-PLOM\, noun:

• Assurance of manner or of action; self-possession; confidence; coolness.

Aplomb is from the French word meaning "perpendicularity, equilibrium, steadiness, assurance," from the Old French phrase a plomb, from a, "according to" (from Latin ad) + plomb, "lead weight" (from Latin plumbum, "lead").

email courier

• An individual who approaches someone's desk or workstation in a work environment almost immediately after sending them an email, usually to confirm that the email has been received.

Bill: I just sent you an email. Did you get it?

Mike: Probably, I haven't checked.

Bill: Can you check?

Mike: Uh yeah, looks like I got it.

Bill: Thoughts?

Mike: My immediate thoughts are you're an email courier and a douchebag.

Trivia

What is corn smut?

• A spongy black fungus that causes corn kernels to swell. Considered a blight by most U.S. farmers, it is prized as a delicacy in Mexican cuisine, where it’s known as huitlacoche. To make it more palatable to the squeamish, it’s sometimes referred to as Mexican truffles.

Today in History:

• Baltimore: port town and industrial center was founded (1729)
• In God We Trust: became the official motto of the US (1956)
• Kim Philby: the Soviet news service announced that the British intelligence officer and double agent had defected to the USSR (1963)
• Medicare: insurance program for senior citizens was signed into US law (1965)
• Sarbanes-Oxley Act: "Corporate Responsibility Act" — that tightened control of financial reporting and reduced the potential for fraud — was signed into law by President George Bush (2002)

Today's Birthdays:

• Emily Brontë (1818-1948): the author of Wuthering Heights
• Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929): political economist who wrote The Theory of the Leisure Class
• Henry Ford (1863-1947): inventor who popularized mass production with the Ford Motor Company which eventually developed the awesome Ford Focus, pictured at bottom
• Casey Stengel (1890-1975): manager of the NY Yankees who led them to five straight championships
• Henry Moore (1898-1986): sculptor of reclining figures
• Arnold Schwarzenegger (62): action-movie star who became governor of California
• Simon Baker (40): The Mentalist, Patrick Jane; also, actors Jean Reno (61), Laurence Fishburne (48), Lisa Kudrow (46), Vivica A. Fox (45), Terry Crews (41), Hilary Swank (35), Jaime Pressly (32) and Yvonne Strahovski (27)