Saturday, January 4, 2013

transpontine \trans-PON-tin, -tahyn\, adjective:

1. across or beyond a bridge.
2. on the southern side of the Thames in London.

Transpontine comes from the Latin trans- + pont- meaning "across" + "bridge."

Dinner Sweats

• When you hold in a poop at the dinner table so long that you start to sweat.

I was trying to be polite but was nerve racked by the dreaded Dinner Sweats.

History

• McDonald Islands: uninhabited, barren, volcanic islands were discovered in the Indian Ocean near Antarctica (1854)
• appendectomy: the first such surgical removal of the appendix was performed in Iowa (1885)
• Great Society: President Lyndon B. Johnson outlined his domestic policies in his State of the Union address; he aimed to "end poverty and racial injustice" (1965)
• Nancy Pelosi: became the US's first female Speaker of the House (2007)

Birthdays

• Jakob Grimm 1785
• Louis Braille 1809
• Charles "Tom Thumb" Stratton 1838
• Augusta John 1878
• Sterling Holloway 1905
• Jane Wyman 1914
• Barbara Rush 1927
• Don Shula (NFL) 1930
• Ray Starling 1933
• Jean Chretien 1934
• Floyd Patterson 1935
• Dyan Cannon 1937
• Grace Bumbry 1937
• John McLaughlin 1943
• Arthur Conley 1946
• Barbara Ann Cochran 1951
• Kathy Forrester (The Forrester Sisters) 1955
• Ann Magnuson 1956
• Bernard Sumner (New Order) 1956
• Patty Loveless 1957
• Matt Frewer 1958
• Denise Matthews 1959 (akaVANITY)
• Michael Stipe (R.E.M.) 1960
• Patrick Cassidy 1961
• Dave Foley 1963
• Julia Ormond 1965
• Deana Carter 1966
• Benjamin Darvill (Crash Test Dummies) 1967
• Jeremy Licht 1971