Friday, May 20, 2011

foofaraw \FOO-fuh-raw\, noun:

1. Excessive or flashy ornamentation or decoration.

2. A fuss over a matter of little importance.

Foofaraw is perhaps from Spanish fanfarrón, "a braggart."

Antisocial Networking

• Using a social networking web site or service to connect to other people but never communicating with those people once they have been established as a connection.

I can't believe it... we haven't spoken to Randy since high school. He added us as friends on Facebook but never responds to any of our messages. He has over 100 friends but we've never even seen him post a comment. Talk about antisocial networking!

Trivia

In updating ancient Latin, what modern definition did the Vatican give to the term tempus maximae frequentiae?

• Rush hour. The phrase is in the Vatican’s Lexicon Recentis Latinitatis.

History

• First Council of Nicaea: opened in present-day Turkey; it dealt with the relationship of Jesus to God the Father, and the date of Easter, among other issues (325)
• Charles Lindbergh: began the first solo flight across the Atlantic, in The Spirit of St. Louis; he flew from Long Island to Paris in about 11 1/2 hours (1927)
• Amelia Earhart: began her flight from Newfoundland to Ireland, becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean (1932)
• Hamburger Hill: US and South Vietnamese forces captured Apbia Mountain after one of the Vietnam War's bloodiest battles (1969)
• Cheers: the final episode of the TV sitcom was seen by 93 million viewers (1993)
• East Timor: became an independent nation and the first new sovereign state of the 21st century (2002)
• Kingda Ka: the world's tallest and fastest roller coaster opened in New Jersey; it reaches 128 mph, and New York City, Atlantic City and Philadelphia are visible from the top of the tower (2005)

Birthdays

• Dolley Madison (1768-1849): 4th American First Lady; she saved government valuables when the British set fire to the White House in 1814
• Honoré de Balzac (1799-1859): novelist, wrote La comédie humaine
• John Stuart Mill (1806-1873): utilitarian philosopher and economist who wrote On Liberty
• Sadaharu Oh (71): first-baseman in the Japanese baseball league who hit a career record 868 home runs, making him the international champion
• Joe Cocker (67): gravelly-voiced singer; musicians Cher (65), Susan Cowsill (52), Busta Rhymes (39) and Naturi Naughton (27) were also born on this date
• Bronson Pinchot (52): Balki Bartokomous in Perfect Strangers; also, actors James Stewart (1908-1997), Anthony Zerbe (75), Dave Thomas (62), Tony Goldwyn (51), Timothy Olyphant (43) and Matt Czuchry (34)

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