Tuesday, September 6, 2011

gammon \GAM-uhn\, verb:

1. To deceive.

noun:

1. In backgammon, a victory in which the winner throws off all his or her pieces before the opponent throws off any.

verb:

1. To win a gammon (in the game of backgammon) over.

noun:

1. A smoked or cured ham.
2. Deceitful nonsense.

This sense of gammon owes its meaning to the Middle English gamen, the ancestor of the Modern English "game."

Ladyboner

• A slang term for when a woman is sexually attracted to a man or another woman. The word may also be used as a name for the said man or woman who is the object of attraction.

Woman 1: "David Beckham is so hot."

Woman 2: "Yeah, I have a total Ladyboner for him."

Woman 1: "George Clooney is my ultimate Ladyboner."

Trivia

What famous American writer penned the first words spoken on screen by Greta Garbo: “Gimme a whiskey—ginger ale on the side. And don’t be stingy, baby”?

• Eugene O’Neill. The words were uttered by Garbo in the 1930 screen version of O’Neill’s play Anna Christie.

History

• William McKinley: US president was shot by an anarchist; he died eight days later (1901)
• Piggly Wiggly: the first self-service supermarket opened in Memphis, Tennessee (1916)
• Queen Juliana: popular monarch assumed the throne of the Netherlands, which she retained until 1980 (1948)
• Hendrik Verwoerd: South African prime minister was stabbed to death by a deranged parliamentary messenger in parliament in Cape Town (1966)
• Saint Petersburg: the original name was restored after the Russian city had been Leningrad since 1924 (1991)
• Cal Ripken Jr.: played in his 2,131st consecutive game and broke Lou Gehrig's "unbreakable" record (1995); his streak ended at 2,632 games on September 20, 1998

Birthdays

• Marie-Joseph Lafayette (1757-1834): French general who aided colonists in the American Revolution
• John Dalton (1766-1844): scientist who researched color blindness, known as Daltonism; scientists J.J.R. Macleod (1876-1936), Walter Robert Dornberger (1895-1980) and Luis Leloir (1906-1987) were also born on this date
• Jane Addams: social reformer who founded Chicago's Hull House settlement (1860-1935)
• Jeff Foxworthy (53): actor, comedian and host of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?; other actors born on this date include JoAnne Worley (74), Swoosie Kurtz (67), Jane Curtin (64), Rosie Perez (47), Dylan Bruno, Idris Elba and Anika Noni Rose (all 38), Justin Whalin (37) and Naomie Harris (35)
• Elizabeth Vargas (49): broadcast journalist, 20/20
• Foxy Brown (32): rapper; musicians David Allen Coe (72), Mel McDaniel (69), Roger Waters (68), Buddy Miller (59), Scott Travis (50), Macy Gray (44) and CeCe Peniston (42) share this birth date

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