Thursday, June 24, 2010

haptic \HAP-tik\, adjective:

• Relating to the sense of touch; tactile.

noun:

• The science that deals with the sense of touch.

Haptic derives from the Greek haptikos, "to grasp."

Diaper Dialed

• When a child or baby accidentally calls someone when they are playing with your phone. Similar to Butt Dialing

My nephew Diaper Dialed me last night. I picked up the phone and all I heard was baby talk.

Trivia

For whom was Georgetown—the upscale Washington, D.C., neighborhood—named?

• King George II of England, not George Washington. It was formally established in 1751 as a Maryland tobacco port, and was officially incorporated into the District of Columbia in 1871.

History

• dancing mania: first major outbreak of this phenomenon — wild, uncontrollable dancing, accompanied by hallucinations, to the point of exhaustion — occurred in Aachen, Germany (1374)
• John Cabot: explorer became the first European to sight the continent of North America (1497)
• Henry VIII: crowned king of England (1509)
• flying saucer: Kenneth Arnold described UFOs he had seen near Mt. Rainier, Washington, as "saucers skipping across the water" (1947); the Roswell Report closed the case on other alleged sightings of UFOs near Roswell, New Mexico (1997)
• Berlin blockade: Soviet Union prevented delivery of supplies to Berlin; Allied forces began the Berlin airlift in response (1948)
• FTC: required that a message be placed on all cigarette packages to warn consumers that cigarette smoking is dangerous to their health (1964)

Birthdays

• Minka Kelly (30): actor, Friday Night Lights; also, actors Al Molinaro (91), Michele Lee (68), Georg Stanford Brown (67), Peter Weller (63), Joe Penny (54), Sherry Stringfield (43) and Mindy Kaling (31)
• Saint John of the Cross (1542-1591): Carmelite friar, mystic and poet
• Jack Dempsey (1895-1983): heavyweight boxing champ
• Pete Hamill (75): journalist and short-story author; writers Ambrose Bierce (1842-c.1914), Norman Cousins (1915-1990), John Ciardi (1916-1986), Claude Chabrol (80) and Anita Desai (73) share this birth date
• Mick Fleetwood (63): drummer with Fleetwood Mac; also, musicians John Illsley (61), Danielle Spencer (45), Glenn Medeiros (40) and Solange Knowles (24)
• Lionel Messi (23): FC Barcelona soccer star