Wednesday, January 27, 2016

panjandrum \pan-JAN-druhm\, noun:

• An important personage or pretentious official.

It was composed on the spot to challenge actor Charles Macklin's claim that he could memorize anything. Macklin is said to have refused to repeat a word of it.
 

iphone effect

• shortly after one person in the group brings out their iphone, the rest follow suit, ultimately ending all conversation and eye contact.

"Hey, what do you want to order for drinks?" 
"Not sure, let's see what Imbibe Magazine has for their best beer this month." 
First iphone comes out of the pocket--enter safari search. Next iphone comes out--enter Facebook post. Third iphone makes an entrance -- the iphone effect has arrived.

History

• light bulb: Thomas Edison got a patent for his incandescent light (1880)
• Leningrad: the 880-day siege ended; more than half the city's population died during the harsh winter of 1942 (1944)
• Auschwitz: Nazi concentration and extermination camp was liberated by the Red Army (1945)
• Nevada Test Site: nuclear testing began with a one-kiloton bomb dropped on Frenchman Flat (1951)
• Outer Space Treaty: began collecting signatories; it bans WMDs in space and says the moon is communal property (1967)
• Apollo I: during a preflight test, a cockpit fire trapped and killed NASA astronauts Roger Chaffee, Virgil (Gus) Grissom and Ed White; they were to have made the first manned voyage to the moon (1967)

Birthdays

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756
  

  
• Lewis Carroll 1832
• Jerome Kern 1885
• Harry Ruby (Rubinstein) 1895
• Hyman Rickover 1900
• William Randolph Hearst Jr. 1908
• Milt Raskin 1916
• Skitch (Lyle) Henderson 1918
• David Seville (Chipmunks) 1919
• Donna Reed 1921
• Giovanni Verga 1922
• Bobby 'Blue' Bland 1930
• George Follmer 1934
• Troy Donahue 1936
• James Cromwell 1940
• Tommy Cromwell 1940
• Nick Mason (Pink Floyd) 1944
• Nedra Talley (The Ronettes) 1947
• Milkail Baryshnikov 1948
• Carl Mannerheim 1951
• Brian Downey (Thin Lizzy) 1951
• Seth Justman (The J. Geils Band) 1951
• Cheryl White (The Whites) 1955
• Richard Young (The Kentucky Headhunters) 1955
• Mimi Rogers 1956
• Janick Robert Gers 1957 (Iron Maiden) 
  Cris Collinsworth (NFL) 1959
• Gillian Gilbert (New Order) 1961
• Margo Timmons (Cowboy Junkies) 1961
• Bridget Fonda 1964
• Tracy Lawrence 1968
• Mike Patton (Faith No More) 1968
• Mark Owen 1972
• Mackenenzie Lynn Adkins 1998
• Dante 1999 (1/27/99 - 7/4/2010) diamond back terrapin (turtle), nuclear physicist, noble prize winner, 3 time oscar winner, 6 pulitzer prizes, ninja, dragon slayer, loved krill, had a pink nose.