Monday, June 21, 2010

heliolatry \hee-lee-OL-uh-tree\, noun:

• Worship of the sun.

Heliolatry stems from the Greek helio-, "sun," and -latry, "worship."

postmodem depression

• The feeling you get when you haven't had access to the internet (i.e. facebook and twitter) for a long time, like several minutes.

(A family is on vacation)

Mom: Johnny, come to dinner!

Johnny: Fucking not hungry!

Mom (to dad): What the hell is wrong with him?

Dad: He's got postmodem depression; he can't update his facebook status.

Mom: But we have only been here for 15 minutes.

Trivia

What are the Mudi, Sloughi, Xoloitzcuintli, and Leonberger?

• Dog breeds—all officially recognized by the American Kennel Club.

History

• US Constitution: went into effect as New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it (1788)
• Ellen Louks Fairclough: was sworn in as the first female member of the Canadian cabinet (1957)
• Women's National Basketball Association: league play began (1997)
• polio: the World Health Organization declared Europe free of the disease (2002)
• SpaceShipOne: the first privately funded and developed spacecraft was launched over the Mojave Desert and piloted into space by Michael Melvill (2004)
• Pluto: newly discovered moons were named Nix and Hydra (2006)

Berfdays, yo!

• Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980): existentialist author, Being and Nothingness; plus, writers Moses Hess (1812-1875), Joaquim Machado de Assis (1839-1908), Jose Graça Aranha (1868-1931), Mary McCarthy (1912-1989) and Françoise Sagan (1935-2004)
• Shirin Ebadi (63): first Iranian winner of the Nobel Peace Prize

• Benazir Bhutto (1953-2007): Pakistan's first female prime minister
• Berke Breathed (53): creator of Bloom County; cartoonist Al Hirschfeld (1903-2003) was also born today
• Doug Savant (46): Tom Scavo on Desperate Housewives; also, actors Jane Russell (89), Bernie Kopell (77), Monte Markham (75), Ron Ely (72), Mariette Hartley (70), Meredith Baxter and Michael Gross (both 63), Juliette Lewis (37) and Chris Pratt (31)
• Prince William (28): second in line to the British throne