TGIF! January 01, 2016

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!

panacea \pan-uh-SEE-uh\, noun:

• A remedy for all diseases, problems, or evils; a universal medicine; a cure-all.

Origin: Panacea derives from Greek panakeia, from panakes, "all-healing," from pan-, "all" + akos, "cure."

fecally challenged

• A person suffering from severe constipation.

Doug has been fecally challenged ever since he started taking his psych meds.

Holiday

• New Year's Day
• Liberation Day (Cuba)
• Independence Day (Haiti)

History

• The Times of London: first edition was published under this title; it was previously known as The Daily Universal Register (1788)
• Ellis Island: opened (1892); over the next 60-plus years, some 20 million immigrants were processed through its stations
• New York City: was chartered with 4 boroughs — Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens; Staten Island followed a few weeks later (1898)
• Australia: Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Northern Territory became a single nation (1901)
• St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line: world's first scheduled airline had its maiden flight, connecting St. Petersburg and Tampa, Florida (1914)
• Czechoslovakia: peacefully split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia (1993)
• euro: coins and notes were launched, creating the Eurozone (2002)

Birthdays

• Bartolomé Murillo 1617
• Paul Revere 1735
• Betsy Ross (Elizabeth Griscom) 1752
• George Washington Carver 1860
• E.M. Forster 1879
• Edie Martin 1880
• John Garand 1888
• Alessandro de Stefani 1891
• J. Edgar Hoover (U.S.) 1895
• Xavier Cugat 1900
• Bradford Ropes 1905
• Louis W. Parker 1906
• Barry Goldwater 1909
• Basil Deardon 1911
• Dana Andrews 1912
• Marvin Camras 1916
• Earl Wrightson 1916
• J.D. Salinger 1919
• Carole Landis 1919
• Milt Jackson 1923
• Valentina Cortese 1925
• Barbara Baxley 1927
• Frank Pourcel (The French Fiddles) 1928
• Bernard Kliban 1935
• Frank Langella 1940
• "Country Joe" McDonald 1942
• Don Novello 1943
• Daimi 1944
• Alain Afflelou 1948
• Steve Ripley (The Tractors) 1950
• Ren Woods 1958
• Grandmaster Flash 1958
• Dedee Pfeiffer 1964
• Verne Troyer 1969
• Paul Thomas Anderson 1970
• Christina B. Bump 1978