Thursday, September 3, 2009

carom \KAIR-uhm\, noun:

1. A rebound following a collision; a glancing off.
2. A shot in billiards in which the cue ball successively strikes two other balls on the table.
3. To strike and rebound; to glance.
4. To make a carom.
5. To make (an object) bounce off something; to cause to carom.

Carom derives from obsolete carambole, from Spanish carambola, "a stroke at billiards."
latchkey wife

• Based on the phrase "latchkey kid." A wife who comes home from work to an empty house, left to her own defenses during the evening, while husband works opposite shift.

Because of her time alone, the latchkey wife was free to have complete control over the remote control and the computer with no interruptions!

Trivia
Who was the U.S. president during all six of the manned moon landings?

• Richard Nixon.

Today in History:

• San Marino: independent country inside Italy — arguably the world's smallest and oldest republic — was founded (301)
• Richard the Lion-Hearted: was crowned king of England after defeating his father, Henry II (1189)
• Treaty of Paris: the US Revolutionary War came to an official end (1783)
• Malcolm Campbell: English racer and journalist became the first person to drive an automobile over 300 mph, at Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah (1935)

Today's Birthdays:

• Edward Filene (1860-1937): eponymous retailer and a developer of the "bargain basement"; merchant Mark Hopkins (1814-1878) shared this birth date
• Ferdinand Porsche (1875-1951): auto designer
• Mort Walker (86): cartoonist, Beetle Bailey and Hi and Lois
• Alison Lurie (83): Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, Foreign Affairs; also, writers Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909) and Caryl Churchill (71)
• Ruth Orkin (1921-1985): photographer and filmmaker
• Charlie Sheen (44): actor, Two and a Half Men; other actors who celebrate a birthday today include Helen Wagner (91), Anne Jackson (83), Pauline Collins (69), Valerie Perrine (66), Costas Mandylor (44) and Nick Wechsler (31)