Thursday, July 9, 2009

fervid \FUR-vid\, adjective:

1. Heated or vehement in spirit, enthusiasm, etc.
2. Burning; glowing; intensely hot.

Fervid comes from Latin fervidus "glowing, burning, vehement," from fervere "to boil, glow." The figurative sense of "impassioned" is from 1656.

GD2

• This acronym stands for "Great Depression #2." It's shorthand for the seemingly imminent collapse of the global economic system starting in late 2008 and continuing into 2009. Some professional economists, as well as ordinary working people, are fearful that the spiralling financial meltdown will lead to a decade-long repeat of the 1930s, complete with bread lines, soup kitchens, radical uprisings and the possibility of global violence. "Happy times are here again!"

"The collapse of AIG is just one more sign that GD2 is here, my friends."
Trivia
Who said, “There’s a sucker born every minute”?

• Not showman P. T. Barnum, as is widely believed. The famous words were uttered by one of his competitors, David Hannum.

Today in History:

• Wimbledon: the precursor to the tennis tournament first began; only Gentlemen's Singles was played (1877)
• cross of gold: William Jennings Bryan delivered a speech to the Democratic National Convention supporting bimetallism, advocating a silver standard in addition to the gold standard (1896)
• Johnny Weissmuller: swam 100 meters freestyle in 58.6 seconds, thus breaking the minute barrier (1922)
• Grateful Dead: psychedelic rock-country-jazz band played its last concert, a month before the death of lead singer Jerry Garcia (1995)

Today's Birthdays:

• Nikola Tesla (1856-1943): inventor of the AC electric power motor and the Tesla coil; inventor of the first DC electric motor Thomas Davenport (1802-1851) was also born on this date
• Hassan II (1929-1999): king of Morocco; British PM Edward Heath (1916-2005) shared his birth date
• David Hockney (72): pop artist, photographer, designer
• Dean Koontz (64): bestselling thriller writer; author Mervyn Peake (1911-1968) shared this birth date
• Chris Cooper (58): Oscar winner for his role in Adaptation; also, performers Brian Dennehy (71), Richard Roundtree (67), OJ Simpson (62), Jimmy Smits (54), Tom Hanks (53), Enrique Murciano (36) and Fred Savage (33)
• Courtney Love (45): rock singer; singers Ed Ames (82) and John Tesh (57) were also born on this date