Monday, May 25, 2026

baksheesh \bak-SHEESH\, noun:

1. A gratuity, present or tip.

2. A gratuity, tip, or bribe paid to expedite service.

verb:

1. To give a tip.

Baksheesh originally was a common term for a tip in Near Eastern countries such as India and Egypt. The Persian bakhshish, "gift," derives from the verb bakhshidan, "to give."

Deuce of Spades

• An unusually black and tarry load of feces. Extension of drop a deuce. Origination: Deuce = "#2"; Spades = a suit of 13 cards in a standard 52-card deck

Matt dropped a deuce of spades that was so black and sticky, the highway department could've paved over that pothole on Elm Street with it.

Holiday

• Memorial Day, holiday in the United States observed in late May. Previously designated Decoration Day, it was inaugurated in 1868 by Gen. John A. Logan for the purpose of decorating the graves of Civil War veterans and has since become a day on which all war dead are commemorated.  

Holiday

• Towel Day (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) 
   
  

  

History

• Constitutional Convention: convened in Philadelphia; George Washington presided (1787)
• Monkey Trial: John T. Scopes was indicted in Tennessee for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution (1925)
• Babe Ruth: hit his 714th home run, setting a record that held until 1974, when Hank Aaron broke it (1935)
• track and field: at the Big Ten Track and Field Championships, Jesse Owens tied one world record and broke three others, all within 45 minutes (1935)
• OAU: was founded at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with the goals of encouraging African unity, promoting development and fighting neocolonialism (1963)
  STAR WARS first opened on 32 screens across the USA. (1977)

   

  

  
  
• ALIEN, In Space No One can Hear You Scream, was released in 1979.

  

  
  Hands Across America: more than five million people joined hands in a line that stretched for 4,000 mi/6,400 km from New York City to Long Beach, CA; participants raised money for the fight against hunger and homelessness (1986)
• Erik Weihenmayer: became the first blind man to climb Mt. Everest (2001)

Birthdays

• Ralph W. Emerson 1803 - Essayist, philosopher, poet
• Luther 'Bill' Robinson (Bill "Bojangles" Robinson) 1878 - Tap dancer, actor
• Philip Murray 1886 - Steelworker, labor leader
• Igor Sikorsky (Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky) 1889 - Pioneer in aviation with helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft
• Ginny Simms 1916 - Singer
• Claude Akins 1926 - Actor
• Lindsey Nelson 1919 - Sportscaster
• Hal David 1921 - Lyricist
• John Weitz 1923 - Fashion and industrial designer
• Jeanne Crain 1925 - Actress
• Miles Davis 1926 - Trumpeter, bandleader, composer
• Kitty Kallen 1926 - Singer

  
  
• Norman Petty 1927 - Musician, songwriter, record producer
• Robert Ludlum 1927 - Author (The Jason Bourne series of books)
• Beverly Sills 1929 - Opera singer
• K.C. Jones 1932 - Basketball player
• Ron Nessen 1934 - White House Press Secretary for President Gerald Ford
• Tom T. Hall 1936 - Country singer, songwriter
• Donnie Elbert 1936 - Singer
• Raymond Carver 1938 - Short story writer, poet
• Dixie Carter 1939 - Actress ("Designing Women," "Desperate Housewives")
• Ian McKellen 1939 - Actor
• Jessi Colter 1943 - Country musician
• Leslie Uggams 1943 - Actress, singer
• John "Poli" Palmer 1943 - Musician (Family)
• Frank Oz 1944 - Actor, puppeteer (many Muppets characters, Yoda's voice)
• Karen Valentine 1947 - Actress ("Room 222")
• Mitch Margo 1947 - Musician (Cross Country)
• Clarence Burke Jr. 1949 - Musician (Five Stairsteps)
• Patti D'Arbanville-Quinn 1951 - Actress, model
• Connie Sellecca 1955 - Actress, model
• John Grimaldi 1955 - Musician (Argent)
• Sugar Minott 1956 - Reggae singer
• Klaus Meine 1958 - Musician (Scorpions)
• Paul Weller 1958 - Musician (The Jam, Style Council)
• Mike Myers 1963 - Actor, comedian, screenwriter, cast member on "Saturday Night Live," ("Austin Powers" movies)
• Anne Heche 1969 - Actress ("Volcano")
• Jamie Kennedy 1970 - Actor, comedian, rapper
• Justin Henry 1971 - Actor ("Kramer vs. Kramer" [1979])
• Molly Sims 1973 - Actress
• Miguel Tejada 1974 - Baseball player
• Lauryn Hill 1975 - Musician (The Fugees)
• Cillian Murphy 1976 - Actor
• Brian Urlacher 1978 - Football player
• Shawne Merriman 1984 - Football player
  Zazie Beetz 1991 - actress
  

