Tuesday, June 28, 2011

catawampus \kat-uh-WOM-puhs\, adjective:

1. Off-center; askew; awry.

2. Positioned diagonally; cater-cornered.

Catawampus arose in the United States around 1840, during a particular vogue in elaborate coinages. Cata- stems from cater-, a now-archaic root meaning "diagonal," while the source of -wampus is subject to debate.

Freudian Click

• Sending an email to someone by mistake.

A second after I hit "send", I realized that I had made a Freudian Click and emailed a love note to my ex instead of my boyfriend. So embarrassing!

Trivia

What Hollywood leading man appeared as himself in a cameo in the 2004 film Ocean’s Twelve?

• Bruce Willis, who had turned down the role of Danny Ocean in Ocean’s Eleven (2001) because of scheduling conflicts.

History

• Ned Kelly: Australian bushranger was captured at Glenrowan; he was later hanged for murder (1880)
• Franz Ferdinand: archduke and heir to the Austrian throne was assassinated, along with his wife, in Sarajevo by a Serbian; the event precipitated WWI (1914)
• Treaty of Versailles: was signed, ending WWI (1919)
• Stonewall riots: patrons of a Greenwich Village bar resisted a police raid, sparking the gay pride movement (1969)
• Mike Tyson: boxer bit Evander Holyfield's ear during a heavyweight title fight; he lost the match and gained a 16-month suspension (1997)
• Elian González: was returned to his father in Cuba (2000)
• Slobodan Milosevic: former Yugoslavian leader was turned over to the UN war crimes tribunal (2001)
• Iraqi Interim Government: took power after US handover (2004)

Birthdays

• Henry VIII (1491-1547): England's king who had six wives
• Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640): Flemish Baroque painter
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778): political philosopher and writer
• Richard Rodgers (1902-1979): composer of the Broadway musicals Oklahoma! and The Sound of Music; playwrights Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936) and Mel Brooks (85) share this birth date
• John Elway (51): the only quarterback to have started in five Super Bowls
• John Cusack (45): actor appearing most recently in 2012, and as the voice of Igor in the eponymous animated film; also, actors Pat Morita (1932-2005), Türkan Soray (66), Bruce Davison (65), Gilda Radner (1946-1989), Kathy Bates (63), Alice Krige (57), Mary Stuart Masterson (45), Gil Bellows (44), Tichina Arnold (40) and Alessandro Nivola (39)

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