Saturday, April 23, 2011

peregrinate \PER-i-gruh-neyt\, verb:

1. To travel or journey, especially to walk on foot.

2. To travel or walk over; traverse.

Peregrinate derives from the Latin peregrinatus, "in the act of transit."

computer-face v.

• to squint and kind of frown as you look at your computer to give the illusion that you are in fact very busy analyzing something vital to your work; often used in conjunction with paper-shuffling and calling numbers that you know won't answer then acting really frustrated when you hang-up so that it gives the impression your chasing a very important account and have a lot on your plate already

After I computer-faced facebook for an hour this morning, I called a random number and talked to an older gentleman for 27 minutes about the prospect of leasing his mineral rights until he realized he didn't own any mineral rights, so I hung-up and went back to computer-facing a New York Times article about fashion week.

Trivia

When it comes to Indian culture, what is a bindi?

• Traditionally, it’s the ornamental red dot that adorns the forehead of Hindu women.

History

• Order of the Garter: oldest existing order of knights was founded by King Edward III of England (1348)
• Baedeker blitz: a series of German Luftwaffe raids on the English cities of Exeter, Bath, Norwich and York began in retaliation for the RAF bombing of Lübeck (1942)
• Hank Aaron: hit his first of 755 major league home runs; his career total is second only to Barry Bonds (1954)
• New Coke: Coca-Cola launched its marketing flop (1985)
• "Me at the Zoo": YouTube's first video was launched on the fledgling website (2005)

Birthdays

• William Shakespeare (1564-1616): dramatist and poet, the "Bard of Avon"; plus, writers Ngaio Marsh (1895?-1982) and Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977)
• James Buchanan (1791-1868): the 15th (and the only bachelor) US president; he was criticized for failing to prevent the Civil War; also, New Zealand PM Frederick Whitaker (1812-1891) and Canadian PM Lester Pearson (1897-1972)
• Max Planck (1858-1947): physicist responsible for quantum theory
• Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953): composer of the ballet, Romeo and Juliet
• J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851): landscape painter
• Michael Moore (57): obese director, douche, liberal mouthpiece
• Valerie Bertinelli (51): actor and spokesperson for Jenny Craig; also, actors Alan Oppenheimer (81), David Birney and Lee Majors (both 72), Blair Brown (65), James Russo (58), Judy Davis (56), George Lopez (50), Melina Kanakaredes (44), Kal Penn (34), Aaron Hill (28) and Dev Patel (21)