Monday, October 19, 2009

fugacious \fyoo-GAY-shuhs\, adjective:

• Lasting but a short time; fleeting.

Fugacious is derived from Latin fugax, fugac-, "ready to flee, flying; hence, fleeting, transitory," from fugere, "to flee, to take flight." Other words derived from the same root include fugitive, one who flees, especially from the law; refuge, a place to which to flee back (re-, "back"), and hence to safety; and fugue, literally a musical "flight."

attention whore

• Label given to any person who craves attention to such an extent that they will do anything to receive it. The type of attention (negative or positive) does not matter.

You're such a GD attention whore!
Trivia
What famous high-fashion designer was the first to make use of the zipper?

• Italian-born Elsa Schiaparelli, in the mid-1930s. She made both functional and decorative use of colorful plastic zippers.

Today in History

• Yorktown campaign: British General Charles Cornwallis surrendered, effectively ending the land war of the American Revolution (1781)
• Black Monday: the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 508 points — over 22% — setting a record for percentage decline that still stands (1987)
• Guildford Four: men wrongly convicted for a deadly IRA bombing were cleared after 15 years in jail (1989)

Today's Birthdays

• Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935): French officer wrongly accused of treason
• Auguste Lumière (1862-1954): with his brother Louis, inventor of the Cinématographe moving picture system
• Walter Cannon (1871-1945): physiologist who studied the digestive system and developed the concept of homeostasis
• Charles Merrill (1885-1956): founder of Merrill Lynch
• John Le Carré (78): espionage novelist, The Spy Who Came In From the Cold; plus writer Philip Pullman (63)
• Evander Holyfield (47): boxer
• Jason Reitman (32): writer/director, Thank You for Smoking, Juno; TV producer Trey Parker (40) shares this birth date
• John Lithgow (64): actor, 3rd Rock from the Sun