Saturday, May 28, 2011

vertiginous \vur-TIJ-uh-nuhs\, adjective:

1. Affected with vertigo; giddy; dizzy.

2. Causing or tending to cause dizziness.

3. Turning round; whirling; revolving.

4. Inclined to change quickly or frequently; inconstant.

Vertiginous derives from Latin vertigo, "a turning round, a whirling round; giddiness," from vertere, "to turn." Related words include reverse, "to turn back (re-) or around"; subvert, "to undermine" (from sub-, "under" + vertere -- at root "to turn from under, to overturn"); and versus, "against" (from versus, "turned towards," hence "facing, opposed," from the past participle of vertere).

I'm Good

• Rejection of and ridicule for an offered good or service by feigning satiation. When "No Thank You" just won't do.

Person A: "Would you like to try some of my new recipe? It's Guacamole Crab Dip."

Person B: "No, I'm good"

Person A (on the phone): "Hey, Jenny. You've been studying too hard. How 'bout I swing by your apartment and give you a back rub?"

Jenny: "No. I'm good"

Person A: Do you want to go down to the Creepy Crawl and see The Wheezing Coughers?

Person B: "No thanks, I'm good."

Trivia

What two lines from Tom Cruise’s hit film Jerry Maguire are on the American Film Institute’s list of top movie quotes?

• “Show me the money” was number 25, and “You had me at hello” was number 52, on the list of 100 quotes.

Today in History:

• Indian Removal Act: law forcing the relocation of eastern tribes to the other side of the Mississippi River was signed by US President Andrew Jackson (1830)
• Sierra Club: environmental activist group was founded by Scottish-American conservationist John Muir, among others; it now has nearly three quarters of a million members (1892)
• Mathias Rust: 19-year-old pilot from Germany landed his plane near Moscow's Red Square; he was arrested and sentenced to four years in prison, but was released after a year (1987)

Today's Birthdays:

• William Pitt, the younger (1759-1806): British PM; also, politicians Edvard Beneš (1884-1948), Randolph Churchill (1911-1968), Rudy Giuliani (67) and Mark Sanford (51)
• Milutin Milankovic (1879-1958): geophysicist who studied ice ages
• Ian Fleming (1908-1964): creator of James Bond; also, writers Thomas Moore (1779-1852), Patrick White (1912-1990) and Walker Percy (1916-1990)
• Jerry West (73): one of the NBA's greatest shooting guards; andm athlete Jim Thorpe (1888-1953)
• Lynn Johnston (64): cartoonist, For Better or For Worse
• Gladys Knight (67): R&B singer; also, singers John Fogerty (66) and Kylie Minogue (43)
• Carey Mulligan (26): Bafta winner and Oscar nominee for An Education; also, actors Sondra Locke (67), Christa Miller (47), Justin Kirk (42), Jesse Bradford and Monica Keena (both 32) and Joseph Cross (25)