Monday, February 28, 2022

quixotic \kwik-SOT-ik\, adjective:

1. Caught up in the romance of noble deeds and the pursuit of unreachable goals; foolishly impractical especially in the pursuit of ideals.
2. Capricious; impulsive; unpredictable.

Quixotic refers to the eccentric, generous idealism of Don Quixote, the hero of a satiric romance by Miguel de Cervantes.

 
No stalk

• Phrase used before one inadvertently says something that sounds stalkerish on Facebook.

Carter: "No stalk but I noticed you changed your quotes on your profile. I love Hunter S Thompson too!"
Jane: Okaaay.

 

History

• Methodism: Anglican clergyman and evangelist John Wesley chartered the first Methodist church (1784)
• Shanghai Communiqué: US President Nixon and Chinese Premier Chou En-lai issued a document advancing normalization between the two countries (1972)
• M*A*S*H: the final episode — "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" — aired; it was the top-rated TV episode in the US (1983)
• Olof Palme: the Swedish prime minister and his wife were shot in Stockholm; he was killed, she survived (1986)
• Waco siege: 51-day standoff began with a gun battle between federal agents and members of the cloistered Branch Davidian sect; the agents were attempting to arrest leader David Koresh on a weapons charge (1993)

Birthdays

• Mary Lyon 1797 - Educator, founder of Mount Holyoke Seminary (later Mt. Holyoke College)
• Sir John Tenniel 1820 - Cartoonist, illustrator
• Charles Blondin (Jean Francois Gravelet) 1824 - Acrobat, aerialist, first to walk across Niagra Falls on a tightrope.
• Ben Hecht 1894 - Novelist, scriptwriter, playwright

  
• Linus Pauling 1901 - Nobel prize for chemistry in 1954, Nobel peace prize winner in 1962
• Vincente Minnelli (Lester Anthony Minnelli) 1903 - Director, Liza Minelli's father
• Earl Scheib 1907
• Milton Caniff 1907 - Cartoonist
• Billie Bird 1908
• Zero (Samuel) Mostel (Samuel Joel Mostel) 1915 - Actor
• Lee Castle 1915 - Musician, bandleader (Jimmy Dorsey's band)
• Alf Kjellin 1920 - Actor, director
• Charles Durning 1923 - Actor ("Spy Hard", "Dick Tracy", "The Hindenburg")
• Chris Kraft 1924 - NASA flight director and voice of Mission Control for all Mercury and many Gemini missions
• Svetlana Allilueva 1926 - Author, daughter of Russian leader Joseph Stalin
• Stanley Baker 1927 - Actor ("The Guns of Navarone")

  
• Frank Malzone 1930 - Baseball player
• Gavin MacLeod 1931 - Actor ("Love Boat", "The Mary Tyler Moore Show")
• Don Francks 1932 - Actor
• Tommy Tune 1939 - Dancer, actor, choreographer
• Mario Andretti 1940 - Auto racer, twin of Aldo Andretti
• Aldo Andretti 1940 - Twin of Mario Andretti
• Joe South 1940 - Songwriter, singer
• Frank Bonner 1942 - Actor ("WKRP in Cincinnati")
• Brian Jones (Lewis Hopkin-Jones) 1942 - Musician (The Rolling Stones)
• Poul Popiel 1943
• Donnie Iris 1943
• Barbara Acklin 1944
• Kelly Bishop 1944 - Actress ("Gilmore Girls")
• Bubba Smith 1945 - Football player
• Stephanie Beacham 1947 - Actress
• Marty Perez 1947 - Baseball player
• Mercedes Ruehl 1948 - Actress ("Last Action Hero", "Married to the Mob")
• Bernadette Peters (Lazzara) 1948 - Actress ("The Jerk", "Pennies From Heaven"), singer
• Tom Riker 1950 - Basketball player
• Roland Harper 1953 - Football player
• Adrian Dantley 1955 - Basketball player
• Gilbert Gottfried 1955 - comedian
• John Turturro 1957 - Actor ("Girl 6", "The Color of Money", "Desperately Seeking Susan")
• Cindy Wilson 1957 Musician (B-52's)
• Phil Gould 1957 - Musician (Level 42)
• Rae Dawn Chong 1961 - Actress
• Robert Sean Leonard 1969 - Actor ("Manhattan Project", "House")
• Pat Monahan 1969 - Musician (Train)
• Maxine Bahns 1971 - Actress
• Eric Lindros 1973 - Hockey player
• FeFe Dobson 1985 - Singer
  Ali Larter 1976 - Actress
• Bobb'e J. Thompson 1996