Hello Brazil! 2025

  

 

 

Saturday, November 15, 2025

phrenology \fri-NOL-uh-jee, fre-\, noun:

• a psychological theory or analytical method based on the belief that certain mental faculties and character traits are indicated by the configurations of the skull.

The phren- in phrenology comes from the Greek phreno- referring to the diaphragm and the abdomen. This sense was extended in the writings of Homer to refer to the area around the heart as well as the mind. 

 

College essays

• This is the point in your life where you pour the largest amount of bullshit you can muster into a paper. And then send it to colleges.

Senior 1: Hey dude you started on your college essays?
Senior 2: Yeah I don't even wanna read it over man it's such pure bullshit
Senior 1: Yeah man me too dude let's just get this shit done over with

History

• Pikes Peak: explorer Zebulon Pike first spotted the 14,000-foot (4,267 m.) Colorado mountain that eventually bore his name (1806)
• March to the Sea: Union commander Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman began his attack "into the very bowels of the Confederacy" during the American Civil War (1864)
• Brazil: became a republic when its emperor, Pedro II, was deposed (1889)
• Wendy's: the first branch of the fast food chain was opened by Dave Thomas in Columbus, Ohio (1969)
• Moratorium to end the war in Vietnam: up to an estimated half-million protesters marched peacefully on Washington, DC (1969)

Birthdays

• William Pitt the Elder 1708 - Known as the Great Commoner, 1st Earl of Chatham
• Gerhart Hauptmann 1862
• Georgia O'Keeffe 1887
• Joseph Wapner 1919
• Ed Asner 1929
• Whitman Mayo 1930
• Petula Clark 1932
• Jack Burns 1933
• Joanna Barnes 1934
• Barry McGuire 1937
• Sam Waterston 1940
• Daniel Barenboim 1942 - Israeli pianist and conductor
• Frida Lyngstad (ABBA) 1945
• Mitch Easter 1954
• Beverly D'Angelo 1954
• Kevin Eubanks 1957
• E-40 1967
• ODB (Wu Tang Clan) 1968
• Jack Ingram 1970
• Chad Robert Kroeger 1974 - Singer/Guitarist (Nickelback)

  

 

  

 

  

Rock out with some DK! 2025

To mark the assassination of JFK, this weekend, I thought I'd post some Dead Kennedys!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgpa7wEAz7I

"Kill The Poor"

Efficiency and progress is ours once more 
Now that we have the Neutron bomb 
It's nice and quick and clean and gets things done 
Away with excess enemy 
But no less value to property 
No sense in war but perfect sense at home: 

The sun beams down on a brand new day 
No more welfare tax to pay 
Unsightly slums gone up in flashing light 
Jobless millions whisked away 
At last we have more room to play 
All systems go to kill the poor tonight 

Gonna 
Kill kill kill kill Kill the poor:Tonight 

Behold the sparkle of champagne 
The crime rate's gone 
Feel free again 
O' life's a dream with you, Miss Lily White 
Jane Fonda on the screen today 
Convinced the liberals it's okay 
So let's get dressed and dance away the night 

While they: 
Kill kill kill kill Kill the poor:Tonight

TGIF: WTF Friday the 14th

Close, but no cigar.

Friday, November 14, 2025

crepuscule \kri-PUHS-kyool, KREP-uh-skyool\, noun:

• twilight; dusk.

Crepuscule entered English around the year 1400 from the Latin meaning "twilight, dusk, darkness." 

 

charger-challenged 

• The inability to remember to plug a cell phone in to recharge occasionally, thus resulting in a battery-dead device.

Jean's IPhone never work's when she needs it. She cannot ever remember to plug it in overnight. She is definitely charger-challenged.

bacontarian

• A person who claims to be a true vegetarian but knowingly supplements their diet with small amounts of bacon, bacon bits, and bacon fat.

My friend Sagar, a true Bacontarian, claims to be a true vegetarian but also eats meals where bacon is added.

Trivia

Which familiar features on the face of the Man in the Moon are created by the Sea of Showers and the Sea of Serenity on the lunar surface?

• The eyes. The Sea of Showers or Sea of Rains (Mare Imbrium, in Latin) is the left eye; the Sea of Serenity (Mare Serenitatis) is the right eye.

Trivia

Why did author J. K. Rowling use initials rather than her full name when she launched her Harry Potter series?

