Tuesday, February 23, 2010

fructuous \FRUHK-choo-uhs\, adjective:

• Fruitful; productive.

Fructuous comes from Latin fructuosus, from fructus, "enjoyment, product, fruit," from the past participle of frui, "to enjoy."

cognitus interruptus

• A disruption of the normal thought process, normally by an external distraction. This occurs most often at times where mental focus is a necessity. Cognitus interruptus sometimes leads to procrastination, leading to further cognitus interruptus and creating a cycle. Not to be confused with coitus interruptus, which is something entirely different.

Constant cognitus interruptus in my classes kept me from passing finals.
Trivia

What category of people were the butt of the greatest number of jokes in the ancient Greek anthology that’s considered the world’s oldest surviving joke book?

• Scholars. They were the subject of more than 100 of the 265 jokes in the book The Philogelos or Laughter-Lover, which was written in the fourth or fifth century A.D.

History:

• Cato Street Conspiracy: a plot to assassinate the British cabinet and prime minister was uncovered; the conspirators were later executed (1820)
• Guantánamo Bay: Cuba leased the area to the US to use as a naval base in perpetuity; it now serves as an internment camp for suspected Islamic militants (1903)
• Rotary Club: the not-for-profit service organization held its first meeting, in Beverly Hills, led by Paul P. Harris and three friends; it now has 1 million-plus members in about 200 countries (1905)
• Iwo Jima: Marines raised the US flag over the Japanese island after severe fighting during WWII; a Pulitzer-winning photograph was taken by AP photographer Joe Rosenthal (1945)

Berfdays:

• Samuel Pepys (1633-1703): famous for his diaries
• George Frideric Handel (1685-1759): composer, Messiah and Water Music
• W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963): a founder of NAACP, wrote The Souls of Black Folk
• John Sandford (66): writer of detective novels who created Lucas Davenport; also, writers Norman Lindsay (1879-1969), William Shirer (1904-1993) and Donna J. Stone (1933-1994)
• Viktor Yushchenko (56): president of Ukraine
• Michael Dell (45): computer entrepreneur
• Emily Blunt (27): star of The Young Victoria and The Wolfman; other actors born today include Peter Fonda(71), Patricia Richardson (59), Kristin Davis (45), Niecy Nash (40) and Dakota Fanning (16)