Wednesday, January 30, 2013

shindy \SHIN-dee\, noun:

1. A row; rumpus.

2. A shindig.

Shindy is a peculiar Americanism that arose in the 1810s. It referred originally to shinny, a now-obsolete game resembling field hockey. The word came to be applied not just to sport but also to raucous events.

Irritable Vowel Syndrome

• When you or your Scrabble opponent has so many vowels on their rack, they can't make a word on the board, or the only word that can be made is going to score very low. Complaining about having too many vowels and getting irritable reign over swapping a vowel tile and skipping a turn.

player #1: your turn.

player #2: dude, I can't even make a word, I have too many vowels.

player #1: swap some tiles, then.

player #2: no, it's ok. I will just make this two letter word and get a crappy point score.

player #1: sounds like you are suffering from Irritable Vowel Syndrome.

Trivia

When it comes to military jargon, what’s an NBC suit?

• Personal protective clothing designed to be worn in the event of a nuclear, biological, or chemical attack.

History

• Charles I: monarch of Great Britain and Ireland was beheaded for treason (1649)
• Mahatma Gandhi: nonviolent Indian political and spiritual leader was assassinated in Delhi by a Hindu extremist; Gandhi had been working to promote Hindu-Muslim unity (1948)
• Tet Offensive: the Vietcong launched a series of surprise attacks (1968)
• The Beatles: performed as a group for the last time in public; they played for 45 minutes on the roof of their Apple Records studio (1969)
• Bloody Sunday: 14 civil rights protesters were shot to death by British troops in Derry, Northern Ireland (1972)
• Iraq: held its first free election in 50 years (2005)

Birthdays

• Anton Checkhov 1860
• Franklin D. Roosevelt (U.S.) 1882
• Roy Eldridge (Gene Krupa's Band) 1911
• David Wayne 1914
• John Ireland 1914
• Bennie Leighton 1921
• Gene Martin 1922
• Dick Martin 1922
• Barbara Hale 1922
• Dorothy Malone 1925
• Douglas Engelbart 1925
• Gene Hackman 1931
• Louis Rukeyser 1933
• Tammy Grimes 1934
• Horst Jankowski 1936
• Boris Spassky 1937
• Vanessa Redgrave 1937
• Norma Jean 1938
• Dick Cheney 1941
• Joe Terranova (Danny and the Juniors) 1941
• Marty Balin (Jefferson Airplane) 1942
• Steve Marriott (Humble Pie & Small Faces) 1947
• William King (The Commodores) 1949
• Charles Dutton 1951
• Brett Butler 1958
• Jody Watley 1959
• Christian Bale 1974