Wednesday, November 30, 2011

churlish \CHUR-lish\, adjective:

1. Boorish or rude.

2. Of a churl; peasantlike.

3. Stingy; mean.

4. Difficult to work or deal with, as soil.

Churlish originates in the Old English ceorlisc meaning “peasant, freeman, man without rank.” It had various meanings in early Middle English, including "man of the common people," "a country man," "husbandman," "free peasant." By 1300, it meant "bondman, villain," also "fellow of low birth or rude manners."

leverage

• A buzzword used by management and those who aspire to become management. It used to describe an advantage gained by using a tool. Later it became a term used to describe corporate debt. For example, a leveraged buy-out is one where the buyer has to borrow money in order to buy the other company. After much mis-use, the word leverage no-longer describes anything or have any meaning to anyone who has ever worked in an office. In business circles this word is most commonly used in place of the word 'use'.

Steve: Can we take this off-line, I'm hungry. I'm going to leverage a sandwich.

Paula: Great idea, I could also leverage some food.

Steve: Come on then, we can leverage my car to get to the sandwich leverager.

Paula: Good leverage, we should leverage your leverage so we'll leverage

Steve: Leverage

Trivia

Which two 20th-century presidents belonged to the Baker Street Irregulars, the international organization of Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts?

• Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry S Truman.

History

• Russo-Finnish War: began; at its conclusion, Finland ceded part of its territory to Russia (1939)
• Lucille Ball: zany redheaded comedienne married Cuban bandleader Desi Arnaz, who became her costar in I Love Lucy (1940)
• Barbados: gained its independence from Great Britain (1966)

Birthdays

• Jonathan Swift (1667-1745): author of Gulliver's Travels; also, writers Mark Twain (1835-1910), L. M. Montgomery (1874-1942), I.J. Singer (1893-1944) and David Mamet (64)
• Winston Churchill (1874-1965): British PM
• Ridley Scott (74): filmmaker, Blade Runner, Body of Lies; filmmakers Gordon Parks (1912-2006), Terrence Malick (68) and Ben Stiller (46), and CTW founder Joan Ganz Cooney (82) share this birth date
• Dick Clark (82): host of American Bandstand; musicians born on this date include Paul Stookey (74), Roger Glover (66), Rob Grill (67), Matti Caspi (62), Danny Sanderson (61), Billy Idol (56) and Clay Aiken (33)
• Sandra Oh (40): Christina Yang on Grey's Anatomy; also, actors Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (93), Robert Guillaume (84), Mandy Patinkin (59), Colin Mochrie (54), Amy Ryan (42), Elisha Cuthbert (29) and Kaley Cuoco (26)

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