Tuesday, May 12, 2015

*51215*

odium \OH-dee-uhm\, noun:

1. Intense hatred or dislike; loathing; abhorrence.
2. The state or fact of being intensely hated as the result of some despicable action.
3. Disgrace or discredit attaching to something hated or repugnant.

Odium comes from the Latin odium, "hatred," from odisse, "to hate."

 

Reader's Block

• Related to Writer's Block, this is when you cannot, for the life of you, pick up a book and read it. Sure, you may be able to read a paragraph or two, or maybe even a page, but you don't retain anything of what you just read or have the attention span and/or will to go on. This is common for those who have ADD, are in possession of garbage literature, or are just so exhausted from having to read so many books during school/college that reading anything else, even for pleasure, has become impossible. To those who love to read, this is worse than heart disease and cancer combined.

Eddie - Hey, man, I see you're reading McCarthy's The Road. Nice.

Nerdlinger - I'm trying to read it, but I got this damn reader's block! I'm 20 pages in but I don't remember anything. Fuck!

Eddie - Poor bastard.

History

• odometer: pioneer and inventor William Clayton first used his "roadometer," an early tool for measuring distance traveled (1847)
• Berlin blockade: the Soviets ended their nearly year-long blockade of the Western-held sectors of Berlin (1949)
• hurricanes: the US Dept. of Commerce announced that storms would no longer be named after women only (1978)
• 2008 Sichuan earthquake: killed nearly 70,000 Chinese and left millions homeless (2008)

Birthdays

• Edward Lear 1812 - Poet, illustrator
• Lord Grimthorpe (Edmund Beckett, 1st Baron Grimthorpe, Q.C.) 1816 - Lawyer, horologist, architect
• Florence Nightingale 1820 - Nurse, contributed to modern nursing procedures, author
• Dante Rossetti 1828 - Poet, artist, brother of poet Christian Rossetti
• Jules Massenet 1842 - French composer
• Gabriel Urbain Fauré 1845 - French composer, pianist
• Mildred McAfee 1900 - Captain Mildred McAfee (Horton), first director of U.S. Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service)
• Katherine Hepburn 1907 - Actress ("Morning Glory", "On Golden Pond [1981]", "The Rainmaker")
• Howard K. Smith 1914 - Journalist, TV anchorman
• Mary Kay Ash 1915 - U.S. businesswoman and the founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics, Inc., born Mary Kathlyn Wagner
• Joe Maphis 1921 - (Otis W.) Joe Maphis, country singer, entertainer, songwriter
• Bob Goldham 1922 - Hockey player
• John Simon 1925 - Lord Chancellor of Great Britain from 1940-1945
• Yogi Berra 1925 - Baseball player, manager
• Burt Bacharach 1929 - Composer
• Samuel Nujoma 1929 - President of Namibia
• Felipe (Felipe Rojas) Alou 1935 - Baseball player
• John Bucyk 1935 - Hockey player
• Tom Snyder 1936 - Journalist, television host
• Frank Stella 1936 - Abstract artist, sculptor, painter
• George Carlin 1937 - Comedian, actor

  
• Susan Hampshire 1938 - Actress ("Cry Terror", "David Copperfield")
• Millie Perkins 1938 - Actress ("Wall Street", "Ensign Pulver")
• Ronald L. Ziegler 1939 - Journalist, Press Secretary for U.S. President Richard M. Nixon
• Jayotis Washington 1941 - Musician (The Persuasions)
• Billy Swan 1942 - Singer, songwriter
• Ted (Theodore Rodger) Kubiak 1942 - Baseball player
• Ian Dury 1942 - Singer (Ian Dury and the Blockheads)
• David Walker 1943 - Musician (Gary Lewis & The Playboys)
• Linda Dano (Linda Rae Wildermuth) 1943 - Actress
• Ian McLagan 1946 - Musician
• Steve Winwood 1948 - Musician (Blind Faith, Traffic, Spencer Davis Group)
• Lindsay Crouse 1948 - Actress ("The Juror", "Slap Shot", "Traps")
• Billy Squier 1950 - Singer

  
• Pat (Patrick Leonard) Darcy 1950 - Baseball player
• Gabriel Byrne 1950 - Actor ("In Treatment")
• Bruce Boxleitner 1950 - Actor ("Scarecrow and Mrs. King", "The Babe")
• Kix Brooks 1955 - Musician (Brooks and Dunn)
• Lou Whitaker 1957 - Baseball player, nicknamed "Sweet Lou"
• Kim Greist 1958 - Actress ("Homeward Bound" movies, "Chicago Hope")
• Kevin Bass 1959 - Baseball player
• Ving Rhames 1961 - Actor
• Billy Duffy 1961 - Musician (The Cult)
• Emilio Estevez 1962 - Actor ("Breakfast Club", "The Mighty Ducks" movies, "Young Guns"), Martin Sheen's son, Charlie Sheen's brother
• Eddie Kilgallon 1965 - Musician (Ricochet)
• Stephen Baldwin 1966 - Actor ("Born on the Fourth of July"), brother of Alec Baldwin, William Baldwin and Daniel Baldwin
• Tony Hawk 1968 - Skateboarder
• Kim Fields 1969 - Actress ("The Facts of Life")
• Samantha Mathis 1970 - Actress
• Jamie Luner 1971 - Actress ("Melrose Place")
• Mackenzie Astin 1973 - Actor
• Melanie Chisholm (Melanie "Mel" Jayne Chisholm) 1976 - Singer (Spice Girls), known as "Sporty Spice"
• Jason Biggs 1978 - Actor ("American Pie" movies)
• Malin Akerman 1978 - Actress (The Watchmen)
• Samantha Mathis 1978 - Actress
• Emily VanCamp 1986 - Actress ("Brothers & Sisters")
• Malcolm David Kelley 1992 - Actor ("Lost")
• Sawyer Sweeten 1995 - Actor ("Everybody Loves Raymond")
• Sullivan Sweeten 1995 - Actor ("Everybody Loves Raymond")