Wednesday, May 26, 2010

regnant \REG-nuhnt\, adjective:

1. Prevalent; widespread.

2. Reigning; ruling (usually used following the noun it modifies): a queen regnant.

3. Exercising authority, rule, or influence.

Regnant relates to the Latin regnans, "to rule", a verb that is the ancestor of numerous related English words, such as reign.

Shennanigans

• When someone is telling a pork pie (lie)

In pub:

Dave: i laid that fit bird last night

Steve: I call shennanigans, she left the pub with me last night!

Trivia

What is the last word in all three parts of Dante Alighieri’s poem The Divine Comedy?

• Stars, or stelle in the original Italian.

History

• Edict of Worms: declared Martin Luther an outlaw and banned his writings (1521)
• Andrew Johnson: 17th president of the United States was acquitted by one vote in his impeachment trial (1868)
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: stock market index was first published by The Wall Street Journal (1896)
• George Willig: the "human fly" scaled the South Tower of the World Trade Center in 3.5 hours; he was fined $1.10 for the illegal feat — a penny per story (1977)
• Ellis Island: the US Supreme Court ruled that the immigration landmark belonged more to New Jersey than New York (1998)

Birthdays

• Aleksandr Pushkin (1799-1837): poet, novelist, playwright

• Miles Davis (1926-1991): jazz trumpeter, Kind of Blue; also, musicians Al Jolson (1886-1950), Stevie Nicks (62), Hank Williams Jr. (61) and Lenny Kravitz (46)
• Helena Bonham Carter (44): Harry Potter's Bellatrix Lestrange and Mrs. Lovett of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street; also, actors John Wayne (1907-1979), Robert Morley (1908-1992), James Arness (87), Pam Grier and Philip Michael Thomas (both 61), Margaret Colin (53), Doug Hutchison (50) and Genie Francis (48)
• Matt Stone (39): creator of South Park; comedian Bobcat Goldthwait (48) shares this birth date