Saturday, March 27, 2010

sylvan \SIL-vuhn\, adjective:

1. Of or pertaining to woods or forest regions.
2. Living or located in a wood or forest.
3. Abounding in forests or trees; wooded.

noun:

1. A fabled deity or spirit of the woods.
2. One that lives in or frequents the woods or forest; a rustic.

Sylvan derives from Latin silva, sylva, "a wood or grove."
understandment

• The combination of understanding and agreement. Used when talking about informal commitment.

we aren't dating but we have an understandment not to fool around with other people.
Trivia
How long is the adult human appendix?

• Usually between three and four inches.

History

• Nikita Khrushchev: became prime minister of the Soviet Union (1958)
• Good Friday Earthquake: North America's most powerful earthquake struck Alaska, measuring 9.2 on the Richter scale; it killed over 100 and triggered devastating tsunamis (1964)
• Tenerife crash: the world's worst aviation disaster took place when two 747 airliners collided on Tenerife, Canary Islands (1977)
• Viagra: was approved by the FDA for erectile dysfunction (1998)

Berfdays, yo!

• Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (1845-1923): physicist who developed X-ray imagery; Nobel Prize winning chemist Otto Wallach (1847-1931) was also born on this date
• Edward Steichen (1879-1973): artist photographer; lithographer Nathaniel Currier (1813-1888) and architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) shared this date
• James Callaghan (1912-2005): British PM; Japanese PM Sato Eisaku (1901-1975) and US Sec'y of State Cyrus Vance (1917-2002) were also born on this date
• Walt Mossberg (63): WSJ technology columnist; plus, columnist Anthony Lewis (83)
• Quentin Tarantino (47): filmmaker, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill; actors born today include Julian Glover (75), Austin Pendleton (70), Michael York (68), Xuxa (47), Pauley Perrette (41), Nathan Fillion (39) and Brenda Song (22)
• Fergie (35): singer who started out with the Black Eyed Peas and went solo - butterface with a kickin' body; other musicians born today are Ben Webster (1909-1973), Sarah Vaughan (1924-1990), Tony Banks (60), Andrew Farriss (51), Dave Koz (47) and Mariah Carey (40)