  

     

   

 

 

 

  

The Bull

A man took his wife to the rodeo and one of their first stops was the breeding bull exhibit. They went up to the first pen and there was a sign attached that said, "This bull mated 50 times last year."

The wife playfully nudged her husband in the ribs and said, "See . He mated 50 times last year ... once-a-week."

They walked to the second pen which had a sign attached that said, "This bull mated 120 times last year."

The wife gave her husband a healthy jab and said, "That's more than twice a week! You could learn a lot from him."

They walked to the third pen and it had a sign attached that said, in capital letters, "This bull mated 365 times last year."

The wife, so excited that her elbow nearly broke her husband's ribs, said, that's once-a-DAY. You could REALLY learn something from this one."

The husband looked at her and said, "Go over and ask him if it was with the same cow."

Sunday, May, 24, 2026

physiognomy \fiz-ee-OG-nuh-mee; -ON-uh-mee\, noun:

1. The art of discovering temperament and other characteristic qualities of the mind from the outward appearance, especially by the features of the face.

2. The face or facial features, especially when regarded as indicating character.

3. The general appearance or aspect of a thing.

Physiognomy comes from Greek physiognomonia, from physiognomon, "judging character by the features," from physis, "nature, physique, appearance" + gnomon, "one who knows, hence an examiner, a judge," from gignoskein, "to know."

 

cockblocalypse

• When you're out at the bar and you get cockblocked SO BAD it's like the end of the world as you know it.

"What's up with Gurpreet?"

"Oh, last night, Trong brought the cockblocalypse upon him"

History

• "What hath God wrought?": inventor Samuel F.B. Morse transmitted the first telegraph message; it went from Washington, DC, to Baltimore and it quoted Numbers 23:23 (1844)
• Brooklyn Bridge: engineering marvel linking Brooklyn and Manhattan opened to traffic (1883)
• Crosley Field: hosted MLB's first nighttime game played under lights; Cincinnati's Reds beat Philadelphia's Phillies, 2-1 (1935)
• Concorde: supersonic passenger aircraft began flying to Washington, DC (1976)
• James Jeffords: Republican senator became an Independent, giving control of the US Senate to the Democrats (2001)

Birthdays

• Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit 1686 - Physicist, engineer, he determined the temperature scale named after him
• Emanuel Leutze 1816
• Queen Victoria (Britain) 1819
• Samuel I. Newhouse 1895
• Tommy Chong 1938 - Comedian (Cheech and Chong)
• Prince Buster 1938
• Lilli Palmer 1914
• Bob Dylan (Robert Zimmerman) 1941 - Traveling Wilburys
• Derek Quinn 1942 - Musician (Freddie and the Dreamers)
• Gary Burghoff 1943 - Actor ("M*A*S*H")
• Patti LaBelle (Patricia Louise Holte) 1944 - Singer
• Priscilla Presley 1945 - Wife of Elvis Presley
• Steve Upton 1946
• Judy Kahan 1948
• Jim Broadbent 1950 - Actor
• Alfred Molina 1953 - Actor
• Rosanne Cash 1955 - Singer
• Larry Blackmon (Cameo) 1956
• Kristin Scott Thomas 1960 - Actor ("Under the Cherry Moon")
• Joe Dumars 1963
• Gene Anthony Ray 1963
• Vivian Trimble 1963 - Singer (Luscious Jackson)
• John C. Reilly 1965 - Actor
• Heavy D 1967
• Erin Close 1967 - Actor ("Without a Trace")
• Tommy Page 1967
• Rich Robinson 1969 - Musician (The Black Crowes)
• Brad Penny 1978 - Baseball player
• Billy L. Sullivan 1980

