Tuesday, March 23, 2010

matutinal \muh-TOOT-n-uhl\, adjective:

• Relating to or occurring in the morning; early.

Matutinal is from Late Latin matutinalis, from Latin matutinus, "early in the morning; pertaining to the morning."

Stealth-call

• When you have to call someone back but don't want to talk to them, so you wait until you know they can't talk and leave a voice mail.

"I don't want to tell Karen I can't make it tonight, so I'll Stealth-call her when she's on her flight and has her phone shut off."
Triva

When it comes to computers, you know what a bug is, but what is a WASP

• A Wireless Application Service Provider—which allows customers to access Web-based services with a variety of wireless devices, including personal digital assistants and smartphones.

History

• "Give me liberty or give me death": in Richmond, Virginia, Patrick Henry demanded freedom from England for the colonies (1775)
• Pakistan: became the first Islamic republic (1956)
• Strategic Defense Initiative: President Ronald Reagan announced a plan to protect the US from nuclear missiles, quickly dubbed "Star Wars"; the program is now called the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (1983)
• Mir: the Russian space station ended 15 years of orbit, disintegrating and falling into the South Pacific ocean (2001)

Birthdays

• Ric Ocasek (61): singer, producer, zombie, married to supermodel Paulina Porizkova
• Erich Fromm (1900-1980): psychoanalyst, The Art of Loving
• Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998): film director, Ran
• Wernher von Braun (1912-1977): rocket scientist who helped build America's space program; plus, scientists John Bartram (1699-1777), Pierre Simon Laplace (1749-1827) and William Smith (1769-1839)
• Roger Bannister (81): first to break the four-minute mile; also, racer Donald Malcolm Campbell (1921-1967)
• Jason Kidd (37): Dallas Mavericks point guard; NBA Hall-of-Famer Moses Malone (55) was also born on this date
• Keri Russell (34): star of Felicity, Waitress; other actors born on this date include Amanda Plummer (53), Hope Davis (46), Richard Grieco (45), Marin Hinkle (44), Michelle Monaghan (34) and Nicholle Tom (32)