Wednesday, October 07, 2009

foofaraw \FOO-fuh-raw\ , noun:

1. Excessive or flashy ornamentation or decoration.
2. A fuss over a matter of little importance.

Origin: Foofaraw is perhaps from Spanish fanfarrón, "a braggart."
call the roll

• When it feels like everyone you know is at a bar, club, or pub, so you could do a roll call like back at school.People may optionally call out to all their mates, lads, hoods, bros, crew, etc one by one like at school roll call.Similar concept occurs when teachers go out at night and see all of their current or former students out at the same venue.

"Wow, everyone's here, we could call the roll."
"I went to the local bar last night but had to leave because half of my students were drinking there. I nearly had to call the roll."
Trivia
Which are the only two South American countries that don’t share a border with Brazil?

• Ecuador and Chile.

Today in History

• Battle of Lepanto: victory of Christians over Ottoman Empire (1571)
• Cats: long-running musical based on T.S. Eliot's poems opened on Broadway (1982)
• Achille Lauro: Italian ship was hijacked by Palestinian terrorists; Leon Klinghoffer, a wheelchair-bound passenger, was killed the next day (1985)

Today's Birthdays

• Desmond Tutu (78): South African cleric who won a Nobel Prize for his work againstapartheid
• John Mellencamp (58): rocker; musicians Al Martino (82), Kevin Godley (64), Tico Torres(56), Yo-Yo Ma (54) and Thom Yorke (41) were also born on this date
• Vladimir Putin (57): prime minister of Russia
• Simon Cowell (50): critical judge on American Idol; American Idol winner Taylor Hicks (33) shares his birth date
• Rachel McAdams (33): actor, The Notebook, The Time Traveler's Wife; also, actor Dylan Baker (50)