Tuesday, March 22, 2011

fugacious \fyoo-GAY-shuhs\, adjective:

• Lasting but a short time; fleeting.

Fugacious is derived from Latin fugax, fugac-, "ready to flee, flying; hence, fleeting, transitory," from fugere, "to flee, to take flight." Other words derived from the same root include fugitive, one who flees, especially from the law; refuge, a place to which to flee back (re-, "back"), and hence to safety; and fugue, literally a musical "flight."

polarpoint presentation

• When the temperature in a conference or meeting room is turned way down to ensure that no one will be able to nod off during a meeting.

Dude 1: Man, is the temperature in that room hosed again? My fingers were numb by the end of that staff meeting!

Dude 2: Nah, I saw them jack the temperature down about 20 degrees right before the meeting started. Bob will lull everyone to sleep unless they make it a polarpoint presentation.

Trivia

How many years after the 1929 crash did the stock market reach its pre-crash peak?

• Twenty-five. The pre-crash peak of 381 was recorded in September 1929; it was not reached again until 1954.

Holiday

• World Day for Water (United Nations)

History

• Stamp Act: tax was imposed by Britain on the American colonies; it raised intense opposition (1765)
• hockey: the first Stanley Cup championship game was played; Montreal's Amateur Athletic Association beat the Ottawa Capitals, 3-1 (1894)
• motion pictures: August and Louis Lumière demonstrated the first movies using celluloid film in Paris (1895)
• Equal Rights Amendment: was approved by US Congress; it was never ratified by requisite majority of states (1972)
• Flying Wallendas: patriarch Karl Wallenda fell to his death from a tightrope between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico (1978)
• Hale-Bopp: comet passed the closest to Earth till the year 4397 at a distance of 1.315 AU (1997)

Birthdays

• Randolph Caldecott (1846-1886): artist and illustrator who inspired the Caldecott Medal; and, artists Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641), Anton Raphael Mengs (1728-1779) and Thomas Crawford (1814-1857)
• Louis L'Amour (1908-1988): author of more than 100 novels, most of them westerns; plus, novelists Bienvenido Santos (1911-1996) and James Patterson (64), and poet Billy Collins (70)
• William Shatner (80): Captain Kirk on Star Trek
• Reese Witherspoon (35): Oscar-winner for Walk the Line, coming to the screen in Water for Elephants; also, performers Chico Marx (1887-1961), Karl Malden (1912-2009), Marcel Marceau (1923-2007), M. Emmet Walsh (76), Lena Olin (56), Matthew Modine (52) and Cole Hauser (36)
• Andrew Lloyd Webber (63): composer, Phantom of the Opera, Cats ; also, composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim (81), "On Broadway" singer George Benson (68) and Broadway star Stephanie Mills (54)
• Wolf Blitzer (63): journalist, reporter for CNN; plus, sportscaster Bob Costas (59)