Thursday, May 20, 2010

plucky \PLUHK-ee\, adjective:

• Having or showing pluck or courage; brave.

Plucky is originally boxing slang from the 1800s, from the meaning "heart, viscera" as that which is "plucked" from slaughtered livestock.

shoot the shit

• To chat idly about things that neither person involved in the conversation will be likely to remember.

John: "We decided to shoot the shit for a while."
Trivia

What is the very fitting name of Alaska’s oldest newspaper, located in the former gold rush city of Nome?

• The Nome Nugget.

History

• First Council of Nicaea: opened in present-day Turkey; it dealt with the relationship of Jesus to God the Father, and the date of Easter, among other issues (325)
• Hamburger Hill: US and South Vietnamese forces captured Apbia Mountain after one of the Vietnam War's bloodiest battles (1969)
• Cheers: the final episode of the TV sitcom was seen by 93 million viewers (1993)
• East Timor: became an independent nation and the first new sovereign state of the 21st century (2002)

Birthdays

• Dolley Madison (1768-1849): 4th American First Lady; she saved government valuables when the British set fire to the White House in 1814
• Honoré de Balzac (1799-1859): novelist, wrote La comédie humaine
• John Stuart Mill (1806-1873): utilitarian philosopher and economist who wrote On Liberty
• Sadaharu Oh (70): first-baseman in the Japanese baseball league who hit a career record 868 home runs, making him the international champion
• Joe Cocker (66): gravely-voiced singer; musicians Cher (64), Susan Cowsill (51), Busta Rhymes (38) and Naturi Naughton (26) were also born on this date
• Bronson Pinchot (51): Balki Bartokomous in Perfect Strangers; also, actors James Stewart (1908-1997), Anthony Zerbe (74), Dave Thomas (61), Tony Goldwyn (50), Timothy Olyphant (42) and Matt Czuchry (33)