Sunday, January 29, 2012

hotchpot \HOCH-pot\, noun:

• the bringing together of shares or properties in order to divide them equally.

Dating back to the early 1200s, hotchpot literally meant "shake-pot" in Anglo-French. It is related to the word hodgepodge

Trivia

What inspired ice-cream maker William Dreyer to name a flavor Rocky Road?

• The 1929 stock market crash. With his candy-making partner Joseph Edy, Dreyer introduced the flavor just weeks after the crash. He thought the name would make people smile because it described both the economy and the texture of his blend of walnuts (now almonds), marshmallows, and chocolate ice cream.

History

• 1979 - Emerson, Lake & Palmer disbanded.
• 1987 - "Physician’s Weekly" announced that the smile on the face of Leonardo DeVinci's Mona Lisa was caused by a "...facial paralysis resulting from a swollen nerve behind the ear."
• 1996 - Garth Brooks refused to accept his American Music Award for Favorite Overall Artist. Brooks said that Hootie and the Blowfish had done more for music that year than he did.
• 2002 - Dream Theater's album "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence" was released.
• 2007 - KISS' Rock The Nation Live! DVD was officially certified double-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Birthdays

• Thomas Paine 1737
• William McKinley (U.S.) 1843
• Lawrence Hargrave 1850
• W.C. Fields 1880
• Huddie Ledbetter 1889
• Allen B. DuMont 1901
• Joe Primeau 1906
• "Professor" Irwin Corey 1912
• Victor Mature 1916
• John Raitty 1917
• John Forsythe 1918
• Paddy Chayefsky 1923
• Noel Harrison 1936
• Germaine Greer 1939
• Katherine Ross 1942
• Claudine Longet 1942
• Tom Selleck 1945
• David Byron (Uriah Heep) 1947
• Marc Singer 1948
• Tommy Erdelyi (The Ramones) 1952
• Ann Jillian 1950
• Louie Perez (Los Lobos) 1953
• Oprah Winfrey 1954
• Diane Delano 1957
• Irlene Mandrell 1957
• Judy Norton Taylor 1958
• Johnny Spampinato (NRBQ) 1959
• Greg Louganis 1960
• Eddie Jackson (Queensryche) 1961
• David Baynton-Power (James) 1961
• Nicholas Turturro 1962
• Roddy Frame (Aztec Camera) 1964
• Dominik Hasek (NHL) 1965
• Edward Burns 1968
• Aeneas Williams (NFL) 1968
• Thomas Jane 1969
• Heather Graham 1970
• Sara Gilbert 1975
• Andrew Keegan 1979
• Jonny Lang 1981