Tuesday, January 22, 2013

pseudomorph \SOO-duh-mawrf\, noun:

1. An irregular or unclassifiable form.
2. A mineral having the outward appearance of another mineral that it has replaced by chemical action.

Pseudomorph originally applied to minerals which looked like one type of mineral but were actually composed of another. Though from Greek roots, pseudomorph was used in German before entering English in the 1830s.

driving dirty

• Operating an automobile without proper proof of insurance.

I sure hope the police don't catch me driving dirty, my car insurance expired yesterday.

Trivia

How many pages long was the royal etiquette guide issued to the 1,900 guests invited to the 2011 wedding of England’s Prince William and Kate Middleton?

• 22.

History

• Bloody Sunday: czarist troops massacred unarmed demonstrators in St. Petersburg, marking the beginning of the unsuccessful Russian Revolution of 1905 (1905)
• Our Town: Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning play premiered in Princeton, NJ (1938)
• The Crucible: Arthur Miller play that used the Salem witch trials as a stand-in for McCarthyism premiered on Broadway; after a rocky start, it became a classic (1953)
• Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in: began tickling American funny bones; notable cast members included Goldie Hawn, Lily Tomlin and Tiny Tim (1968)
• Roe v. Wade: the US Supreme Court legalized abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy; the legal precedent still holds today (1973)

Birthdays

• Sir Francis Bacon 1561
• André Ampère 1775
• Lord (George) Byron 1788
• August Strindberg 1849
• Beatrice Webb 1858
• David (D.W.) Griffith 1875
• Frederick Vinson 1890
• Ann Sothern 1909
• J.J. (James) Johnson 1924
• Galina Zybina 1931
• Piper Laurie 1932
• Bill Bixby 1934
• Sam Cooke 1935
• Seymour Cassel 1937
• Joseph Wambaugh 1936
• Jeff Smith 1939
• J.C. Tremblay 1939
• John Hurt 1940
• Teddy Gentry (Alabama) 1952
• Steve Perry (Journey) 1953
• Chris Lemmon 1954
• Mike Bossy 1957
• Linda Blair 1959
• Michael Hutchence (INXS) 1960
• Diane Lane 1965
• DJ Jazzy Jeff 1965
• Regina Nicks (Regina Regina) 1965
• Olivia d'Abo 1967
• Marc Gay (Shai) 1969
• Balthazar Getty 1975
• Christopher Kennedy Masterson 1980
• Kelton Kessee (IMX) 1981
• Bererley Mitchell 1981