Monday, April 26, 2010

quisling \KWIZ-ling\, noun:

• Someone who collaborates with an enemy occupying his or her country; a traitor.

A quisling is so called after Vidkun Quisling (1887-1945), Norwegian politician and officer who collaborated with the Nazis.

fax potato

• A person who faxes from one floor to another instead of getting up and running the information because they're too lazy to get out of their chair.

Dilbert, over in Engineering, is such a fax potato. He sent me 15 faxes this week. What, he can't leave his office to run me a READABLE spec sheet?

Trivia

What do Lusaka, Lomé, and Lilongwe have in common?

• They are capitals of African countries: Lusaka, of Zambia; Lomé, of Togo; and Lilongwe, of Malawi.

History

• Cape Henry: Jamestown settlers made landfall on this Virginia promontory (1607)
• Tanzania: African republic was formed by the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar (1964)
• Chernobyl disaster: worst-ever nuclear reactor accident occurred near the Ukrainian city of Chernobyl; the resulting radioactive cloud covered much of Europe (1986)

Berfdays

• John James Audubon (1785-1851): ornithologist and artist; plus, artist Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863)
• Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903): landscape architect who designed Central Park; architect I. M. Pei (93) was also born on this date
• Bernard Malamud (1914-1986): author of The Fixer and The Natural; also, writers Anita Loos (1893?-1981) and Morris West (1916-1999)
• Jet Li (47): martial arts movie star, War; also, actors Giancarlo Esposito (52), Michael Damian (48), Marianne Jean-Baptiste (43), Jason Earles and Tom Welling (both 33), and Jordana Brewster and Channing Tatum (both 30)
• Kevin James (45): comedian, actor, King of Queens; comic and actor Carol Burnett (77) shares this birth date
• T-Boz (40): singer, TLC; plus, musicians Ma Rainey (1886-1939), Duane Eddy (72), Bobby Rydell (68), Gary Wright (67), Roger Taylor (50) and Chris Mars (49)