Wednesday, July 20, 2011

dearth \DURTH\, adjective:

• An inadequate supply; scarcity; lack.

Dearth relates to the same Old English root from which "dear" is derived.

Last Chance Undies

• Your last pair of clean underwear, reminding you that this is your last chance to wear any unless you get your laundry done; that pair of ugly old underwear that you reserve for an emergency.

Dude, I gotta do laundry today, I've got my last chance undies on!

Trivia

What long-running Broadway musical and Hollywood movie had a milkman as its main character?

• Fiddler on the Roof.

History

• Locust Plague of 1874: largest recorded swarm of locusts descended on North America's Great Plains, destroying some $200m in crops; the plague lasted about 10 days, but larger-than-usual swarms of locusts continued to plague the area for several more years
• Sitting Bull: Sioux leader surrendered to the US Army under a promise of amnesty (1881)
• Abdullah I: the king of Jordan was killed by a Palestinian gunman in Jerusalem (1951)
• Sirimavo Bandaranaike: was elected leader of Sri Lanka, becoming the world's first female prime minister (1960)
• Special Olympics: took place for the first time, in Chicago; 1,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities competed (1968)
• Neil Armstrong: the astronaut became the first human to set foot on the moon (1969)

Birthdays

• Petrarch (1304-1374): poet and scholar
• George II (1890-1947): king of Greece
• Sir Edmund Hillary (1918-2008): the man who, along with Tenzing Norgay, was the first to scale Everest
• Cormac McCarthy (78): author of No Country for Old Men
• Carlos Santana (64): rock musician, Santana; other rock stars born on this date include John Lodge (66), Paul Cook (55), Chris Cornell (47) and Stone Gossard (45)
• Josh Holloway (42): James "Sawyer" Ford on Lost; also, actors Sally Ann Howes (81), Natalie Wood (1938-1981), Diana Rigg (73), Donna Dixon (54), Frank Whaley (48), Reed Diamond (44), Judy Greer (36), Percy Daggs III (29) and John Daley (26)
• Giselle Bündchen (31): supermodel and goodwill ambassador for the UN Environment Programme
• Julianne Hough (23): creative dancer, DWTS; American Idol runner-up Elliott Yamin (33) shares this birth date

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