 

  

It's good being Da Manny

Happy Berfday, Yo!

Saturday, May 23, 2026

recusant \REK-yuh-zuhnt\, noun:

1. A person who refuses to submit, comply, etc.
2. English History. A person, especially a Roman Catholic, who refused to attend the services of the Church of England.

Recusant comes from the Latin word recusāre meaning "to demur, object."

missing link 

• A man who is covered head to toe with thick and wiry hair. He's so hairy, he's the missing link that connects humans to apes.

Joe: "Damn, it's 115 degrees out here. Why doesn't Tom take off his shirt?" Dick: "That poor bastard is so hairy, he got tired of being called the missing link."

Holiday

• World Turtle Day - (05/23 annually)

History

• Joan of Arc: was captured by the Burgundians who sold her to the English (1430)
• Captain Kidd: was hanged in London for murder and piracy (1701)
• Baltimore and Ohio Railroad: began the first passenger service in the US (1830)
• Mounties: the North West Mounted Police was created; it would later become the federal police force of Canada (1873)
• New York Public Library: after 16 years of construction, the library's main building was dedicated by President William H. Taft (1911)
• Bonnie and Clyde: Depression-era outlaws were ambushed and killed by police in Louisiana (1934)
• West Germany: was reconstituted from post-WWII occupation zones (1949)

Birthdays

• Friedrich Anton Mesmer 1734 - Physician, astrologist
• Margaret Fuller (Sarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli) 1810 - Journalist, criti, women's rights activist
• Arabella Mansfield 1846 - first female lawyer in the United States
• Douglas Fairbanks 1883 - Actor

  
• Herbert Marshall 1890 - Actor
• Artie Shaw 1910 - Band leader
• Scatman Crothers (Benjamin Sherman "Scatman" Crothers) 1910 - Actor, musician, singer, dancer
• John Payne 1912 - Actor, singer
• Betty Garrett 1919 - Actress ("All in the Family," "Laverne and Shirley")
• Helen O'Connell 1920 - Singer, actress, dancer
• Alicia de Larrocha 1923 - Pianist
• Mac Wiseman 1925 - Singer
• Nigel Davenport 1928 - Actor
• Rosemary Clooney 1928 - Singer, actress
• Julian Euell 1929 - Jazz musician
• Barbara Barrie 1931 - Actress
• Joan Collins 1933 - Actress ("Dynasty")
• Robert Moog 1934 - Musician
• Charles Kimbrough 1936 - Actor ("Murphy Brown")
• General Johnson 1943 - Musician (Chairman of the Board)
• Lauren Chapin 1945 - Actress ("Father Knows Best")
• Misty Morgan 1945 - Musician
• Judy Rodman 1951 - County singer
• Anatoly Karpov 1951 - Chess grandmaster
• "Marvelous" Marvin Hagler 1952 - Boxer
• Luka Bloom 1955 - Singer
• Drew Carey 1958 - Actor, game show host
• Shelley West 1958 - Country singer
• Linden Ashby 1960 - Actor
• Karen Duffy 1961 - Actress, model
• Phil Selway 1967 - Musician (Radiohead)
• Noel Gallagher 1968 - Musician (Oasis)
• Laurel Holloman 1968 - Actress ("The L Word")
• Lorenzo 1972 - Singer
• Maxwell 1973 - Singer
• Jewel 1974 - Singer
• Kelly Monaco 1976
• Adam Wylie 1984 - Actor