Thursday, April 16, 2015

Thursday, April 16, 2015

etiolate \EE-tee-uh-layt\, transitive verb:
  1. (Botany) To bleach and alter the natural development of (a green plant) by excluding sunlight.
  2. To make pale or sickly.
  3. To make weak by stunting the growth or development of.
  4. (Botany) To become bleached or whitened, as when grown without sunlight.
Etiolate comes from French étioler, perhaps for s'éteuler, "to become like straw," from Old French esteule, "stubble or straw," from Latin stipula, "a stalk, straw."
 
Are you shitreous? 
  • A phrase that comes from the mixture of the emphatic expressions "no shit!" and "are you serious?" It is normally used in response to some surprising or shocking news or information. When said fast is indistinguishable from saying "are you serious?"
Aaron: Hey! I just won $1 million in the lottery. 
Tom: Wow! Are you shitreous?

History
  • Harriet Quimby: became the first female pilot to fly the English Channel (1912)
  • Vladimir Ilyich Lenin: returned to Russia, ending an exile of some 20 years (1917)
  • LSD: Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman accidentally discovered the hallucinogenic effects of the drug (1943)
  • Texas City Disaster: at least 580 were killed in the explosion of a ship loaded with ammonium nitrate, in America's worst industrial disaster (1947)
  • cold war: term was coined by financier Bernard Baruch in a speech in South Carolina (1947)
  • Walter Cronkite: the "most trusted man in America" began his 19-year run as anchor of CBS Evening News (1962)
  • panda diplomacy: China sent the US two giant pandas as a gift after President Richard Nixon's historic visit to China (1972)
  • Virginia Tech: Cho Seung-Hui opened fire, eventually killing 32 students and himself in the US's most deadly shooting rampage (2007)
Birthdays
  • Hans Sloane 1660 - Doctor, naturalist, instrumental in founding of the British Museum
  • Sir John Franklin 1786
  • Flora Batson 1864
  • Jose de Diego 1866 - Patriot and political leader of Puerto Rico, April 16 is a legal holiday in Puerto Rico in his honor
  • Wilbur Wright 1867 - Aviator, one of the Wright Brothers
  • John Millington Synge 1871 - Poet, playwright
  • Charlie Chaplin (Sir Charles (Spencer) ‘Charlie’ Chaplin) 1889 - Actor, comedian, communist
  • Les Tremayne (Henning) 1913 - Actor ("The War of the Worlds", "The Slime People")
  • John Hodiak 1914 - Actor
  • Spike Milligan 1918
  • Merce Cunningham 1919 - Dancer, choreographer
  • Sir Peter Ustinov 1921 - Actor
  • Kingsly Amis 1922 - Novelist
  • Bennie Green 1923 - Musician, lyricist
  • Barry Nelson 1920 - Actor ("Airport", "The Shining"), first actor to portray Ian Flemming's James Bond.
  • Henri Mancini (Enrico Nicola Mancini) 1924 - Composer (themes for "The Pink Panther", "Peter Gunn")
  • Joseph Alois Ratzinger 1927 - Pope Benedict XVI
  • Peter Mark Richman 1927
  • Edie Adams 1929 - Actress
  • Ed Townshend 1929
  • Roy Hamilton 1929 - Singer
  • Herbie Mann (Soloman) 1930 - Jazz musician,
  • Ike Pappas 1933 - Singer
  • Bobby Vinton 1935 - Singer
  • Dusty Springfield (Mary Isabel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien) 1939 - Singer
  • Queen Margrethe II 1940 - Queen of Denmark
  • Jim (James Reynold) Lonborg 1942 - Baseball player
  • Dave Peverett (Lonesome Dave) 1943 - Musician (Foghat)
  • Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Lew Alcindor)1947 - Basketball player
  • Gerry Rafferty 1947 - Singer, songwriter
  • Bill Spooner 1949 - Musician (The Tubes)
  • Peter Garrett 1953 - Singer (Midnight Oil)
  • Jay O. Sanders 1953 - Actor
  • Ellen Barkin 1954 - Actress ("Eddie and the Cruisers")
  • imagebam.comJimmy Osmond 1963 - Singer (The Osmonds), the youngest Osmond
  • David Pirner 1964 - Musician (Soul Asylum)
  • John Cryer 1965 - Actor ("Superman 4: The Quest for Peace", "Pretty in Pink", "Two and a Half Men")
  • Martin Lawrence 1965 - Actor, comedian
  • Dan Rieser 1966 - Musician (Marcy Playground)
  • Selena Quintanilla 1971 - Singer
  • Peter Billingsley 1972 - Actor ("A Christmas Story")
  • Lukas Haas 1976 - Actor
    Gina Carano 1982 - Actress
  • Samantha Char 1995


0 comments: