Friday, January 22, 2010

prevaricate \prih-VAIR-uh-kayt\, intransitive verb:

• To depart from or evade the truth; to speak with equivocation.

Prevaricate derives from the past participle of Latin praevaricari, "to pass in front of, or over, by straddling; to walk crookedly; to collude," from prae, "before, in front of" + varicare, "to straddle," from varicus, "straddling," from varus, "bent."

Leno Giver

• When someone retires from a legendary television franchise, passes the torch to a worthy successor. Then he gets bored and starts a new show which sucks and then asks for their old job back by firing the successor.

He's a leno giver
Trivia
What is the distinguishing feature of a superoleophobic surface?

• It’s oil repellent.

History

• Bloody Sunday: czarist troops massacred unarmed demonstrators in St. Petersburg, marking the beginning of the unsuccessful Russian Revolution of 1905 (1905)
• The Crucible: Arthur Miller play that used the Salem witch trials as a stand-in for McCarthyism premiered on Broadway; after a rocky start, it became a classic (1953)
• Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in: began tickling American funny bones; notable cast members included Goldie Hawn, Lily Tomlin and Tiny Tim (1968)
• Roe v. Wade: the US Supreme Court legalized abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy; the legal precedent still holds today (1973)

Berfdays, yo!

• Francis Bacon (1561-1626): philosopher, father of modern scientific method; also, physicist André Marie Ampère (1775-1836)
• Joseph Wambaugh (73): police officer turned author, The Onion Field; writer August Strindberg (1849-1912) shared this birth date
• D.W. Griffith (1875-1948): pioneer in film, The Birth of a Nation, Intolerance
• George Balanchine (1904-1983): renowned choreographer
• Sam Cooke (1931-1964): soul singer; plus, soprano Rosa Ponselle (1897-1981)
• Balthazar Getty (35): Tommy Walker on Brothers and Sisters; also, actors Bill Bixby (1934-1993), Piper Laurie (78), Seymour Cassel (75), John Hurt (70), Linda Blair (51) and Diane Lane (45)