Saturday, August 1, 2009

arcane \ar-KAYN\, adjective:

• Understood or known by only a few.

Arcane comes from Latin arcanus, "shut, closed, secret," from arca, "chest, box."

Wait, shit

• Something someone would say after realizing what they just said or did was idiotic or bad.

"Dude, my dick is so big that if I laid it out on a keyboard, it would go from A to Z.
...
Wait, shit."

Trivia

Which of the four female stars of TV’s Sex and the City had a no-nudity clause in her contract?

• Sarah Jessica Parker, who played sex columnist Carrie Bradshaw.

Today in history:

• Slavery Abolition Act 1833: abolished slavery in Britain and Ireland
• WWI: erupted as Germany declared war on Russia (1914)
• Fulbright: scholarship program was signed into US law (1946)
• MTV: cable music station was launched with, aptly, The Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star" (1981)

Today's Birthdays:

• Claudius (10 BCE-54 CE): 4th Roman emperor
• Jean Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829): the naturalistcredited with first use of the word "biology"
• Francis Scott Key (1779-1843): attorney who wrote "The Star-Spangled Banner"
• Herman Melville (1819-1891): author of Moby Dick; plus, writer Anne Hébert (1916-2000)
• Dom DeLuise (1933-2009): actor and cookbook writer; actors Giancarlo Giannini (67) and John Carroll Lynch(46) share this birth date
• Yves Saint Laurent (1936-2008): fashion designer, popularized pants for women
• Robert Cray (56): blues guitarist and singer; musicians Jerry Garcia (1942-1995),Michael Penn (51), Joe Elliot (50), Chuck D (49), Coolio (46) and Adam Duritz (45) also celebrate birthdays today