Friday, August 20, 2010

vellicate \VEL-i-keyt\, verb:

1. To touch (a body part) lightly so as to excite the surface nerves and cause uneasiness, laughter, or spasmodic movements.

2. To irritate as if by a nip, pinch, or tear.

3. To move with spasmodic convulsions.

Vellicate relates to the Latin vellicare, "to twitch."

Folicular Homicide

• Deciding to go with a hair-cut outside of your comfort zone.

Holy shit! Have you seen Debbie lately? She went with the 'Gosselin'...she committed Folicular Homicide!

Trivia

How fast—in miles per hour—can a sneeze travel?

• 100 miles an hour.

History

• 1812 Overture: Tchaikovsky's classic overture debuted in Moscow, commemorating Russia's defense against Napoleon (1880; Gregorian date)
• RAF: UK prime minister Winston Churchill saluted his country's air force with the statement, ''Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few" (1940)
• Economic Opportunity Act 0f 1964: LBJ signed the act — part of his Great Society policies — that would give life to programs like Head Start
• Prague Spring: brief period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia ended when the country was invaded by Warsaw Pact troops and tanks (1968)
• Voyager 2: space probe left Earth to tour Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune; it continues to transmit data as it leaves the solar system (1977)

Birthdays

• Benjamin Harrison (1833-1901): 23rd POTUS; plus, Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi (1944-1991)
• Edgar A. Guest (1881-1959): writer of daily folksy poems; also, writers H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937), Salvatore Quasimodo (1901-1968), Jacqueline Susann (1921-1974) and Walter Bernstein (91)
• Eero Saarinen (1910-1961): contemporary architect; his father, architect Eliel Saarinen (1873-1950), shared the same birth date
• Robert Plant (62): rock singer/songwriter and multiple Grammy Award-winner; also, musicians Jack Teagarden (1905-1964), Isaac Hayes (1942-2008), Jimmy Pankow (63), John Hiatt, Doug Fieger and Rudy Gatlin (all 58), KRS-One (45), Fred Durst (40) and Monique Powell (35)
• Al Roker (56): TV weatherman
• Amy Adams (36): actor, Enchanted, Julie and Julia; actors John Noble (62), Peter Horton (57), Joan Allen (54), James Marsters (48), Jonathan Ke Quan (39), Ben Barnes (29) and Demi Lovato (18) also have a birthday today