Wednesday, December 15, 2010

boondocks \BOON-doks\, noun:

1. A remote rural area (usually preceded by "the.")

2. An uninhabited area with thick natural vegetation, as a backwoods or marsh.

Boondocks finds its way into English from the Tagalog word bundok, "mountain." Adopted by occupying American soldiers in the Philippines to designate a "remote and wild place."

bromit

• When you burp and almost vomit at the same time.

Suzanne turned to Briana and said, "I think that Coke just made me bromit."

Trivia

How much does the average human eyeball weigh?

• Just over a quarter of an ounce—0.2645 ounce to be precise.

History

• Bill of Rights: freedoms of speech, press, religion, assembly and more became United States law when the states ratified Amendments I-X of the US Constitution (1791)
• Sitting Bull: Lakota Sioux military and spiritual leader who defeated Gen. Custer at Little Bighorn was killed (1890)
• Gone With the Wind: Civil War-era epic film premiered in Atlanta (1939)
• Adolf Eichmann: an Israeli court sentenced to death the former Nazi official who had zealously supported the use of gas chambers to exterminate the Jews in WWII (1961)
• flag of Canada: Canada adopted its national flag, a red maple leaf on a white background (1964)
• Romanian Revolution: popular uprising began, leading to the downfall of dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu (1989)

Birthdays

• Nero (37-68): emperor who "fiddled while Rome burned"
• Joseph Moses Levy (1812-1888): founder of London's Daily Telegraph; journalist Franklin Sanborn (1831-1917) shared this birth date
• Gustave Eiffel (1832-1923): designer of the eponymous tower in Paris
• Tim Conway (77): actor/comedian, described as the "world's greatest second banana"; also, actors Don Johnson (61), Helen Slater (47), Molly Price (44) and Adam Brody (31)
• Nick Buoniconti (70): NFL hall-of-famer; and, Chariots of Fire gold medalist Harold Abrahams (1899-1978)
• Stan Kenton (1911-1979): progressive jazz bandleader; plus, Cindy Birdsong (71) of The Supremes