Sunday, March 7, 2010

Pyrrhic victory (PIR-ik VIK-tuh-ree) noun

• A victory won at too great a cost.

EtymologyAfter Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, who suffered staggering losses in defeating the Romans.

Toilet Mummy

• When someone is so concerned about toilet seat germs, they cover the seat with half a roll of toilet paper, leaving it to appear like it has been mummified.

"I was going to use that stall to drop a deuce, but somebody left it looking like a toilet mummy."

Trivia

What is the dried white meat of a coconut called?

• Copra.

History

• Daniel Webster: orator delivered his Seventh of March speech defending the Compromise of 1850 (1850)
• telephone: transmitter/ receiver of sound was patented by Alexander Graham Bell (1876)
• fair use: the US Supreme Court ruled in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music that parodies are not copyright infringements (1994)

Berfdays

• Alessandro Manzoni (1785-1873): poet and novelist, The Betrothed
• Tomáš Masaryk (1850-1937): president of Czechoslavakia
• Maurice Ravel (1875-1937): composer of Boléro
• Willard Scott (76): perennially sunny, intermittent weather forecaster for NBC's Today Show
• Lynn Swann (58): NFL hall-of-famer; also, sports pros Janet Guthrie (72), Ivan Lendl (50) and Jeff Kent (42)
• Jenna Fischer (36): The Office's receptionist, Pam Beesly; also actors Daniel J. Travanti (70), John Heard (64),Bryan Cranston (54), Rachel Weisz and Peter Saarsgard (both 39), and Laura Prepon (30)