Wednesday, June 23, 2010

rococo \roh-kuh-KOH\, adjective:

1. Ornate or florid in speech, writing, or general style.

2. Pertaining to a style of painting developed simultaneously with the rococo in architecture and decoration, characterized chiefly by smallness of scale, delicacy of color, freedom of brushwork, and the selection of playful subjects as thematic material.

noun:

1. A style of architecture and decoration, originating in France about 1720, evolved from Baroque types and distinguished by its elegant refinement in using different materials for a delicate overall effect and by its ornament of shellwork, foliage, etc.

adjective:

1. In the manner of, or suggested by rococo architecture, decoration, or music or the general atmosphere and spirit of the rococo.

Rococo originates as a humorous alteration of the French rocaille, "shellwork, pebble-work", refering to the excessive use of shell designs in the style of various French monarchs.

ctfd

• Calm the fuck down.

Dude, ctfd.

Trivia

When it comes to traffic control, what is a sharrow?

• An arrowlike marking—generally of a bike topped by a pair of chevrons—that is stenciled on roadways that are to be shared with bicyclists. The term sharrow stands for shared lane arrow or shared use arrow.

History

• typewriter: Christopher Sholes received a patent for his new typing machine
• Banff National Park: Canada's first national park was signed into law; it is in Alberta, on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains (1887)
• SAT: standardized college-admission exam was first administered; 8,000 test-takers had 90 minutes to answer 315 questions (1924)
• Warren E. Burger: was sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States; he served until 1986 (1969)
• John Gotti: the "Teflon don," boss of the Gambino crime family, was sentenced to life in prison (1992

Birthdays

• Edward VIII (1894-1972): king of England who abdicated for love; Napoleon's consort and French empress Joséphine (1763-1814) shared this birth date
• Alan Turing (1912-1954): pioneer in computers and AI
• Bob Fosse (1927-1987): choreographer/director, Tony winner for Pippin, Oscar winner for Cabaret; also, playwright Jean Anouilh (1910-1987)

• Clarence Thomas (62): Supreme Court justice
• Randy Jackson (54): rock star and American Idol judge; plus, musicians June Carter Cash (1929-2003)
• Frances McDormand (53): Oscar winner for Fargo; also, actors Ted Shackelford (64), Bryan Brown (63) and Selma Blair (38)
• Zinedine Zidane (38): 1998 World Cup MVP; Olympic gold-medalist Wilma Rudolph (1940-1994) was also born on this date