Wednesday, November 17, 2010

idioglossia \id-ee-uh-GLOS-ee-uh\, noun:

1. A private form of speech invented by one child or by children who are in close contact, as twins.
2. A pathological condition in which a person's speech is so severely distorted that it is unintelligible.

Idioglossia combines the Greek roots idio-, "particular to one," and gloss-, "tongue."

shelf esteem

• When someone builds their self esteem from self help books.

My coworker just added Dr. Phil to her shelf esteem library, now everyday at lunch its Dr. P said this Dr. P said that.

Trivia

What was the name of the white Maltese dog that was bequeathed a $12 million trust fund by Queen of Mean real estate magnate Leona Helmsley?

• Trouble. Helmsley died in 2007.

History

• Elizabeth I: the "Virgin Queen" of England began her 45-year reign, succeeding her half-sister, Queen Mary, and beginning the Elizabethan era (1558)
• US Congress: held its first Washington session in the partially completed Capitol building (1800)
• Suez Canal: 100-mile-(160 km.)-long waterway opened, linking the Mediterranean and the Red seas (1869)
• Heidi bowl: NBC switched from football to Heidi, missing the last 42 seconds of a game when the Raiders came from behind, scoring two touchdowns to beat the Jets, 43-32 (1968)
• Richard Nixon: declared "I am not a crook" in Orlando, Florida, nine months before resigning over the Watergate scandal (1973)
• Velvet Revolution: demonstrations began in Czechoslovakia, leading to the fall of the communist government (1989)

Birthdays

• Louis XVIII (1755-1824): reigning king of France from 1814 to 1824
• August Möbius (1790-1868): mathematician and astronomer who developed the Möbius strip
• Lorne Michaels (66): producer, creator of Saturday Night Live; plus, film directors Lee Strasberg (1901-1982), Martin Scorsese (68) and Roland Joffe (65)
• Tom Seaver (66): MLB hall-of-famer; also, athletes Bob Mathias (1930-2006), Elvin Hayes (65) and Laura Wilkinson (33)
• Dylan Walsh (47): Dr. Sean McNamara in Nip/Tuck; also, actors Rock Hudson (1925-1985), Lauren Hutton (67), Danny DeVito (66), Stephen Root (59), Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (52), William Moses (51), RuPaul (50), Sophie Marceau and Daisy Fuentes (both 44), Brandon Call (34) and Rachel McAdams (32)
• Bob Gaudio (69): singer and songwriter, The Four Seasons; plus, musicians Gordon Lightfoot (72) and Isaac Hanson (30)