Thursday, December 15, 2011

veriest \VER-ee-ist\, adjective:

1. Utmost; most complete.

2. Superlative of very.

Veriest is obviously related to the word very, which derives from the Old French word verai meaning “true, real or genuine.” The suffix -est makes a word a superlative, like fastest.

Banker's Dozen

• The opposite of a Baker's Dozen where the customer receives 13 of a product for the price of 12; in a Banker's Dozen the customer receives 11 of the product for the price of 12

Hector was surprised to find only 11 glasses in his gift of 12 glasses that he received from the bank. Later, Hector learned that the Bank offers a Banker's Dozen in their gifts and products, in which they steal one item.

Trivia

What TV host, author, and entrepreneur listed her motto as “I do what I please and I do it with ease” in her high school yearbook?

• Martha Stewart in 1959, when she was Nutley High School senior Martha Kostyra in Nutley, New Jersey.

History

• Bill of Rights: freedoms of speech, press, religion, assembly and more became United States law when the states ratified Amendments I-X of the US Constitution (1791)
• Sitting Bull: Lakota Sioux military and spiritual leader who defeated Gen. Custer at Little Bighorn was killed (1890)
• Gone With the Wind: Civil War-era epic film premiered in Atlanta (1939)
• Adolf Eichmann: an Israeli court sentenced to death the former Nazi official who had zealously supported the use of gas chambers to exterminate the Jews in WWII (1961)
• flag of Canada: Canada adopted its national flag, a red maple leaf on a white background (1964)
• Romanian Revolution: popular uprising began, leading to the downfall of dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu (1989)

Birthdays

• Nero (37-68): emperor who "fiddled while Rome burned"
• Joseph Moses Levy (1812-1888): founder of London's Daily Telegraph; journalist Franklin Sanborn (1831-1917) shared this birth date
• Gustave Eiffel (1832-1923): designer of the eponymous tower in Paris
• Tim Conway (78): actor/comedian, described as the "world's greatest second banana"; also, actors Don Johnson (62), Helen Slater (48), Molly Price (45) and Adam Brody (32)
• Nick Buoniconti (71): NFL hall-of-famer; and, Chariots of Fire gold medalist Harold Abrahams (1899-1978)
• Stan Kenton (1911-1979): progressive jazz bandleader; plus, Cindy Birdsong (72) of The Supremes

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