Wednesday, August 4, 2010

minim \MIN-uhm\, noun:

1. the least quantity of anything.

2. the smallest unit of liquid measure, 1/60 of a fluid dram, roughly equivalent to one drop.

3. Music. A note, formerly the shortest in use, but now equivalent in time value to one half of a semibreve; half note.

4. Something very small or insignificant.

Minim originates in music, from the same Latin root as minimum.

Stall stall

• In public bathrooms, the act of remaining in a bathroom stall after having completed one's business, in order to maintain anonymity (whether by avoiding someone who has entered later, or finished sooner), or the state of being delayed under such circumstances. Also the act of delaying defecation until the bathroom is empty.

See also stall waiting

Sorry I'm late. I got stall stalled in the men's room on 34 by a couple of accounting assholes talking to each other at the urinals. The last thing I needed was to be asked how my day is going by some idiot with his dick in his hands.

I was in the corner stall trying to drop a deuce when Meyers from accounting walked in. I tried to stall stall but I couldn't hold it.

Trivia

Which is colder—the North Pole or the South Pole?

• The South Pole, which sits atop a land mass covered by an ice sheet that together make it more than 9,000 feet higher than the North Pole, which consists of ice floes about ten feet thick that sit above relatively warm water.

History

• freedom of the press: a legal precedent was established when newspaper editor John Peter Zenger was acquitted of seditious libel; he had published criticism of the colonial governor of New York (1735)
• US Coast Guard: was launched as the Revenue-Marine, later called the Revenue Cutter Service (1790)
• Anne Frank: teenage Jewish diarist was discovered, along with her family, by Nazis; their hiding place was revealed by a Dutch informant and they were sent to concentration camps, where most perished (1944)
• Burkina Faso: West African republic received its new name meaning "land of upright people"; it was formerly called Upper Volta (1984)

Birthdays

• Elizabeth, the Queen Mother (1900-2002): wife of George VI, mother of Elizabeth II
• Louis Armstrong (1901-1971): jazz trumpeter
• Raoul Wallenberg (1912-1947?): Swedish diplomat/businessman who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews during WWII; in 1945, he was taken into custody by the Russians and disappeared
• Barack Obama (49): the 44th POTUS
• Roger Clemens (48): pitcher with the record for Cy Young Awards — 7; plus, runner Glenn Cunningham (1909-1988)
• Dennis Lehane (45): novelist, Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone; writers Knut Hamsun (1859-1952) and Robert Hayden (1913-1980) were also born on this date
• Daniel Dae Kim (42): Jin-Soo Kwon on Lost; also, actors Richard Belzer (66), Billy Bob Thornton (55), Lauren Tom (49), James Tupper (45) and Michael DeLuise (41)