Saturday, June 24, 2017

sabbatical \suh-BAT-i-kuhl\, noun:

1. Any extended period of leave from one's customary work, especially for rest, to acquire new skills or training, etc.

adjective:

1. Of or pertaining to or appropriate to the Sabbath.
2. Bringing a period of rest.

Sabbatical originates in reference to the Judeo-Christian Sabbath, and comes from the Greek sabbatikos.
 
curb shame

• Embarrassment at waiting on the curb obediently as other pedestrians ignore the "don't walk" signal in the absence of traffic.

I couldn't stand the curb shame any longer so I crossed with everyone else, even though I needed a break from running all around town.

History

• dancing mania: first major outbreak of this phenomenon — wild, uncontrollable dancing, accompanied by hallucinations, to the point of exhaustion — occurred in Aachen, Germany (1374)
• John Cabot: explorer became the first European to sight the continent of North America (1497)
• Henry VIII: crowned king of England (1509)
• flying saucer: Kenneth Arnold described UFOs he had seen near Mt. Rainier, Washington, as "saucers skipping across the water" (1947); the Roswell Report closed the case on other alleged sightings of UFOs near Roswell, New Mexico (1997)
• Berlin blockade: Soviet Union prevented delivery of supplies to Berlin; Allied forces began the Berlin airlift in response (1948)
• FTC: required that a message be placed on all cigarette packages to warn consumers that cigarette smoking is dangerous to their health (1964)

Birthdays

• E.I. Du Pont 1771
• Ambrose Bierce 1842
• Jack Dempsey 1895
• Irving Kaufman 1910
• Norman Cousins 1912
• John Ciardi 1916
• Al Molinaro 1919
• Manny Albam 1922
• Billy Casper 1931
• Peter Hamill 1935
• Michele Lee 1942
• Mick Fleetwood (Fleetwood Mac) 1942
• Georg Stanford Brown 1943
• Arthur Brown 1944
• Jeff Beck (Yardbirds) 1944
• John ‘Charlie’ Whitney (Family) 1944
• Colin Blunstone 1945
• Ellison S. Onizuka 1946
  Patrick Moraz (musician: Yes, Moody Blues) 1948
• John Illsley (Dire Straits) 1949
• Nancy Allen 1950
• Derrick Simpson (Black Uhuru) 1950
• Astro (UB40) 1957
• Andrew McCluskey (OMD) 1959
• Curt Smith (Tears For Fears) 1961
• Danielle Spencer 1965
• Sherry Stringfield 1967
• Jeff Cease (The Black Crowes) 1967
• Glenn Medeiros 1970
• Minka Kelly 1980