Friday, September 16, 2011

punctilious \puhnk-TIL-ee-uhs\, adjective:

• Strictly attentive to the details of form in action or conduct; precise; exact in the smallest particulars.

Punctilious derives from Late Latin punctillum, "a little point," from Latin punctum, "a point," from pungere, "to prick."

lunch-blocking \ˈlənch-ˈbläkeng\

• The act of preventing or postponing someone from going to lunch through actions such as scheduling meetings, asking questions, or starting discussions at or near lunch time for the target of the block.

Fred: Where were you? We missed you at lunch.

Bob: My boss scheduled a meeting from 11AM - 2PM today. I was totally lunch-blocked.

Fred: Yeah, my boss was totally lunch-blocking me all last week when he would pop-in to my office at 10:55 for a status report knowing I always go to lunch at 11AM!

Trivia

In a box of Grape-Nuts cereal what percentage of the contents are grapes and what percentage are nuts?

• Zero, for both. The name was made up by cereal manufacturer C. W. Post. Maltose, one of the original ingredients, was known as grape sugar in 1898 when the cereal was first marketed; and it’s believed that “nuts” referred to the cereal’s flavor and/or crunch.

History

• Boston: was founded by Puritan settlers (1630)
• General Motors: the world's largest automobile maker was founded by William C. Durant in Flint, Michigan (1908)
• Wall Street bombing: explosives detonated in a horse-drawn wagon killed 38 people in New York City's financial district; the perpetrators were never definitively identified but the FBI suspected Italian anarchists (1920)
• Vietnam War: President Gerald Ford announced conditional amnesty for draft dodgers and deserters (1974)
• Arnold Schwarzenegger: actor-turned-California-governor became a US citizen (1983)
• Montreal Protocol: treaty that aims to protect the ozone layer was signed (1987)

Birthdays

• Elgin Baylor (77): basketball hall-of-famer; baseball hall-of-famer Robin Yount (56) shares this birth date
• David Copperfield (55): magician and illusionist
• Marc Anthony (43): Latin Grammy winner and actor; musicians Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979), B.B. King (86), Charlie Byrd (1925-1999), Betty Kelly (67), Ron Blair and Kenney Jones (both 62), Earl Klugh (58) and Nick Jonas (19) were also born on this date
• Amy Poehler (40): comedian and actress, Parks and Recreation; other actors born on this date include Lauren Bacall (87), Anne Francis (81), Susan Ruttan (63), Ed Begley Jr. (62), Christopher Rich (58), Mickey Rourke (55), Jennifer Tilly (53), Molly Shannon (47), Alexis Bledel (30) and Madeline Zima (26)

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