Wednesday, May 15, 2013

droll \drohl\, adjective:

1. amusing in an odd way; whimsically humorous; waggish.

noun:

1. a droll person; jester; wag.

verb:

1. Archaic. to jest; joke.

Droll originally comes from the Middle Dutch word drol referring to "a fat little man." The word came to English through the French droll which meant "pleasant rascal."

coffee nap

• A nap taken after someone has consumed any amount of caffeine (i.e. coffee) resulting not in sleep, but blissful rest, while still mildly conscious.

Evelyn: Hey Kaitlyn, how was your coffee nap?

Kaitlyn: It was fantastic I listened to the whole LOVE album, while seeming to float on a cloud.

Evelyn: Awesome! I just had a latte, about to have a coffee nap of my own!

Trivia

What two names out of the 10 proposed by Thomas Jefferson in 1784 were given to states carved out of the Northwest Territory?

• Illinois and Michigan, which Jefferson had proposed as Illinoia and Michigania. One other name among those he proposed was used—Washington—but not in the Northwest Territory. Jefferson’s other suggestions were Assenisippis, Cheronesus, Metropotamia, Pelipsia, Polypotamia, Saratoga, and Sylvania. In all, six states were formed from the Northwest Territory: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

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