Saturday, November 27, 2010

olio \OH-lee-oh\, noun:

1. A mixture of heterogeneous elements; hodgepodge.

2. A dish of many ingredients.

3. A medley or potpourri, as of musical or literary selections; miscellany.

Olio enters English from Spanish and Portugese as "a medley dish."

shopping window

• The time period during which a guy is actually engaged in the shopping experience. This period can last from almost no time at all to literally hours for a metrosexual, and includes all forms of shopping, from the grocery store to designer boutiques. It should also be noted that this period can be increased through witty girl techniques such as handing a guy a blackberry loaded with brickbreaker to play or sitting him in front of a couch with sportscenter.

"Dude, I am totally down to go try on a few pairs of jeans right now, but I am letting you know that my shopping window is only about 45 minutes today.

Trivia

In the world of food, what’s an aprium? How about a pluot?

• They’re fruit hybrids. The aprium is about 75 percent apricot and 25 percent plum; the pluot, 75 percent plum and 25 percent apricot.

History

• Toulon, France: during WWII, the French Navy scuttled its own ships and submarines to prevent them from falling into German hands (1942)
• Pope Paul VI: was accosted by a dagger-wielding Bolivian painter at a Manila airport (1970)
• Harvey Milk: San Francisco city supervisor was assassinated, along with mayor George Moscone, by former supervisor Dan White; White used the Twinkie defense and was convicted of manslaughter rather than murder (1978)

Birthdays

• Anders Celsius (1701-1744): Swedish astronomer who developed the Celsius thermometer scale
• Chaim Weizmann (1874-1952): Israel's first president; plus Czech politician Alexander Dubček (1921-1992)
• James Agee (1909-1955): screenwriter and novelist, The African Queen, A Death in the Family; and, screenwriter/director Callie Khouri (53)
• Bruce Lee (1940-1973): martial arts actor; James Avery (62), William Fichtner (54), Fisher Stevens (47), Robin Givens (46), Michael Vartan (42), Jaleel White (34) and Alison Pill (25)
• Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970): rock guitarist, "Purple Haze"; other musicians born on this date are Eddie Rabbit (1941-1998), Charlie Benante (48) and Twista (37)
• Kathryn Bigelow (59): first woman to win an Oscar for Best Director, for The Hurt Locker
• Bill Nye (55): "the science guy"
• Caroline Kennedy (53): attorney, writer and editor, daughter of JFK