Saturday, April 10th, 2010

Pyrrhic victory \PIR-ik\, noun:

• A victory achieved at great or excessive cost; a ruinous victory.

A Pyrrhic victory is so called after the Greek king Pyrrhus, who, after suffering heavy losses in defeating the Romans in 279 B.C., said to those sent to congratulate him, "Another such victory over the Romans and we are undone."

Soap grafting

• The act of attaching an almost completely used piece of soap to a new, unused piece because it is now too small to be conveniently used but you also don't want to waste it.

My mum always soap grafts because she doesn't want to waste anything. Soap grafting is good.
Trivia
How did “a cup of Joe” become U.S. Navy jargon for a cup of coffee?

• It was named for Secretary of the Navy Josephus “Joe” Daniels, who banned “ardent spirits” from the officers’ mess in 1914, making coffee the strongest drink offered aboard ship and inspiring the slang reference to coffee as a cup of Joe.

History

• safety pin: was patented by Walter Hunt (1849) 
• ASPCA: was founded in New York by Henry Bergh to prevent cruelty to animals (1866)
• Titanic: luxury liner set out from Southampton, England, heading for New York on its ill-fated maiden voyage (1912)
• Emiliano Zapata: Mexican revolutionary leader known for his battle cry of "land and liberty" was killed by soldiers (1919)
• The Beatles: Paul McCartney announced the group's disbandment (1970)
• euthanasia: the Netherlands legalized mercy killings and physician-assisted suicide for patients enduring unmanageable pain or terminal illness (2001)
• Amber Alert: US House passed a bill establishing a system for alerting the public about missing or abducted children (2003)

Berfdays

• William Booth (1829-1912): founder, Salvation Army
• Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911): journalist/publisher who established the Pulitzer Prize; also, writers Hugo Grotius (1583-1645), Benjamin Day (1810-1889), Lewis Wallace (1827-1905), David Halberstam (1934-2007) and Paul Theroux (69)
• Robert Burns Woodward (1917-1979): Nobel Prize-winning chemist, Woodward's rules
• John Madden (74): NFL coach and sportscaster; plus football stars Don Meredith (72) and Mel Blount (62)
• Peter MacNicol (56): Larry Fleinhardt on NUMB3RS, Tom Lennox on 24; also, actors Harry Morgan (95), Chuck Connors (1921-1992), Liz Sheridan and Max von Sydow (both 81), Omar Sharif (78), Steven Seagal (59), Chyler Leigh (28) and Haley Joel Osment (22)
• Mandy Moore (26): actor and pop singer, Coverage; other singers born on this date include Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds (52) and Q-Tip (40)