Friday, June 24, 2011

sabbatical \suh-BAT-i-kuhl\, noun:

1. Any extended period of leave from one's customary work, especially for rest, to acquire new skills or training, etc.

adjective:

1. Of or pertaining to or appropriate to the Sabbath.
2. Bringing a period of rest.

Sabbatical originates in reference to the Judeo-Christian Sabbath, and comes from the Greek sabbatikos.
curb shame

• Embarrassment at waiting on the curb obediently as other pedestrians ignore the "don't walk" signal in the absence of traffic.

I couldn't stand the curb shame any longer so I crossed with everyone else, even though I needed a break from running all around town.

Trivia

How does the appearance of the desert-dwelling addax antelope change from summer to winter?

• Its fur changes color—from white in summer to a dark grayish brown in winter. White reflects the heat from the sun, keeping the addax cool. The darker color in winter helps absorb heat from the sun.

History

• dancing mania: first major outbreak of this phenomenon — wild, uncontrollable dancing, accompanied by hallucinations, to the point of exhaustion — occurred in Aachen, Germany (1374)
• John Cabot: explorer became the first European to sight the continent of North America (1497)
• Henry VIII: crowned king of England (1509)
• flying saucer: Kenneth Arnold described UFOs he had seen near Mt. Rainier, Washington, as "saucers skipping across the water" (1947); the Roswell Report closed the case on other alleged sightings of UFOs near Roswell, New Mexico (1997)
• Berlin blockade: Soviet Union prevented delivery of supplies to Berlin; Allied forces began the Berlin airlift in response (1948)
• FTC: required that a message be placed on all cigarette packages to warn consumers that cigarette smoking is dangerous to their health (1964)

Birthdays

• Saint John of the Cross (1542-1591): Carmelite friar, mystic and poet
• Jack Dempsey (1895-1983): heavyweight boxing champ
• Pete Hamill (76): journalist and short-story author; writers Ambrose Bierce (1842-c.1914), Norman Cousins (1915-1990), John Ciardi (1916-1986), Claude Chabrol (1930-2010) and Anita Desai (74) share this birth date
• Mick Fleetwood (64): drummer with Fleetwood Mac; also, musicians John Illsley (62), Danielle Spencer (46), Glenn Medeiros (41) and Solange Knowles (25)
• Minka Kelly (31): actor, Friday Night Lights; also, actors Al Molinaro (92), Michele Lee (69), Georg Stanford Brown (68), Peter Weller (64), Joe Penny (55), Sherry Stringfield (44) and Mindy Kaling (32)
• Lionel Messi (24): FC Barcelona soccer star

 

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