Sunday, February 14, 2010

billet-doux \bil-ay-DOO\, noun; plural billets-doux \bil-ay-DOO(Z)\:

• A love letter or note.

In French, billet-doux means "sweet note;" or "short note" (billet, "note" + doux, "sweet," from Latin dulcis).

mfeo

• acronym for made for each other

jack and jill were mfeo
Trivia

What romantic novelty did hotel owner Morris Wilkins introduce at the “honeymooners only” resort he opened in the Pocono Mountains in 1958?

• The heart-shaped bathtub. Wilkins invented the tub for his Cove Haven Resort in Lakeville, Pennsylvania.

Today's Holidays

• Lunar New Year: aka Chinese New Year —the second new moon after the winter solstice — marking 4707 on the Chinese calendar and the Year of the Tiger.
• St. Valentine's Day: celebrated in various American and European countries by the exchange of valentines or love tokens. Also called Valentine's Day.

History

• St. Valentine's Day massacre: seven gangsters were killed as Al Capone's gang ambushed Bugs Moran's (1929)
• ENIAC: "Giant Brain" Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer was unveiled at theUniversity of Pennsylvania (1946)
• fatwa: edict was issued by Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini urging Muslims to kill Satanic Versesauthor Salman Rushdie (1989)
• NEAR Shoemaker: space probe went into orbit around433 Eros, becoming the first craft to orbit an asteroid (2000)
• Dolly the sheep: the first cloned mammal was put to sleep at age 6.5, suffering from lung cancer (2003)

Berfdays, yo!

• Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834): economist anddemographer; theorized that populations will always grow faster than food supplies
• Christopher Sholes (1819-1890): inventor who received the first patent for the typewriter
• Jack Benny (1894-1974): penny-pinching, violin-playing comedian who made the silent stare into an art form; also, entertainers Hugh Downs (89), Florence Henderson (76), Gregory Hines(1946-2003), Teller (62), Meg Tilly (50), Enrico Colantoni(47), Simon Pegg (40) and Freddie Highmore (18)
• Michael Bloomberg (68): mayor of New York City
• Carl Bernstein (66): journalist who, along with Bob Woodward, broke the Watergate story
• Renée Fleming (51): opera and lieder soprano; also, musicians Maceo Parker (67) and Michael Doucet (59)
• Steve McNair (37): NFL quarterback; NFL members Woody Hayes (1913-1987), Jim Kelly (50) and Drew Bledsoe (38) were also born on this date