Monday, January 2, 2017

nostrum \NOS-truhm\, noun:

1. A medicine of secret composition and unproven or dubious effectiveness; a quack medicine.

2. A usually questionable remedy or scheme; a cure-all.

Nostrum comes from Latin nostrum (remedium), "our (remedy)," from nos, "we."

 

nice

• Used as a filler during a pause in conversation. Doesn't necessarily mean something complimentary.

"I bought that new Fanta today."

"Nice"

History

• Granada: last Moorish stronghold in Spain, led by Muhammad XI, surrendered to Roman Catholic monarchs Ferdinand II and Isabella I (1492)
• Vulcan: the "discovery" of a planet closer to the Sun than Mercury was announced by French mathematician Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier; it proved to be nonexistent (1860)
• Russo-Japanese War: ended with Russian General Stoessel's letter of surrender to Japan's General Nogi (1905)
• 55 mph limit: Congress and President Richard Nixon set a national speed limit to conserve gasoline following the 1973 oil crisis (1974)

Birthdays

• Nathaniel Bacon 1647
• Philip Freneau 1752
• Martha Thomas 1857
• Sally Rand 1904
• James Melton 1904
• Sir Michael Tippett 1905
• Vera Zorina (Eva Hartwig) 1917
• Isaac Asimov 1920
• Renata Tebaldi 1922
• Anna Lee 1923
• Jason Evers 1927
• Gino Marchetti 1927
• Julius LaRosa 1930
• Roger Miller 1936
• Jim Bakker 1939
• Donald B. Keck 1941
• Christopher Durang 1949
• Chick Churchill (Ten Years After) 1949
• Wendy Phillips 1952
• Joanna Pacula 1957
• Gabrielle Carteris 1961
• Todd Haynes 1961
• Tia Carrere 1967 
• Cuba Gooding, Jr. 1968
• Christy Turlington 1969
• Taye Diggs 1971
• Paz Vega 1976
• Kate Bosworth 1983