Tuesday, December 6, 2011

weald \weeld\, noun:

1. Wooded or uncultivated country.

2. A region in SE England, in Kent, Surrey, and Essex counties: once a forest area; now an agricultural region.

Related to the word wild, weald comes from the Old English word weald meaning “forest.”

Monitor Shopping

• To look at all the things on a retail site without making a purchase. You can look but you can't buy.

A: Ay, whatcha doing?

B: Monitor shopping on Asos.

A: Had to pay rent?

B: Yup.

Trivia

According to legend, how did the thistle become the national emblem of Scotland?

• When Norse raiders slipped ashore at night in 1263, they went barefoot to avoid alerting the sleeping Scots. The strategy failed after one of the invaders stepped on a prickly thistle and screamed in pain, rousing the clansmen—who defeated the Norsemen in the Battle of Largs.

History

• Encyclopædia Britannica: first "number," or pamphlet, was offered for sale in Edinburgh for sixpence (1768)
• Halifax: a French munitions vessel exploded, killing about 1,800 people, injuring some 9,000 more (one-fifth of the population), and destroying the northern part of Nova Scotia's capital (1917)
• Irish Free State: precursor to today's Republic of Ireland was formed (1922)
• Ulysses: a United States judge ruled that James Joyce's novel, in which characters correspond to Homeric figures, was not obscene (1933)
• Mars Global Surveyor: NASA released pictures of the red planet that seemed to show the recent presence of water (2006)

Birthdays

• Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918): poet, "Trees"; author Osbert Sitwell (1892-1969) shared this birth date
• Ira Gershwin (1896-1983): lyricist
• Alfred Eisenstaedt (1898-1995): photojournalist
• Dave Brubeck (91): jazz pianist/composer, "Take Five"
• Steven Wright (56): Oscar-winning comedian/actor
• Judd Apatow (44): filmmaker, Knocked Up, Forgetting Sarah Marshall; performers born on this date include Agnes Moorehead (1906-1974), James Naughton (66), JoBeth Williams (63), Kin Shriner, Wil Shriner and Tom Hulce (all 56) and Janine Turner (48)