Saturday, February 24, 2018

adamantine \ad-uh-MAN-teen\, adjective:

1. Utterly unyielding or firm in attitude or opinion.

2. Too hard to cut, break, or pierce.

3. Like a diamond in luster.

Related to adamant, adamantine comes from the Greek word adamántinos, a combination of the word adamant and the suffix -ine which means "of or pertaining to."

 

pronoun panic

• The state of embarrassed backpedaling following the accidental revelation of a party's gender through the use of a gender-specific pronoun. This slip abruptly ends a series of either gender-neutral phrasings or "pronoun lies." Generally leads to an ineffective self-correction, as there is no further lie that can provide a save. Restricted to certain languages, depending on the grammar of gender.

Pronoun panic interrupting gender neutrality:

Brittany: I just found out that it was one of our parents -- I'm not saying which -- who hit Fluffy yesterday, not a neighbor. They were on the phone while pulling out of the driveway and they weren't paying attention. But he feels so...I mean, THEY feel...

Brad: AHH I can't believe Dad killed Fluffy!

 

...and interrupting a lie:

Mark: Oh, you're going to Paris? My girlfriend and I went last summer and it was so romantic. She's fluent in French and she's always wanted to go, so I saved up and surprised her for her birthday. What great memories...one night, I took him -- HER...

Bill: Mark, we all know you're gay.

 

Trivia

What role did a teenager named Maggie Graham play in James McNeill Whistler’s decision to paint a portrait of his mother?

• Maggie, a model who was posing for Whistler, failed to show up for work one day in 1871, so Whistler prevailed upon his widowed mother to sit in for her. The result was the masterpiece formally known as Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1: Portrait of the Artist’s Mother.

History

• Gregorian calendar: solar calendar was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in a papal bull known as Inter gravissimas, to correct the Julian calendar (1582)
• Marbury v. Madison: established judicial review, giving the Supreme Court power to overturn acts of Congress it deems unconstitutional (1803)
• Andrew Johnson: became the first US president to be impeached, for defying the Tenure of Office Act (1868)
• National Public Radio: the home of All Things Considered and Car Talk was created (1970)

Birthdays

• Wilhelm Grimm 1786 - Author with brother Jakob Grimm (Grimm's Fairy Tales: Rumpelstiltskin, Snow White, The Sleeping Beauty, Tom Thumb)
• Winslow Homer 1836 - Artist
• Honus (John Peter) Wagner 1874 - Baseball player, "The Flying Dutchman"
• Chester Nimitz 1885 - U.S. Navy Admiral, WWII Commander in Chief, signed the Japanese surrender papers
• Marjorie Main (Mary Tomlinson) 1890 - Actress ("Ma and Pa Kettle", "The Egg and I")
• Zachary Scott (Zachary Thomson Scott, Jr.) 1914 - Actor ("Flamingo Road", "The Young One")
• Abe Vigoda 1921 - Actor ("Barney Miller", "The Godfather"), zombie
• Steven Hill 1922 - Actor ("Law & Order", "Mission: Impossible", "Leagle Eagles")
• Mark Lane 1927 - Attorney, author ("Rush to Judgment"), conspiracy theorist regarding the JFK assassination
• Bubba (John Melvin) Phillips 1928 - Baseball player
• Richard B. Shull 1929 - Actor ("Splash")
• Barbara Lawrence 1930
• Dominic Chianese 1931 - Actor ("The Sopranos"), singer
• John Vernon 1932 - Actor ("The Outlaw Jose Wales", "Dirty Harry")
• Michel Legrand 1932 - Composer
• Linda Cristal 1936
• Renata Scotto 1936 - Opera singer
• Lance Reventlow 1936 - Auto racer, son of Barbara Hutton
• James Farentino 1938 - Actor ("Dynasty", "The Final Countdown")
• Paul Jones 1942 - Musician (Manfred Mann)
• George Harrison 1943 - Musician (Beatles) - In 1992, Harrison stated, "I only learned recently after all these years that the date and time of my own birth have always been off by one calendar day and about a half hour on the clock." Previously, Harrison thought his birthday was the 25th.
• Sheila Larkin 1944
• Barry Bostwick 1945 - Actor ("Spy Hard", "Spin City" "War & Remembrance")
• Rupert Holmes 1947 - Musician, songwriter
• Edward James Olmos 1947 - Actor ("Blade Runner", "Miami Vice")

  
• Lonnie Turner 1947 - Musician (The Steve Miller Band)
• George Thorogood 1950 - Musician
• Helen Shaver 1951 - Actress ("The Craft", "Born to be Wild")
• Debra Jo Rupp 1951 - Actress ("That '70s Show")
• Fred Dean 1952 - Football player
• Tom Burleson 1952 - Basketball player
• Frank (Joseph) Riccelli 1953 - Baseball player
• Greg Wesbrooks 1953 - Football player
• Mike Sember 1953 - Baseball player
• Steven Jobs 1955 - Co-founder of Apple, Inc. - iTunes Music
• Bob Abrams 1955 - Musician (The Buckinghams)
• Paula Zahn 1956 - TV journalist ("CBS This Morning")
• Eddie Murray 1956 - Baseball player
• Sammy Kershaw 1958
• Michelle Shocked 1962 - Singer
• Todd Field 1964 - Director
• Billy Zane 1966 - Actor ("Titanic")
• Jeff Garcia 1970 - Football player
• Mike Lowell 1974 - Baseball player
• Simeon Rice 1974 - Football player
• Bonnie Somerville 1974 - Actress
• Lleyton Hewitt 1981 - Tennis player
• Brandon Brown 1983 - (Mista)