Thursday, July 28, 2011

deadpan \DED-pan\, adjective:

1. Marked by or accomplished with a careful pretense of seriousness or calm detachment.

2. Displaying no emotional or personal involvement.

Deadpan is a coinage from the 1930s combining "dead" and the sense of "pan" referring to the head or face.

Sports Cry

• The Permissible act of a sports fan or athlete, usually a male, shedding a quiet tear in celebration of their team's accomplishments. Also acceptable at the end of a classic sports motion picture. Only one episode of sports crying is acceptable per situation.

I sports cry every time at the end of 'Angels in the Outfield'.

Trivia

What did food-industry innovator Clarence Birdseye turn into paper pulp using a 12-minute process he developed in the early 1950s?

• Crushed sugar cane. It had previously taken nine hours to turn it into paper pulp.

History

• Maximilien Robespierre: Reign of Terror leader was guillotined in Paris during the French Revolution (1794)
• Peru: declared independence from Spain (1821)
• 14th Amendment: granted full citizenship to former US slaves; introduced new civil rights safeguards, due process, equal protection (1868)
• Austria-Hungary: declared war on Serbia, precipitating World War I (1914)
• Kennewick Man: prehistoric remains were discovered on the banks of the Columbia River in Kennewick, Washington, sparking a debate between scientists and Native Americans (1996)
• IRA: ended its armed campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland in favor of "exclusively peaceful means" (2005)

Birthdays

• Beatrix Potter (1866-1943): the author of the Peter Rabbit stories
• Earl Tupper (1907-1983): the inventor of Tupperware
• Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1929-1994): the First Lady who gave Americans a TV tour of the White House
• Bill Bradley (68): pro basketball player and Rhodes scholar who became a US senator and ran for president
• Jim Davis (66): creator of Garfield
• Sally Struthers (63): actor, All in the Family and Gilmore Girls; actors Georgia Engel (63), Lori Loughlin (47) and Elizabeth Berkley (39) also have birthdays today
• Hugo Chavez (57): dickhead president of Venezuela
• Delfeayo Marsalis (46): jazz trombonist; also, musicians Rick Wright (1943-2008), Steve Morse (57), Afroman (37) and Soulja Boy (21)

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