Saturday, February 13, 2010

cupidity \kyoo-PID-uh-tee\, noun:

• Eager or excessive desire, especially for wealth; greed; avarice.

Cupidity ultimately comes from Latin cupiditas, from cupidus, "desirous," from cupere, "to desire." It is related to Cupid, the Roman god of love.

Verbal Card

• A way of giving someone a birthday card without actually giving them a card. Verbal Cards are recited orally and are usually made up on the spot, but can be planned out in advance. They are better than normal cards for many reasons mainly that they can be personalized. The only downfalls to a Verbal Card is that you can't put money in them, and don't have any funny pictures. They can however include singing.

Tom- Here's your present Sara!!
Sara- um thanks, is there a card?
Tom- VERBAL CARD!!!
Trivia

Whose head was superimposed on a photo of actress Ann-Margret in a revealing gown for the cover of a 1989 issue of TV Guide?

• Oprah Winfrey’s. The sexy photo appeared on TV Guide’s August 26th cover. The unauthorized composite was discovered by Ann-Margret’s fashion designer, who recognized the glittery gown from a 1979 publicity shot.

History

• ASCAP: American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers was founded to protect members' copyrighted music (1914)
• Switzerland: the League of Nations recognized its perpetual neutrality (1920)
• Dresden bombing: Allied attack on the German city during WWII caused major devastation; casualty estimates were revised downwards over the years from 250,000 to 25,000 (1945)
• BPM 37093: white dwarf star was found to have a massive diamond core; it was nicknamed Lucy, after the song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" (2004)

Berfdays, yo!

• Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820): botanist
• Georgios Papandreou (1888-1968): three-time Greek PM
• Grant Wood (1891-1942): painter of American Gothic
• William Shockley (1910-1989): Nobel Prize-winning physicist
• Stockard Channing (66): stage and screen performer, 2009 Tony nominee for Pal Joey; also, entertainers Kim Novak (77), George Segal (76), Bo Svenson (69), Carol Lynley (68), Jerry Springer (66), Neal McDonough (44), Kelly Hu (42) and Mena Suvari (31)
• Robbie Williams (36): UK hall-of-fame singer/songwriter; also, musicians Leopold Godowsky (1870-1938), Feodor Chaliapin (1873-1938), Peter Tork (68), Peter Gabriel (60) and Henry Rollins (49) share his birthday