Wednesday, March 10, 2010

phantasmagoria \fan-taz-muh-GOR-ee-uh\, noun:

1. A shifting series or succession of things seen or imagined, as in a dream.
2. Any constantly changing scene.

Phantasmagoria is from French phantasmagorie, from phantasme, "phantasm" (from Greek, from phantazein, "to make visible," from phantos, "visible," from phainein, "to show") + -agorie, perhaps from Greek agora, "assembly."

recrap

• To sum up a discussion composed largely of useless bullshit.

Person 1: "Tell me how the staff meeting went."

Person 2: "Allow me to recrap..."
Trivia

Which sea is the shallowest in the world?

• The inland Sea of Azov, which is about 47 feet at its deepest. Located between Ukraine and Russia, it’s linked to the Black Sea by the Kerch Strait.

History

• Personal Rule: King Charles I of England dissolved Parliament and began 11 years of ruling alone (1629)
• Alexander Graham Bell: made the first telephone call: "Watson, come here; I want you" (1876)
• rings of Uranus: were discovered (1977)
• syzygy: all the planets were on the same side of the Sun (1982)

Berfdays

• Clare Boothe Luce (1903-1987): playwright, US ambassador to Italy
• Kim Campbell (63): Canada's first female PM
• Paul Haggis (57): writer/ director, Crash; writer/ producer David Rabe(70) and columnist Bob Greene (63) share this birth date
• Prince Edward (46): Earl of Wessex
• Paget Brewster (41): actor,Criminal Minds; also, actors Chuck Norris (70), Shannon Tweed (53), Sharon Stone (52), Jon Hamm (39) and Cristián de la Fuente (36)
• Shannon Miller (33): gold medal-winning gymnast
• Carrie Underwood (27): Grammy-winning country singer; other musicians born on this date include Bix Beiderbecke (1903-1931), Pablo de Sarasate (1844-1908), Arthur Honegger (1892-1955), Norman Blake (72), Dean Torrence (70), Tom Scholz (63), Jeff Ament (47), Edie Brickell (44), Timbaland (39) and Robin Thicke (33)