Monday, May 23, 2011

longueur \long-GUR\, noun:

• A dull and tedious passage in a book, play, musical composition, or the like.

Longueur is from French (where it means "length"), ultimately deriving from Latin longus, "long," which is also the source of English long.

premarital text

• The act of texting (text messaging) a member of the opposite sex, outside the confines of a relationship, in flirtatious ways, often insinuating the desire for a deeper, intimate relationship.

"That girl that works in the cubicle next to you is really good looking. I would so premarital text her."

Trivia

In the incredible game in which basketball great Wilt Chamberlain scored a record 100 points, how many points did the rest of his team get?

• 69. His team, the Philadelphia Warriors, beat the New York Knicks 169–147 in the March 2, 1962, game.

Today in History:

• Joan of Arc: was captured by the Burgundians who sold her to the English (1430)
• Captain Kidd: was hanged in London for murder and piracy (1701)
• Baltimore and Ohio Railroad: began the first passenger service in the US (1830)
• Mounties: the North West Mounted Police was created; it would later become the federal police force of Canada (1873)
• New York Public Library: after 16 years of construction, the library's main building was dedicated by President William H. Taft (1911)
• Bonnie and Clyde: Depression-era outlaws were ambushed and killed by police in Louisiana (1934)
• West Germany: was reconstituted from post-WWII occupation zones (1949)

Today's Birthdays:

• Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778): botanist, known as the "father of modern taxonomy"
• Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815): physician who sought to heal with an early form of hypnosis
• Pär Lagerkvist (1891-1974): poet, novelist, dramatist who won the 1951 Nobel Prize for Literature; plus, writers Thomas Hood (1799-1844), Margaret Wise Brown (1910-1952), Ursula Hegi (65) and Mitch Albom (59)
• John Newcombe (67): tennis hall-of-famer
• Anatoly Karpov (60): chess grandmaster
• Charles Kimbrough (75): Murphy Brown's Jim Dial; also, actors Betty Garrett (1919-2011), Barbara Barrie (80), Joan Collins (78), Drew Carey (53), Laurel Holloman (40), Lane Garrison (31) and Adam Wylie (27)
• Jewel (37): singer/songwriter; plus, musicians Artie Shaw (1910-2004), Scatman Crothers (1910-1986), Rosemary Clooney (1928-2002) and Matt Flynn (41)