Sunday, January 3, 2016

tortuous \TOR-choo-us\, adjective:

1. Marked by repeated turns and bends; as, "a tortuous road up the mountain."
2. Not straightforward; devious; as, "his tortuous reasoning."
3. Highly involved or intricate; as, "tortuous legal procedures."

Tortuous is from Latin tortuosus, from tortus, "a twisting," from the past participle of torquere, "to twist."

Guac-blocked

• When you're at a party and all you really want is to get some guacamole dip and chips, but one of your fellow party-goers is drunkingly blocking your path to the guac.

Sarah had gotten her drink and was ready to get some snacks, but unfortunately she was guac-blocked by Cody, who had moved between her and the food.

Trivia

According to ufologists, what is a close encounter of the fourth kind?

• The abduction of a human by an extraterrestrial. A close encounter of the third kind is the sighting of an extraterrestrial.

History

• Meiji Restoration: re-established the authority of Japan's emperor and led to the fall of the shoguns (1868)
• the Curse of the Bambino: Red Sox losing streak began with the team's sale of Babe Ruth to the Yankees; it lasted till 2004 (1920)
• March of Dimes: fundraising organization was founded by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to raise funds for the battle against poliomyelitis; it later expanded its aim to the prevention of premature birth, birth defects and infant mortality (1938)
• Alaska: the territory once known as Seward's Folly became the 49th and largest US state (1959)

Birthdays

• Marcus Tullius Cicero 106 B.C.
• Lucretia Mott 1793
• Clement Attlee 1883
• Anna Pavlova 1885
• J.R.R. Tolkien 1892 (LOTR)
• Marion Davies 1897
• Zasu Pitts 1898
• Ray Milland 1905
• Victor Borge 1909
• Joseph Rauh 1911
• Maxene Andrews (The Andrews Sisters) 1916
• John Russell 1921
• Bill Travers 1922
• Hank Stram 1924
• George Martin 1926
• Joan Walsh Anglund 1926
• Robert Loggia 1930
• Dabney Coleman 1932
• Coo Coo (Clifton) Marlin 1932
• Bobby Hull (NHL) 1939
• Van Dyke Parks 1943

• Victoria Principal 1944
• Stephen Stills (Buffalo Springfield) 1945
• Betty Rollin 1946
• John Paul Jones (Baldwin) 1946
• Melody Anderson 1955
• Mel Gibson 1956
• Shannon Sturges 1968
• James Carter 1969
• Michael Schumacher 1969
• Jason Marsden 1975
• Danica McKellar 1975