Saturday, August 14, 2010

premorse \pri-MAWRS\, adjective:

• Pertaining to the end of something irregularly shortened, as if bitten or broken off.

Premorse originates in botany and derives from the Latin praemorsus, "bitten off in front." Notice the relationship to morsel.

bragplaining

• When you complain about something for the sole purpose of brining it up in conversation to brag about it.

Man, I'm only getting 10MB/s download speed. Normally I get at least 15.

Quit bragplaining. We all know you're just bitching to show off.

Trivia

What color did artist James Abbot McNeill Whistler dismiss as “just pink trying to be purple”?

• Mauve.

History

• Oregon Territory: was organized by an act of US Congress, consisting of all of present-day Oregon, Idaho and Washington, and parts of Montana and Wyoming (1848)
• Social Security Act: was signed into law by US president Franklin D. Roosevelt, establishing pensions and unemployment insurance (1935)
• V-J Day: Japan surrendered, ending World War II (1945)
• Pakistan: southern Asia country became independent of Britain (1947)
• Ilich Ramírez Sánchez: the terrorist known as "Carlos the Jackal" was captured (1994)
• Northeast Blackout of 2003: 50 million people — one-third the population of Canada plus one-seventh the population of the US — lost electricity (2003)

Birthdays

• Arthur J. Dempster (1886-1950): physicist who invented the mass spectrometer
• Buddy Greco (84): jazz and pop singer; musicians Dash Crofts (70), David Crosby (69), Larry Graham (64) and James Horner (57) were also born today
• Steve Martin (65): wild and crazy comedian, writer and actor; also, actors Susan Saint James (64), Carl Lumbly (59), Marcia Gay Harden (51), Emmanuelle Béart (45), Halle Berry (44), Catherine Bell (42), Christopher Gorham (36) and Mila Kunis (27)

• Danielle Steel (63): prolific author of romance novels; writers Letitia Landon (1802-1838), Ernest Thayer (1863-1940), John Galsworthy (1867-1933), Eduardo Mallea (1903-1982) and Russell Baker (85) share this birth date
• Gary Larson (60): creator of The Far Side
• Earvin "Magic" Johnson (51): NBA hall-of-famer