Wednesday, July 15, 2009

bestow \bih-STOH\, transitive verb:

1. To present as a gift or an honor; confer.
2. To apply; use.

Bestow comes down to us from the Middle English bistowen, from bi-, be- + stowen, to place, to stow.

dick magnet

• The opposite of a chick magnet. Used to refer to anything or anyone who easily attracts guys. Also used with straight guys who easily attract gay guys (My personal favorite).

"I've only been to a gay bar once"
"Oh yeah? I bet you were a real dick magnet"
Trivia

What do we call the area along the New England coast that Captain John Smith, the English explorer, named Tragabigzanda in 1614?

• Cape Ann. Charatza Tragabigzanda was a Turkish princess who had befriended Smith after he was captured and held prisoner by the Turks in 1602.

Today in History:

• Reconstruction: Georgia became the last of the Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union after the American Civil War (1870)
• Second Battle of the Marne: World War I fight began; the Allies' victory halted the German advance toward Paris (1918)
• the Mozilla Foundation: was founded to govern development of the open source Mozilla project; it's the creator of the Firefox browser and other web products (2003)

Today's Birthdays:

• Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669): Dutch painter
• Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850-1917): first US saint
• Linda Ronstadt (63): singer/actress with multiple Grammys, an Emmy and several platinum albums; other musicians born on this date include Artimus Pyle (61), Marky Ramone and Joe Satriani (both 53), and Jason Bonham (43)
• Jesse Ventura (58): former wrestler, governor of Minnesota
• Forest Whitaker (48): Oscar winner for Last King of Scotland; also, actors Philip Carey (1925-2009), Alex Karras and Ken Kercheval (both 74), Jan-Michael Vincent (65), Terry O'Quinn (57), Lolita Davidovich (48), Brigitte Nielsen (46), Scott Foley (37) and Brian Austin Green (36) and Lana Parrilla (32)