Tuesday, January 5, 2010

atelier \at-l-YAY\, noun:

• A workshop; a studio.

Atelier comes from French, from Old French astelier, "carpenter's shop," from astele, "splinter," from Late Latin astella, alteration of Latin astula, itself an alteration of assula, "a shaving, a chip," diminutive of assis, "board."

vacation amnesia

• When you come back to school or work from your vacation and you can't remember what you did before your vacation.

Andy suffered from a bad case of vacation amnesia when he went back to school and couldn't remember what he had been learning before.

Trivia
What state holds an annual three-day mosquito festival?

• Texas, in the town of Clute. The Great Texas Mosquito Festival is held on the last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of July. The 30th annual festival will be held this year.

Today in History

• x-rays: discovery by Wilhelm Roentgen was announced; though their exact nature was unknown to him (hence the name), the achievement won him the first Nobel Prize in Physics (1896)
• Fair Deal: newly reelected president Harry S. Truman coined the phrase to refer to a 21-point program he sent to Congress in 1945, focusing on civil rights and social welfare(1949)
• Prague Spring: a brief period of reform began in Czechoslovakia; it ended later in the year with a Soviet invasion (1968)
• Eris: largest dwarf planet was discovered (2005)

Today's Birthdays

• Alvin Ailey (1931-1989): dancer/choreographer
• Umberto Eco (78): semiotician who wrote The Name of the Rose
• Chuck Noll (78): former NFL player and coach who won more Super Bowls than any head coach in NFL history; other hall-of-famers born on this date are Lou Carnesecca (85) and Alex English (56)
• King Juan Carlos (72): Spanish king; other world leaders born on this date include Shah Jahan(1592-1666), Konrad Adenauer (1876-1967), Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (1928-1979) and Walter Mondale(82)
• Charlie Rose (68): broadcast journalist
• Bradley Cooper (35): hunky actor, The Hangover; also, actors Constantin Stanislavsky (1863 NS -1938), Robert Duvall (79), January Jones (32), Diane Keaton (64), Pamela Sue Martin (57) and Clancy Brown (51)