Tuesday, October 19, 2010

viand \VAHY-uhnd\, noun:

• An article of food, now usually of a choice or delicate kind.

Viand ultimately stems from the Latin vivenda, "things to be lived on," related to the Latin verb "to live."

heteroflexible

• I'm straight but shit happens

I knew she was heteroflexible the minute she walked in the room.

Dude, it's not my fault. I was drunk and it was fun. What can I say? I'm heteroflexible.

Trivia

When it comes to per capita alcohol consumption, what country’s residents outdrink all others?

• Luxembourg’s, according to the World Health Organization. It found that residents of the tiny European country each consume roughly 284 bottles of beer and 88 bottles of wine annually. The U.S. was 40th on the WHO list.

History

• Yorktown campaign: British General Charles Cornwallis surrendered, effectively ending the land war of the American Revolution (1781)
• Black Monday: the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 508 points — over 22% — setting a record for percentage decline that still stands (1987)
• Guildford Four: men wrongly convicted for a deadly IRA bombing were cleared after 15 years in jail (1989)

Birthdays

• Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935): French officer wrongly accused of treason
• Auguste Lumière (1862-1954): with his brother Louis, inventor of the Cinématographe moving picture system
• Walter Cannon (1871-1945): physiologist who studied the digestive system and developed the concept of homeostasis
• Charles Merrill (1885-1956): founder of Merrill Lynch
• John Le Carré (79): espionage novelist, The Spy Who Came In From the Cold; plus writer Philip Pullman (64)
• John Lithgow (65): Emmy- and Golden Globe-winner for his chilling portrayal of The Trinity Killer on Dexter; also, actors Robert Reed (1932-1992), Michael Gambon (70) and Chris Kattan (40)
• Evander Holyfield (48): boxer
• Jason Reitman (33): writer/director, Thank You for Smoking, Juno, Up in the Air; TV producer Trey Parker (41) and director Jon Favreau (44) share this birth date