Thursday, April 7, 2011

métier \met-YAY; MET-yay\, noun:

1. An occupation; a profession.

2. An area in which one excels; an occupation for which one is especially well suited.

Métier is from the French, ultimately from Latin ministerium, "service, ministry, employment," from minister, "a servant, a subordinate."

rich uncle

• Uncle Sam. so named for government's spending habits.

our rich uncle better cut back on his spending my money.

Trivia

Where is the only state highway in the U.S. that bans motorized vehicles?

• In Michigan, on Mackinac Island, where travel on scenic eight-mile-long M-185 is restricted to foot bike, horse, and horse-drawn carriage traffic.

History

• World Health Organization: was established by the United Nations (1948)
• domino theory: US President Dwight Eisenhower first articulated the idea that if one country fell to Communism, the surrounding ones would as well (1954)
• Rwandan genocide: 100-day massacre began; more than a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu extremists (1994)
• Mars Odyssey: robotic satellite took off; it continues to orbit the red planet (2001)

Birthdays

• William Wordsworth (1770-1850): England's Romantic poet laureate who wrote "Daffodils"; plus, novelist Jens Peter Jacobsen (1847-1885)
• Francis Ford Coppola (72): director, The Godfather
• David Frost (72): talk show host whose famous series of interviews with Richard Nixon inspired the film Frost/Nixon
• Gerhard Schröder (67): former chancellor of Germany
• John Oates (62): singer/guitarist, Hall and Oates; also, musicians Billie Holiday (1915-1979), Ravi Shankar (91), Charlie Thomas (74), Freddie Hubbard (1938-2008) and Janis Ian (60)
• Tony Dorsett (57): football hall-of-famer; and, twin NFL players Tiki and Ronde Barber (36)
• Russell Crowe (47): Oscar-winning actor, Gladiator, State of Play; also, actors James Garner (83), Wayne Rogers (78) and Jackie Chan (57)