Tuesday, February 21, 2012

bespeak \bih-SPEEK\, verb:

1. To show; indicate.

2. To ask for in advance.

3. To reserve beforehand; engage in advance; make arrangements for.

4. Literary. To speak to; address.

5. Obsolete. To foretell; forebode.

Bespeak is derived from the Old English word besprecan. It developed a wide range of meanings, such as request, discuss, or arrange.

Presidents Day

• A holiday that has no real reason other than being an excuse for furniture and automotive dealers to have huge sales, and make Americans that don't know anything about their government feel stupid.

Example One: It's Presidents Day, so come on down and fork over alot of money for this used car...

Example Two:

Dumb Person: Hey, Happy Pres. Day, man!

Smart Person: Yeah...okay. Hey, do you know who the first five presidents were?

DP: Uh...Washington, Jefferson...Lincoln.

SP: Exactly.

Trivia

What sort of creature was the now-extinct megalodon, believed to be the largest predator ever to exist on earth?

• It was a giant prehistoric shark—reaching 50 feet or more in length—that fed on whales.

Holiday

• Fat Tuesday - Mardi Gras is the elaborate series of outdoor pageants and indoor tableau balls held annually during the winter social season in the United States, especially in New Orleans and Mobile. The carnival culminates on Fat or Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Rooted in European pre-Lenten revelries, the carnival tradition in the United States began in the colonial period and developed in tandem with racial policies and practices and survives as an extravagant spectacle of excess, decadence, and burlesque. The pageants, each sponsored by one of the many exclusive carnival organizations, are based upon themes drawn from mythology, history, or fiction and are often satiric of contemporary social issues.

History

• The Communist Manifesto: was published by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (1848)
• DNA: scientists Watson and Crick discovered the elusive double helix (1953)
• peace symbol: was designed by Gerald Holtom as a nuclear disarmament logo; it combines the letters "n" and "d" in the flag semaphore alphabet (1958)
• Malcolm X: militant civil rights leader was assassinated by members of the Nation of Islam while delivering a speech in New York (1965)
• Steve Fossett: became the first to cross the Pacific in a balloon upon traveling from South Korea to Canada; 12 years later, he disappeared while flying a plane in Nevada and later was declared dead (1995)

Birthdays

• Alice Palmer (Alice Elvira Freeman) 1855 - Educator, helped organize American Association of University Women
• Andres Segovia 1893
• W.H. (Wystan Hugh) Auden 1907 - Poet
• Zachary Scott 1914
• Ann Sheridan 1915 - Actress ("Appointment in Honduras", "The Man Who Came to Dinner")
• Albert Axelrod 1921 - Fencer, editor (American Fencing Magazine)
• Jack Ramsay 1925 - Basketball coach
• Sam Peckinpah 1925 - Director
• Erma Bombeck 1927 - Humorist, columnist, writer
• Hubert de Givenchy 1927 - Fashion designer
• Nina Simone (Eunice Waymon) 1933 - Singer, songwriter
• Rue McClanahan 1935 - Actress ("The Golden Girls", "Maude", "Mama’s Family")
• Barbara Jordan 1936 - Lawyer, U.S. Congresswoman
• Ron Clarke 1937 - Runner, broke 17 world records between 1963 and 1970
• Gary Lockwood (Yusolfsky) 1937 - Actor ("2001: A Space Odyssey", "Splendor in the Grass")
• Ernie McMillan 1938 - Football player
• Peter Gethin 1940 - Auto racer
• Peter McEnery 1940 - Actor ("Negatives")
• David Geffen 1943 - Producer, record executive (Geffen Records)
• Jack Billingham 1943 - Baseball player
• Danny Grant 1945 - Hockey player
• Tyne Daly 1946 - Actress ("Cagney and Lacey", "The Enforcer")
• Alan Rickman 1946
• Jerry Harrison 1949 - Musician (Talking Heads)
• Bill Olds 1951 - Football player
• Vince Welnick 1951 - Musician (The Tubes, The Greatful Dead)
• Jean-Jacques Burnel 1952 - Musician (The Stranglers)
• Ken Huff 1953 - Football player
• Jim Pietrzak 1953 - Football player
• William Petersen 1953 - Actor ("CSI: Crime Scene Investigation", "Fear")
• Kelsey Grammer 1955 - Actor ("Cheers", "Frazier")
• Jack Coleman 1958
• Alan Trammell 1958
• Mary Chapin Carpenter 1958 - Singer
• Christopher Atkins 1961 - Actor ("Dallas", "The Blue Lagoon")
• Ranking Roger (English Beat, General Public) 1961
• William "Billy" Baldwin 1963 - Actor ("Backdraft")
• Corey Harris 1969
• Eric Wilson 1970 - Musician (Sublime)
• Jennifer Love Hewitt 1979 - Actress ("Party of Five", "I Know What You Did Last Summer", "Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit") aka Jennifer Love Huge Tits
• Charlotte Church 1986 - Singer, actor
• Ashley Greene 1987 - Actress ("Twilight")