Thursday, February 27, 2020

albumen \al-BYOO-muhn\, noun:

1. the white of an egg.
2. Botany. the nutritive matter around the embryo in a seed.

Albumen comes from the Latin word for "white," albus. It entered English around 1600.

Russian Toilette

• After sitting on the toilet to poop, you notice that there is less than one-quarter of a roll of toilet paper, and no spare in the bathroom. You decide to poop anyway, gambling on the fact you will have enough toilet paper to have a satifying wipe.

Husband: "Honey, I just played Russian Toilette, and lost"

Wife: "Sucks to be you. Try not to bite your fingernails"

History

• Dominican Republic: became independent of Haiti (1844); then got its first elected president after 38 years of dictatorship (1963)
• Leaning Tower of Pisa: the Italian government requested aid in preventing the tower from toppling; however, it was considered important to retain the tilt (1964)
• carbon-14: radioactive isotope that is the basis of radiocarbon dating was discovered at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (1940)
• Kuwait: oil-rich Arabian Peninsula country was liberated from Iraqi occupation during the Gulf War (1991)

Birthdays

• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 - Poet
• Enrico Caruso 1873 - Opera singer
• Hugo (Layfayette) Black - U.S. Supreme Court Justice
• Marian Anderson 1897 - Opera singer
• John Steinbeck 1902 - Writer ("The Grapes of Wrath")
• Gene Sarazen 1902 - Golfer
• James T. Farrell 1904 - Author
• Franchot Tone 1905 - Actor ("Mutiny on the Bounty")
• Joan Bennett 1910 - Actress ("Little Women [1933]", "House of Dark Shadows")
• Ted Horn 1910 - Auto racer
• Irwin Shaw (Irwin Gilbert Shamforoff) 1913 - Novelist ("The Young Lions")
• John Connally 1917 - Governor of Texas, was shot during the JFK assassination.
• Guy Mitchell (Al Cernick) 1927 - Singer
• James Herlihy 1927 - Actor ("Four Friends"), writer ("Midnight Cowboy")
• Joanne Woodward 1930 - Actress ("The Three Faces of Eve")
• Elizabeth Taylor 1932 - Actress ("Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?")
• Ray Berry 1933 - Football player, coach
• Ralph Nader 1934 - Consumer advocate
• Chuck Glaser 1936 - Singer (Glaser Brothers), songwriter
• Jay Silvester 1937 - Discus athlete, first to throw over 60m
• Barbara Babcock 1939 - Actress
• Peter Revson 1939 - Auto racer
• Howard Hesseman 1940 - Actor ("WKRP in Cincinnati")
• Mary Frann (Mary Frances Luecke) 1943 - Actress ("Newhart")
• Wil (Wilbur) Jones 1947 - Basketball player, coach
• Eddie Gray 1948 - Musician (Tommy James & The Shondells)
• Debra Monk 1949 - Actress
• Steve Harley (Nice) 1951 - Musician (Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel)
• Dwight Jones 1952 - Basketball player
• Neal Schon 1954 - Musician (Journey)
• Reinhard Fendrich 1955
• Garry Christian 1955 - Musician (The Christians)
• Johnny Van Zant 1957 - Country singer
• Adrian Smith 1957 - Musician (Iron Maiden)
• Paul Humphreys 1960 - Musician (OMD)
• Grant Show 1962 - Actor ("Melrose Place", "Beverly Hills 90210")
• Adam Baldwin 1962 - Actor ("Wyatt Earp", "Ordinary People")
• Mike Cross 1965 - Musician (Sponge)
• Chili 1971 - Singer (TLC)
• Roderic Clark 1973
• Tony Gonzalez 1976 - Football player
• Chelsea Clinton 1980 - fugly daughter of U.S. President Clinton
• Bobby Wilson 1981 - Musician (Mista)
• Josh Groban 1981 - Singer
• Liz Chavez 1985