Thursday, April 14, 2011

moratory \MAWR-uh-tawr-ee\, adjective:

• Authorizing delay of payment.

Moratory is based on the Late Latin mora, "delay."

fomo

• "fear of missing out". The fear that if you miss a party or event you will miss out on something great

Even though he was exhausted, John's fomo got the best of him and he went to the party.

Trivia

What was the wingspan of the largest insect that ever lived—a prehistoric dragonfly known by the Latin name Meganeuropsis permiana?

• 2 ½ feet. It weighed over a pound and lived about 300 million years ago, during the Carboniferous period.

History

• Noah Webster: published his American Dictionary of the English Language, insisting on American spelling (1828)
• Abraham Lincoln: was shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC; the president died of his wounds the following day (1865)
• J.C. Penney: opened his first store, in Kemmerer, Wyoming, earning a first-year profit of $8,514.36 on sales of $28,898.11 (1902)
• first pitch: President William H. Taft threw the ceremonial first baseball, on the Washington Senators' opening day; every president since has thrown out at least one (1910)
• Titanic: the supposedly unsinkable luxury liner hit an iceberg; it sank a few hours later (1912)

Birthdays

• Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695): astronomer, mathematician and physicist; historian Arnold Toynbee (1889-1975) shared this birth date
• Anne Sullivan Macy (1866-1936): Helen Keller's teacher
• Juan Belmonte (1892-1962): one of history's greatest matadors; plus, baseball pro Pete Rose (70)
• Francois Duvalier (1907-1971): dictator of Haiti, aka "Papa Doc"
• Loretta Lynn (76): country music singer, Coal Miner's Daughter; plus, rock musician Ritchie Blackmore (66)
• Abigail Breslin (15): actor, Little Miss Sunshine, Nim's Island; also, actors John Gielgud (1904-2000), Rod Steiger (1925-2002), Bradford Dillman (81), Julie Christie (71), John Shea (62), Robert Carlyle (50), Brad Garrett (51), Anthony Michael Hall (43), Adrien Brody (38) and Sarah Michelle Gellar (34)