Friday, March 5, 2010

fealty \FEE-uhl-tee\, noun:

1. Fidelity to one's lord; the feudal obligation by which the tenant or vassal was bound to be faithful to his lord.
2. The oath by which this obligation was assumed.
3. Fidelity; allegiance; faithfulness.

Fealty comes from Old French fealté, from Latin fidelitas, "fidelity," from fidelis, "faithful," from fides, "faith," from fidere, "to trust."

self-defecating

• To unintentionally demean one's self. To unthinkingly place one's self in an unflattering light.

People who minimize their genius are self-deprecating. People who eulogize their ignorance are self-defecating.

Trivia
What was the assassination unit inside the former Soviet Union’s KGB called?

• SMERSH. The name is an abbreviation of the unit’s Russian motto, smertshpionam, which means “death to spies.”

History

• Stars and Bars: first of several Confederate flags was adopted (1861)
• Iron Curtain: phrase was coined by Winston Churchill in a speech in Missouri (1946)
• North Korea: held peace talks with South Korea for the first time in 25 years; the representatives met in New York (1997)
• Martha Stewart: businesswoman was convicted of conspiracy and obstruction of justice in the investigation of ImClone insider trading (2004)

Berfdays

• Gerardus Mercator (1512-1594): cartographer, came up with the Mercator projection
• Jan van der Heyden (1637-1712): painter of cityscapes, inventor of the firehose; plus, artists Giovanni Tiepolo (1696-1770) and Howard Pyle (1853-1911)
• Antoine Cadillac (1658-1730): founder of Detroit
• Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959): musician and composer who founded the Brazilian Academy of Music; also, musicians Alan Clark (58), Charlie and Craig Reid (both 48) and John Frusciante (40)
• Madame Chiang Kai-shek (1897-2003): wife of Chiang Kai-shek and advocate for his government
• James B. Sikking (76): actor, Hill St. Blues; also, actors Rex Harrison (1908-1990), James Noble (88), Dean Stockwell (74), Michael Warren (64), Marsha Warfield (56), Penn Jillette (55), Adriana Barraza (54), Eva Mendes and Kevin Connolly (both 36) and Jake Lloyd (21)