Tuesday, November 22, 2011

poltroon \pol-TROON\, noun:

1. A wretched coward; craven.

adjective:

1. Marked by utter cowardice.

Poltroon originally came from the Latin pullus meaning “young animal.” It came to mean an idler or coward in Old French.

potato fever

• A term describing when a non-white person has a sexual attraction or preference for a white person or for white people exclusively

Juán is Mexican but he only dates white guys. He has a serious case of potato fever.

Trivia

What is the width of a cut made by a saw called?

• The kerf.

History

• Edward Teach: the pirate known as Blackbeard was killed during a battle with the British Navy off the coast of Virginia (1718)
• ...---...: S-O-S was adopted as a distress signal at the International Radio Telegraphic Convention in Berlin (1906)
• China Clipper: a Pan Am "flying boat" started regular transoceanic mail service from San Francisco to Manila (1935)
• JFK: the 35th president of the US was assassinated by a sniper during a motorcade in Dallas (1963)
• Margaret Thatcher: the prime minister of England quit her post, citing lack of party support (1990)

Birthdays

• Thomas Cook (1808-1892): travel agent who initiated the idea of the guided tour
• George Eliot (1819-1880): author of Silas Marner and Middlemarch; other writers born on this date include Abigail Adams (1744-1818) and André Gide (1869-1951)
• Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970): French leader
• Hoagy Carmichael (1899-1981): composer, "Stardust"; also, composer Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
• Terry Gilliam (71): director, Monty Python; plus, director Arthur Hiller (88)
• Billie Jean King (68): tennis champ who won the "Battle of the Sexes" against Bobby Riggs; tennis pro Boris Becker (44) also celebrates his birthday today
• Jamie Lee Curtis (53): actor, True Lies; also, actors Rodney Dangerfield (1921-2004), Robert Vaughn (79), Michael Callan (76), Allen Garfield (72), Tom Conti (70), Steve Van Zandt (61), Richard Kind (55), Mariel Hemingway (50), Mark Ruffalo (44) and Scarlett Johansson (27)

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