Tuesday, March 1, 2011

masticate \MAS-tih-kayt\, transitive verb:

1. To grind or crush with or as if with the teeth in preparation for swallowing and digestion; to chew; as, "to masticate food."

2. To crush or knead (rubber, for example) into a pulp.

intransitive verb:

1. To chew food.

Masticate comes from the past participle of Late Latin masticare, "to chew," from Greek mastichan, "to gnash the teeth." The noun form is mastication.

Perfectionist Paralysis

• The inability to start on a project, assignment, essay or any creative task due to the fear of not getting it perfectly right.

Joe: You haven't started writing your paper yet?

Bob: Nope

Joe: Isn't it due tomorrow?

Bob: Yep.

Joe: I thought you went to the library and did your research, made your notes and wrote your outline.

Bob: I've got perfectionist paralysis.

Trivia

James Joyce wrote A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man; who wrote Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man?

• Joseph Heller, best known as the author of Catch-22. His Portrait was published posthumously, in 2000.

History

• census: the first national population tally was authorized by US Congress (1790)
• Buckeye State: Ohio became the 17th US state; in prehistoric times it was inhabited by Mound Builders (1803)
• Cornhusker State: Nebraska, purchased from France in 1803, became the 37th US state (1867)
• Yellowstone: the world's oldest national park was established; it is noted for its geysers, hot springs, mud pots and fumaroles (1872)
• Lindbergh kidnapping: Lucky Lindy's child was abducted, leading to the Lindbergh Act (1932)
• Peace Corps: JFK established an agency to "promote world peace and friendship"; since then, nearly 200,000 Americans have served in 139 countries (1961)
• Venera 3: Soviet probe crash-lands on Venus; it's the first spacecraft from Earth to land on another planet (1966)

Birthdays

• Ralph Ellison (1914-1994): author of Invisible Man; plus, poets Robert Lowell (1917-1977) and Lawrence Ferlinghetti (92)
• Yitzhak Rabin (1922-1995): first native-born prime minister of Israel
• Deke Slayton (1924-1993): one of the original NASA Mercury 7 astronauts
• Pete Rozelle (1926-1996): the NFL commissioner who helped create the Super Bowl
• Roger Daltrey (67): rock singer, The Who; plus, musicians Glenn Miller (1904-1944), Harry Belafonte (84), Mike D'Abo (67), Ke$ha (24) and Justin Bieber (17)
• Ron Howard (57): actor-turned-director, A Beautiful Mind, Frost/Nixon 
• Javier Bardem (42): Oscar-winning actor, No Country for Old Men, nominee for Biutiful; also, actors David Niven (1910-1983), Robert Clary (85), Robert Conrad (76), Alan Thicke (64), Tim Daly (55), Russell Wong (48), George Eads (44), Jack Davenport (38), Mark-Paul Gosselaar (37) and Jensen Ackles (33)