• She had been told young boys might object to reading a book written by a woman. So Joanne Rowling—who had no middle name—borrowed the K from her late grandmother Kathleen and became J. K. Rowling.

History

• Moby Dick: the famous Herman Melville novel was published (1851)
• Nellie Bly: New York journalist began her around-the-world-in-72-days trip, beating the time of Phileas Fogg, the hero of Jules Verne's novel Around the World in Eighty Days (1889)
• Coventry: central England city was largely reduced to rubble by Nazi air raids (1940)
• Apollo 12: second successful manned mission to the moon was launched (1969)
• Sedna: this trans-Neptunian object and very far-away dwarf planet candidate was discovered (2003)

Birthdays

• William III (Britain) 1650
• Robert Fulton 1765
• Claude Monet 1840
• Jawaharlal Nehru 1889
• Aaron Copland 1900
• Dick Powell 1904
• Joseph McCarthy 1909
• Rosemary DeCamp 1910
• Barbara Hutton 1912
• Martha Tilton 1915
• Howard Duff 1917
• Johnny Desmond 1920
• Brian Keith 1921
• Boutros Boutros-Ghali 1922
• Phyllis Avery 1924
• Kathleen Hughes 1928
• McLean Stevenson 1929
• Fred Haise 1933
• Ellis Marsalis 1934
• Don Stewart 1935
• Carey Bell 1936
• Freddie Garrity (Freddie & the Dreamers) 1940
• P.J. O'Rourke 1947
• Buckwheat Zydeco 1947
• James Young (Styx) 1948
• Prince Charles (England) 1948
• Stephen Bishop 1951
• Yanni 1954 - Musician
• D.B. Sweeney 1961
• Laura San Giacomo 1961
• Run (Run D.M.C.) 1964
• Patrick Warburton 1964
• Nic Dalton (The Lemonheads) 1964
• Jeannette Jurado (Expose) 1965
• Butch Walker (Marvelous 3) 1969
• Shyheim 1977
• Olga Kurylenko 1979 

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Thursday, November 13, 2025

kelpie \KEL-pee\, noun:

• (in Scottish legends) a water spirit, usually having the form of a horse, reputed to cause drownings or to warn those in danger of drowning.

Kelpie is of unknown origin, though it is thought to be related to the Gaelic colpach meaning "steer" or "colt." It first entered English in Scotland in the mid-1700s. 

 

Download Sabbath

• The day on which you give in to your computer's non-stop reminders and install lots of updates at once. No work may be done on the computer on this day, hence it being a "Sabbath."

Boss: Can you type up a letter to the client before the end of the day? 

Employee: No can do, chief. I still have 23 critical updates for Windows to install. 

Boss: Ah, it's Download Sabbath. I see.

 

History

• Saint Brice's Day Massacre: King Ethelred of England ordered the murder of all Danes in his country (1002)
  
• death & taxes: Benjamin Franklin listed life's two certainties in a letter (1789)
• Holland Tunnel: the world's first long, mechanically-ventilated, underwater tunnel opened between New York and New Jersey (1927)
• Fantasia: animated musical Disney film premiered (1940)
• Bhola cyclone: the 20th century's greatest natural disaster killed hundreds of thousands in Bangladesh (1970 )
• Vietnam Veterans Memorial: "the Wall," designed by Maya Lin, was dedicated in Washington, DC (1982)

Birthdays 

• Edwin Booth 1833
• Robert Louis Stevenson 1850
• Louis Brandeis 1856
• Alexander Scourby 1913
• Nathaniel Benchley 1915
• Jack Elam 1916
• Oskar Werner 1922
• Clyde McPhatter (Drifters) 1933
• Joonas Kokkonen 1921
• Madeleine Sherwood 1922
• Linda Christian 1924
• Richard Mulligan 1932
• Garry Marshall 1934
• Jean Seberg 1938
• Dack (Norman) Rambo 1941
• Ray Wylie Hubbard 1946
• Joe Mantegna 1947
• Whoopi Goldberg 1949
• Chris Noth 1957
• Tracy Scoggins 1959
• Caroline Goodall 1959
• Vinny Testaverde 1963
• Walter Kibby (Fishbone) 1964
• Jimmy Kimmel 1967
• Steve Zahn 1968
• Gerard Butler 1969 (The 300 Guy)

  

   

 

  

Hasselhoff Wednesday: Deity