Thursday, September 11, 2014

interrobang \ in-TER-uh-bang \ , noun; 

• a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question. Also, interabang . 

Origin: Interrobang is an Americanism from the mid-1960s. It is a blend of interrogation point , another term for a question mark, and bang , printers' slang for an exclamation point. 

half-your-age-plus-seven

• The rule to define the youngest that a romantic interest can be before the relationship is indecent.

26-year-old Barbara waited patiently until Jack turned 20, fulfilling the half-your-age-plus-seven rule, before pursuing him romantically.

History

• Battle of Lake Champlain American troops score a decisive victory over the British in the War of 1812 (1814)
• Boulder Dam: was dedicated by FDR (1936); it was renamed Hoover Dam in 1947
• World Wide Fund for Nature: conservation and environmental group was formed, in Switzerland (1961)
• coup: General Augusto Pinochet's forces topple the Chilean government of democratically-elected Salvador Allende; Pinochet retained power for nearly 17 years (1973)
• Scottish Parliament: a referendum of the Scottish electorate approved a separate parliament, breaking from England after 290 years of union (1997)
• Al Qaida: attacks at the Twin Towers of  the World Trade Center and the Pentagon with hijacked planes. Thousands died that day. Led to the invasion of Afghanistan by US and allied forces. (2001)
  Libya: Terror attack on the American consulate in Benghazi left four American dead. Initially President Obama blamed the attack on a crude video, but later recanted. (2012) 

Birthdays

• James Thomson 1700
• O. Henry (William Sidney Porter) 1862
• James Jeans
• D.H. Lawrence 1885
• Jimmie Davis 1899
• Anne Seymour 1909
• Bear Bryant 1913
• Jessica Mitford 1917
• Ferdinand Marcos (Philippines) 1917
• Betsy Drake 1923
• Tom Landry 1924
• Alfred Slote 1926
• Lee Richardson 1926
• Earl Holliman 1928
• Arvo Part 1935
• Gherman Titov 1935
• Brian DePalma 1940
• Lola Falana 1943
• Mickey Hart (Grateful Dead) 1943
• Phil May (The Pretty Things) 1944
• Leo Kottke 1945
• Dennis Tufano (The Buckinghams) 1946
• Amy Madigan 1951
• Tommy Shaw (Styx) 1952
• Reed Birney 1954
• John Moss (Culture Club) 1957
• Mick Talbot (The Style Council) 1958


• Kristy McNichol 1962
• Virginia Madsen 1963
• Roxanne Dawson 1964
• Moby 1965
• Harry Connick, Jr. 1967
• Bart Van Der Zeeluw (K's Choice) 1968
• Laura Wright 1970
• Mr. Black 1977
• Jonny Buckland 1977 - Musician (Coldplay)
• Ludacris (Christopher Brian Bridges) 1977 - Rapper, actor