Tuesday, July 19, 2011

zugzwang \TSOOK-tsvahng\, noun:

• A situation in which a player is limited to moves that have a damaging effect.

Zugzwang combines two German words, zug, "move," and zwang, "constraint."

skin-thirty

• a reply from someone who doesn't have a watch, usually said after someone asks what time it is.

1: Hey, what time is it?

2: (looks at their watchless wrist) It's skin-thirty.

Trivia

What percent of a grape is water? What percent of a raisin is water?

• A grape is about 80 percent water; a raisin, about 15 percent.

History

• Franco-Prussian War: began after Bismarck provoked France; it ended in Germany's unification and the deposition of Napoleon III (1870)
• Holbrook, Arizona: a meteorite weighing nearly 200 kg exploded over Earth, showering the Navajo County town with debris (1912)
• V for Victory: British PM Winston Churchill launched WWII campaign (1941)
• "Don't ask; don't tell": policy on gays in the US military was announced by president Bill Clinton (1993)

Birthdays

• Edgar Degas (1834-1917): French impressionist painter
• Charles Horace Mayo (1865-1939): surgeon who co-founded the Mayo Clinic
• A. J. Cronin (1896-1981): novelist, The Stars Look Down; also, writers Alice Nelson Dunbar (1875-1935) and Edgar Snow (1905-1972)
• George McGovern (89): US senator and early Vietnam War opponent
• Ilie Năstase (65): tennis hall-of-famer
• Brian May (64): Queen's lead guitarist, wrote "We Will Rock You"; plus, musicians Vikki Carr (71) and Urs Buhler (40)
• Jared Padalecki (29): Sam Winchester on Supernatural; actors Pat Hingle (1923-2009), Helen Gallagher (85), George Dzundza (66), Campbell Scott (50) and Anthony Edwards (49) were also born on this date

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