Saturday, August 28, 2010

couchant \KOU-chuhnt\, adjective:

• 1. Lying down; crouching; reclining.
• 2. Heraldry . (Of an animal) represented as lying on its stomach with its hind legs and forelegs pointed forward.

Couchant is the ancestor of the Middle French coucher, "to lay or lie down." Couch has a similar etymology.

tanorexia

• A disease like anorexia, no matter how tan a person is they never think they are tan enough.
• tanorexic

Oh my God have you seen Tara Reid lately? She needs to check herself in for treatment of that tanorexia.

Trivia

What is a hippometer used to measure?

• The height of a horse.

History

• Scientific American: pop-science magazine began publication (1845)
• Peace Palace: the home of the International Court of Justice and other institutions was inaugurated in the Hague (1913)
• filibuster: the longest solo one — 24 hours, 18 minutes — began on this day by Sen. Strom Thurmond in opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1957 (1957)
• "Please Mr. Postman": song by the Marvelettes was released; it became the first Motown No. 1 (1961)
• "I have a dream": Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his famous civil rights speech at the Lincoln Memorial (1963)

Birthdays

• Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821): America's first native-born saint
• Bruno Bettelheim (1903-1990): developmental psychologist, The Uses of Enchantment
• Roger Tory Peterson (1908-1996): ornithologist
• Lou Piniella (67): Chicago Cubs manager
• Rita Dove (58): first African-American US poet laureate; plus, writers Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) and Robertson Davies (1913-1995)
• Scott Hamilton (52): Olympic gold-medalist in figure skating
• Shania Twain (45): country music singer; plus, singer LeAnn Rimes (28)
• Jack Black (41): actor/musician, School of Rock, Tropic Thunder; also, actors Charles Boyer (1899-1978), Donald O'Connor (1925-2003), Ben Gazzara (80), Ken Jenkins (70), David Soul (67), Debra Mooney and Alice Playten (both 63), Daniel Stern (53), Emma Samms (50), Billy Boyd (42), Jason Priestley (41) and Carly Pope (30)