Tuesday, March 15, 2011

blandishment \BLAN-dish-muhnt\, noun:

• Speech or action that flatters and tends to coax, entice, or persuade; allurement -- often used in the plural.

Blandishment ultimately comes from Latin blandiri, "to flatter, caress, coax," from blandus, "flattering, mild."

microwait

• Consequence of the lunchtime rush for the microwave in corporate settings.

"I'm going to eat lunch early today, to avoid the microwait."

Trivia

How did a pattern of dots printed on fabric end up being called polka dots?

• It dates back to the mid to late 19th century, when the dance, the polka, was popular, and businessmen attempted to cash in on the craze by adding “polka” to the names of all sorts of products, ranging from socks, hats, and curtains to dotted fabrics. The latter outlived the fad, and the rest disappeared.

History

• Ides of March: Roman dictator Julius Caesar was assassinated, stabbed in the Senate house (44 BCE)
• blood bank: the first hospital repository of blood was established at Cook County Hospital in Chicago (1937)
• My Fair Lady: Lerner and Loewe musical debuted on Broadway, starring Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews (1956)
• The Godfather: widely considered one of the best films ever made, premiered (1972)
• symbolics.com: the first Internet domain name was registered (1985)
• Sedna: the press announced discovery of the "tenth planet," the farthest celestial body in the solar system (2004)

Birthdays

• Andrew Jackson (1767-1845): 7th US president, nicknamed "Old Hickory"; and PMs William Lamb Melbourne (1779-1848) and Christian Michelsen (1857-1925)
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg (78): US Supreme Court justice, Columbia University's first tenured female professor
• Fabio (52): model who graced the covers of hundreds of romance novels
• will.i.am (36): rapper with the Black Eyed Peas; and, rockers Phil Lesh (71), Mike Love (70), Sly Stone (68), Ry Cooder (64), Dee Snider (56), Bret Michaels (48), Mark McGrath (43), Mark Hoppus (39), Joe Hahn (34) and Young Buck (30)
• Kim Raver (42): actor, 24, Grey's Anatomy; plus, actors Judd Hirsch (76), Eva Longoria (36), Sean Biggerstaff (28) and Kellan Lutz (26)