Saturday, July 2, 2011

bedlam \BED-luhm\ , noun;

1. A scene or state of wild uproar and confusion.

2. An archaic term for an insane asylum or madhouse.

Origin: Bedlam is an alteration of the name of a British insane asylum, the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem in London, in essence a folk shortening of Bethlehem.

tr;dl

• Literally: "too rambley; didn't listen". This spoken phrase is a take off of the popular "tl;dr" (too long; didn't read). Pronounce the letters, namely "tee are. dee ell". This verbal response indicates you stopped listening as the other person was blathering on for too long and you lost interest.

Sarah: So what do you want to do for dinner tonight? We can do Mexican, Italian or Chinese. I want to invite Steve and Kathy, but of course you know that Steve does not like Chinese and Kathy can't eat late. But the only good Italian place is really crowded so the wait would be really long early.. which I guess leaves either that burrito place.... or that not so good Italian place, where the waiter was rude to us the last time. So, what do you think?

Russell: tr;dl

Trivia

What brand-name image was chosen as the 20th century’s top ad icon by Advertising Age magazine?

• The Marlboro Man. In second and third place on the list of the Top 10 ad icons were Ronald McDonald and the Green Giant respectively.

History

• Amistad: 53 African slaves rebelled and took control of their transport ship, La Amistad (1839)
• James A. Garfield: US president was shot by Charles J. Guiteau; he died on September 19 (1881)
• Wal-Mart: retail giant opened its first store, in Rogers, Arkansas (1962)
• Civil Rights Act: legislation that offered strong protection of minorities' rights was signed by US President Lyndon B. Johnson, who used over 75 pens (1964)
• Susan B. Anthony dollar: the 1st US coin to honor a woman was introduced (1979)
• artificial heart: first self-contained model was received by Robert Tools; he lived with it for 151 days (2001)
• Spirit of Freedom: Steve Fossett completed the first solo trip around the world in a balloon (2002)

Birthdays

• Hermann Hesse (1877-1962): Nobel Prize-winning novelist and poet; Nobel laureate poet Wislawa Szymborska (87) shares this birth date
• Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993): first black US Supreme Court justice
• Richard Petty (74): seven-time winner of the Daytona 500
• Vincente Fox (69): former president of Mexico; plus, former heads-of-state Sir Alec Douglas-Home (1903-1995) and Patrice Lumumba (1925-1961)
• Larry David (64): writer/director, Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm
• Ashley Tisdale (26): actress, High School Musical 3; actors Robert Ito (80), Polly Holliday (74), Ron Silver (1946-2009), Saul Rubinek (63), Jerry Hall (55) and Lindsay Lohan (25) share this birth date

Read more: http://www.answers.com/