Thursday, December 24, 2009

lambent \LAM-buhnt\, adjective:

1. Playing lightly on or over a surface; flickering; as, "a lambent flame; lambent shadows."
2. Softly bright or radiant; luminous; as, "a lambent light."
3. Light and brilliant; as, "a lambent style; lambent wit."

Lambent is from the present participle of Latin lambere,"to lick."
gift crack

• The gap in wrapping paper or uncovered portion of a gift usually found on the bottom of the box. May result from the gift wrapper running out of paper or cutting gift wrap too small to cover the entire package.

Bryan figured out what his present was because the gift crack exposed the picture on the box.
Trivia

Who was the first person in the U.S. to put electric lights on a Christmas tree?

• An associate of Thomas Edison, in 1882. Edward Johnson hand-wired 80 small colored bulbs and strung them around a rotating evergreen in the parlor of his New York City home.

Holiday

• Christmas Eve

Today in History

• Kiritimati: Pacific atoll also called Christmas Island was discovered by Captain Cook (1777)
• Treaty of Ghent: ended the War of 1812 between the US and Great Britain (1814)
• Ku Klux Klan: violent racist organization was founded in Pulaski, Tennessee, by a group of Confederate veterans (1865)

Today's Birthdays

• Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556): founder of the Jesuits
• Kit Carson (1809-1868): frontiersman and folk hero
• Howard Hughes (1905-1976): reclusive aviator, movie producer and billionaire
• Mary Higgins Clark (82): mystery novelist; writers Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), Juan Ramón Jiménez (1881-1958) and I.F. Stone (1907-1989) shared this birth date
• Kate Spade (47): luxury designer
• Ricky Martin (38): pop singer
• Ryan Seacrest (35): host of American Idol