TGIF! Friday, May 15, 2015

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apotheosis

1. Exaltation to divine rank or stature; deification.
2. Elevation to a preeminent or transcendent position; glorification: Down here I'm the apotheosis of cool (Sewer Urchin from the animated series The Tick).
3. An exalted or glorified example: Their leader was the apotheosis of courage.

querulous \KWER-uh-luhs; -yuh\, adjective:

1. Apt to find fault; habitually complaining.
2. Expressing complaint; fretful; whining.

Querulous comes from Latin querulus, from queri, "to complain."
 
text-end

• When a text-messaging distracted driver rear-ends the vehicle in front of them. Recently demonstrated by public transit drivers in San Francisco, Texas and Boston.

Did you hear about that San Francisco MUNI train driver who text-ended another train?

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