Friday, February 19, 2010

gastronome \GAS-truh-nohm\, noun:

• A connoisseur of good food and drink.

Gastronome is ultimately derived from Greek gaster, "stomach" + nomos, "rule, law."
Olympic Narcolepsy

• The sensation you get that you will abruptly fall asleep at any moment during the day due to trying to watch as much of the Olympics as you can the night prior, causing you to stay up way too late. A seasonal disorder, occuring in winter or summer only, and is of brief duration (around 2 weeks), and usually occurs in even numbered years. VCR, TiVO or other recording device is the only known remedy.

Jim: "Boy, look at John. He is drooling all over his spreadsheets and computer and he even had 3 cups of coffee. What do you think is wrong with him?"

Jane: "I don't know, but I think he may have Olympic Narcolepsy trying to see the Jamaican bobsled team medal. It was the last event last night."
Trivia

What Baseball Hall of Fame slugger won the American League home run title with only nine—all of them inside-the-park?

• Ty Cobb, in 1909. Of his 117 career homers, 46 were inside-the-park.

History

• Treaty of Westminster: ended the Third Anglo-Dutch War; New Amsterdam was subsequently ceded to England (1674)
• Aaron Burr: the former US vice president was arrested for treason; he was acquitted (1807)
• Donner party: rescuers reached the ill-fated group of settlers who had resorted to cannibalism after being trapped by snow in the Sierra Nevada (1847)
• Edict of Emancipation: serfs were liberated by Czar Alexander II (1861 OS)
• Mir: Soviet/Russian space station was launched; it remained in orbit for 15 years and was occupied for 12.5 of those (1986)

Berfdays

• Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543): astronomer
• Carson McCullers (1917-1967): Southern-gothic novelist, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter; author Amy Tan (58) was also born on this date
• Smokey Robinson (70): R&B singer/ songwriter; also, musicians Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805), Stan Kenton (1912-1979), Lou Christie (67) and Seal (47)
• Jeff Daniels (55): stage and screen actor, Dumb and Dumber, State of Play; plus, actors David Garrick (1717-1779), Merle Oberon (1911-1979), Lee Marvin (1924-1987), Carlin Glynn (70), Ray Winstone (53), Justine Bateman (44), Benicio Del Toro (43) and Haylie Duff (25)
• Prince Andrew (50): Queen Elizabeth II's second son