Monday, March 7, 2011

chortle \CHOR-tl\, transitive and intransitive verb:

• To utter, or express with, a snorting, exultant laugh or chuckle.

noun:

• A snorting, exultant laugh or chuckle.

Chortle a combination of chuckle and snort. It was coined by Lewis Carroll (Charles L. Dodgson), in Through the Looking-Glass, published in 1872.

productive procrastination n.

• Doing stuff to keep busy while avoiding what really needs doing. When all is said and done, your room is clean, your laundry is folded -- but you haven't started your English paper.

I should really do my program. But instead, I think it's time for some productive procrastination... Where's the mop??

Trivia

The White House had electric lighting installed in 1891; when did Hawaii’s Iolani Palace have it installed?

• In 1887.

History

• Daniel Webster: orator delivered his Seventh of March speech defending the Compromise of 1850 (1850)
• telephone: transmitter/receiver of sound was patented by Alexander Graham Bell (1876); exactly 50 years later, the first successful trans-Atlantic radio-telephone conversation took place, between New York City and London (1926)
• fair use: the US Supreme Court ruled in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music that parodies are not copyright infringements (1994)

Birthdays

• Alessandro Manzoni (1785-1873): poet and novelist, The Betrothed
• Tomáš Masaryk (1850-1937): president of Czechoslavakia
• Maurice Ravel (1875-1937): composer of Boléro; plus, musicians Peter Wolf (65) and Ernie Isley (59)
• Willard Scott (77): perennially sunny, intermittent weather forecaster for NBC's Today Show
• Lynn Swann (59): NFL hall-of-famer; also, sports pros Janet Guthrie (73), Ivan Lendl (51) and Jeff Kent (43)
• Jenna Fischer (37): The Office's receptionist, Pam Beesly; also actors Daniel J. Travanti (71), John Heard (65), Bryan Cranston (55), Rachel Weisz and Peter Saarsgard (both 40), and Laura Prepon (31)