Tuesday May 15, 2012

spiel \SPEEL\ noun

• a voluble line of often extravagant talk : a speech delivered especially to sell or promote something

iPause

• iPause: The period of time between when the light turns green and the driver in the front of the line of cars looks up from his iPod or iPhone and pulls away from the light. This is usually preceded by the person behind them honking their horn.

I cannot believe the amount of iPause time I waste on a typical commute.
Trivia
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History

• Las Vegas: the glitzy "entertainment capital of the world" was founded (1905)
• Standard Oil Company: in a historic ruling, the Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of Rockefeller's mega-monopoly; several of the pieces would later be known as Exxon, Mobil, Amoco and Chevron (1911)
• air mail: first route in US was set up between NY and Washington (1918); on a Boeing flight 12 years later, Ellen Church became the first stewardess (1930)
• nylon stockings: first went on sale in the US (1940)
• Portrait of Dr. Gachet: Van Gogh painting fetched a record high price of $82.5 million; the record stood till 2006, and Dr. Gachet is now No. 4 (1990)

Birthdays

• Lyman Frank Baum 1856 - Author of children's books ("The Wonderful Wizard of Oz")
• Pierre Curie 1859 - Physicist
• Katherine Anne Porter 1890 - Journalist, essayist, short story writer
• Joseph Cotten (Joseph Cheshire Cotten) 1905 - Actor
• James Mason (James Neville Mason) 1909 - Actor
• Constance Cummings 1910 - Actress
• Max Frisch 1911 - Architect, playwright, novelist
• Eddy Arnold (Richard Edward Arnold) 1918 - Country singer
• Ellis Larkins 1923 - Musician
• Richard Avedon 1923 - Photographer
• Anthony Shaffer 1926 - Playwright, novelist, screenwriter
• Jasper Johns 1930 - Artist
• Wavy Gravy (Hugh Nanton Romney) 1936 - Entertainer, peace activist
• Paul Zindel 1936 - Playwright, author
• Anna Maria Alberghetti 1936 - Opera singer, actress
• Trini Lopez (Trinidad López III) 1937 - Singer, guitarist
• Madeleine Albright 1937 - First woman to become a U.S. Secretary of State
• Lenny Welch 1938 - Singer
• Paul Rudd 1940 - Actor
• Lainie Kazan 1940 - Actress, singer
• K.T. Oslin (Kay Toinette Oslin) 1942 - Country singer, songwriter
• Graham Goble 1947 - Musician (Little River Band)
• Brian Eno 1948 - Musician (Roxy Music)
• Chazz Palminteri (Calogero Lorenzo "Chazz" Palminteri) 1951 - Actor, writer
• Pat Hickey 1953 - Hockey player
• George Brett 1953 - Baseball player
• Mike Oldfield (Michael Gordon "Mike" Oldfield) 1953 - Musician, composer
• Lee Horsley 1955 - Actor
• Emmitt Smith 1969 - Football player
• Prince Be 1970 - (PM Dawn)
• David Charvet 1972 - Singer, actor
• Ahmet Rodan Zappa 1974 - Musician
• Amy Chow 1978 - Comedienne
• Jamie-Lynn Sigler 1981