Tuesday, December 8, 2009

solicitous \suh-LIS-uh-tuhs\, adjective:

1. Manifesting or expressing care or concern.
2. Full of anxiety or concern; apprehensive.
3. Extremely careful; meticulous.
4. Full of desire; eager.

Solicitous is from Latin sollicitus, "thoroughly or violently moved, disturbed, or agitated," hence "anxious, uneasy, worried," from sollus, "whole, entire" + citus, past participle of ciere, "to move, to stir."

sorry dude

• A friendly and common greeting in snowboarder language.

Simon: dude, watch where your riding!
Ray: Sorry dude
Trivia
In the game of croquet, what’s the carrot?

• The pointed end of the croquet hoop—the part that’s stuck in the ground.

Today in History

• Immaculate Conception: Pope Pius IX defined as a dogma the belief that the Virgin Mary was born free of sin (1854)
• John Lennon: the ex-Beatle and peace icon was shot to death outside his apartment in New York City by Mark David Chapman, an obsessed fan (1980)
• CIS: the Commonwealth of Independent States was established instead of the USSR by Russia, Belarus and Ukraine (1991)
• NAFTA: Canadian-Mexican-US pact was signed into law by US President Bill Clinton (1993)

Today's Birthdays

• Eli Whitney (1765-1825): inventor of the cotton gin; plus, industrialist William C. Durant (1861-1947)
• Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587): Scottish queen; also, Sweden's queen Christina (1626-1689)
• Diego Rivera (1886-1957): muralist; plus, artists Aristide Maillol (1861-1944) and Camille Claudel (1864-1943)
• James Thurber (1894-1961): writer, cartoonist, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"; also, cartoonist who created Popeye, Elzie Segar (1894-1938)
• Sammy Davis, Jr. (1925-1990): all-round entertainer, he sang, danced, acted and did impressions; also, actors Lee J. Cobb (1911-1976), Maximilian Schell (79), David Carradine (1936-2009), John Rubinstein (63), Kim Basinger (56), Teri Hatcher (45), Matthew Laborteaux (43) and Dominic Monaghan (33)
• James Galway (70): virtuoso flutist; other musicians born on this date include Jean Sibelius (1865-1957), Jim Morrison (1943-1971), Gregg Allman (62), Warren Cuccurullo (53), Phil Collen (52) and Sinead O'Connor (43)