Sunday, October 2, 2011

mendacity \men-DAS-i-tee\, noun:

1. A tendency to lie; untruthfulness.

2. An instance of lying; falsehood.

Mendacity is derived from Latin mendax "lying, deceitful," which is related to menda "fault, defect, carelessness in writing."

mind over bladder

• The power to be able to suppress any urination needs regardless of the urgency and pain it may cause.

Joe: Dude! Stop the car! I REALLY need to take a piss right now!!

Pete: No can do, man! Just use your mind over bladder!

Trivia

Which state is hit by more than half the earthquakes recorded in the United States?

• Alaska, which straddles the border of two tectonic plates. It is hit with a magnitude 7 to 8 earthquake almost annually, and with a “great” earthquake—magnitude 8 or higher—an average of once every 13 years.

History

• Siege of Jerusalem: Islamic military leader Saladin took the holy city from the Crusaders (1187)
• HMS Beagle: naturalist Charles Darwin returned to England after a five-year sea voyage, during which he formulated his theory of natural selection (1836)
• Opus Dei: Roman Catholic organization was founded by St. Josemaría Escrivá; it was popularized in Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code (1928)
• Thurgood Marshall: was sworn in as the Supreme Court's first African American justice (1967)
• Rock Hudson: movie star died of AIDS; he was the first celebrity to announce he had the disease (1985)

Birthdays

• Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948): leader who used civil disobedience to win Indian independence
• Groucho Marx (1890-1977): wisecracking comedian, one of the Marx Brothers; also, straight man comedian Bud Abbott (1897-1974)
• Graham Greene (1904-1991): author of The Quiet American and The Honorary Consul; and, poet Wallace Stevens (1879-1955)
• Donna Karan (63): fashion designer, DKNY
• Annie Leibovitz (62): celebrity photographer; movie critic Rex Reed (73) shares this birth date
• Sting (60): musician formerly with The Police; also, musicians Don McLean (66), Mike Rutherford (61), Phil Oakey (56), Robbie Nevil (53), Bud Gaugh (44) and Kelly Willis (43) and Tiffany (40)
• Lorraine Bracco (57): Dr. Jennifer Melfi in The Sopranos; actors Avery Brooks (63) and Kelly Ripa (41) share this birth date

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