Tuesday, April 16, 2024

aperçu \a-per-SY\, noun:

1. A hasty glance; a glimpse.

2. An immediate estimate or judgment; understanding; insight.

3. An outline or summary.

Aperçu literally means "perceived" in French. It entered English in the 1820s.

 

longversation

• The quality of a conversation that is both long and rambling, without a fixed purpose and lacking in concision. Generally used in a negative sense.

The other day, Julia and I had such a longversation. I thought I could never leave!

 

Trivia

What famous composer wrote the song “I Paid My Income Tax Today”?

• Irving Berlin. The patriotic song, written during World War II at the behest of Treasury Secretary Henry Morganthau, included the lines, “See those bombers in the sky?/Rockefeller helped to build ’em, so did I.”

History

• Harriet Quimby: became the first female pilot to fly the English Channel (1912)
• Vladimir Ilyich Lenin: returned to Russia, ending an exile of some 20 years (1917)
• LSD: Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman accidentally discovered the hallucinogenic effects of the drug (1943)
• Texas City Disaster: at least 580 were killed in the explosion of a ship loaded with ammonium nitrate, in America's worst industrial disaster (1947)
• cold war: term was coined by financier Bernard Baruch in a speech in South Carolina (1947)
• Walter Cronkite: the "most trusted man in America" began his 19-year run as anchor of CBS Evening News (1962)
• panda diplomacy: China sent the US two giant pandas as a gift after President Richard Nixon's historic visit to China (1972)
• Virginia Tech: Cho Seung-Hui opened fire, eventually killing 32 students and himself in the US's most deadly shooting rampage (2007)

Birthdays

• Hans Sloane 1660 - Doctor, naturalist, instrumental in founding of the British Museum
• Sir John Franklin 1786
• Flora Batson 1864
• Jose de Diego 1866 - Patriot and political leader of Puerto Rico, April 16 is a legal holiday in Puerto Rico in his honor
• Wilbur Wright 1867 - Aviator, one of the Wright Brothers
• John Millington Synge 1871 - Poet, playwright
• Charlie Chaplin (Sir Charles (Spencer) ‘Charlie’ Chaplin) 1889 - Actor, comedian, communist
• Les Tremayne (Henning) 1913 - Actor ("The War of the Worlds", "The Slime People")
• John Hodiak 1914 - Actor
• Spike Milligan 1918
• Merce Cunningham 1919 - Dancer, choreographer
• Sir Peter Ustinov 1921 - Actor
• Kingsly Amis 1922 - Novelist
• Bennie Green 1923 - Musician, lyricist
• Barry Nelson 1920 - Actor ("Airport", "The Shining"), first actor to portray Ian Flemming's James Bond.
• Henri Mancini (Enrico Nicola Mancini) 1924 - Composer (themes for "The Pink Panther", "Peter Gunn")
• Joseph Alois Ratzinger 1927 - Pope Benedict XVI
• Peter Mark Richman 1927
• Edie Adams 1929 - Actress
• Ed Townshend 1929
• Roy Hamilton 1929 - Singer
• Herbie Mann (Soloman) 1930 - Jazz musician,
• Ike Pappas 1933 - Singer
• Bobby Vinton 1935 - Singer
• Dusty Springfield (Mary Isabel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien) 1939 - Singer
• Queen Margrethe II 1940 - Queen of Denmark
• Jim (James Reynold) Lonborg 1942 - Baseball player
• Dave Peverett (Lonesome Dave) 1943 - Musician (Foghat)
• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Lew Alcindor)1947 - Basketball player
• Gerry Rafferty 1947 - Singer, songwriter
• Bill Spooner 1949 - Musician (The Tubes)
• Peter Garrett 1953 - Singer (Midnight Oil)
• Jay O. Sanders 1953 - Actor
• Ellen Barkin 1954 - Actress ("Eddie and the Cruisers")
• 
  Jimmy Osmond 1963 - Singer (The Osmonds), the youngest Osmond
• David Pirner 1964 - Musician (Soul Asylum)
• John Cryer 1965 - Actor ("Superman 4: The Quest for Peace", "Pretty in Pink", "Two and a Half Men")
• Martin Lawrence 1965 - Actor, comedian
• Dan Rieser 1966 - Musician (Marcy Playground)
• Selena Quintanilla 1971 - Singer
• Peter Billingsley 1972 - Actor ("A Christmas Story")
• Lukas Haas 1976 - Actor
  Gina Carano 1982 - Actress
• Samantha Char 1995