Friday, June 12, 2026

coterie \ KOH-tuh-ree \ , noun;

1. a group of people who associate closely.
2. an exclusive group; clique.
3. a group of prairie dogs occupying a communal burrow.

Origin: Coterie is French in origin, originally used to refer to an association of tenant farmers. It entered English in the mid-1700s.

Word Vomit

• A point in a conversation where you say something that you really didn't mean to.

I told Robin that I saw Mike with some girl at the movie theater last night. It just came out of my mouth like Word Vomit.

Holidays

• Russia Day (Russia)

History

• Virginia: became the first state to adopt a bill of rights — the Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776)
• perfect game: John Lee Richmond pitched the first MLB game in which no batter reached base during the entire nine innings (1880)
• Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum: shrine to the US national pastime was dedicated in Cooperstown, New York (1939)
• Loving v. Virginia: US Supreme Court struck down all bans on interracial marriages (1967)
• Gossamer Albatross: human-powered aircraft was flown by Bryan Allen across the English Channel (1979)
• "Tear down this wall": challenge was issued by US President Ronald Reagan to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev; the Berlin Wall did indeed come down two years later (1987)
• $50 bill: new and improved design was unveiled by the US Treasury to help the elderly and hinder counterfeiters (1997)
  

  

Birthdays

• David Rockefeller 1915 - Banker
• Irwin Allen 1916 - Television and film producer, nicknamed "The Master of Disaster"
• Samuel Z. Arkoff 1918 - Movie producer
• Uta Hagen 1919 - Actress
• George H.W. Bush 1924 - 41st President of the United States, father of President George W. Bush
• Vic Damone 1928 - Singer
• Anne Frank (Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank) 1929 - Known for her diary which documented her experiences during World War II
• Jim Nabors 1930 - Actor, singer ("Gomer Pyle, USMC")
• Rona Jaffe 1932 - Novelist
• Robert Bower 1936 - Attorney
• Chick Corea 1941 - Musician
• Marv Albert 1941 - Sportscaster
• Reg Presley 1944 - Musician (The Troggs)
• Brad Delp 1951 - Musician (Boston)
• Bun E. Carlos 1951 - Musician (Cheap Trick)
• Junior Brown 1952 - Musician, singer
• Rocky Burnette (Jonathan Burnette) 1953 - Musician
• Timothy Busfield 1957 - Actor ("The West Wing," "thirtysomething")
• Jenilee Harrison 1959 - Actress (Threes Company)
  
• John Linnell 1959 - Musician (They Might Be Giants)
• Grandmaster Dee 1962 - Musician (Whodini)
• Paula Marshall 1964 - Actress ("Gary Unmarried")
• Frances O'Commor 1967 - Actress
  Bobby Sheehan 1968 - Musician (Blues Traveler)
• Hideki Matsui 1974 - Baseball player
• Kenny Wayne Shepherd 1977 - Musician
• Robyn (Robin Miriam Carlsson) 1979 - Singer, songwriter
• Wil Horneff 1979 - Actor
• Dallas Clark 1979 - Football player
• Adriana Lima 1981 - hot Brazilian supermodel
• Kendra Wilkinson 1985 - former Girl Next Door
  Abby Lee [Kershaw] 1987 - model, actress: Lovecraft Country
  

  

  

 

  

 

  

Turtle Thursday - Cooter

This is Randall, our cooter who died earlier this year.
Not the kind of cooter you were expecting from this blog, huh?

Thursday, June 11, 2026

withershins \ WITH-er-shinz \ , adverb; 

• Chiefly Scot . in a direction contrary to the natural one, especially contrary to the apparent course of the sun or counterclockwise: considered as unlucky or causing disaster. Also, widdershins . 

Origin: Withershins comes from the Middle High German wider meaning "against; opposite" and sin "way; course." It entered English in the early 1500s.

rocket surgery (n.)

• a play on words which mixes two common metaphors: "rocket science" and "brain surgery"

[A line in a hilarious Chris Rock comedy act states that one shouldn't eat green meat. No kidding.] It doesn't take a degree in rocket surgery to figure out something like that! ;oD

 

History

• Great Barrier Reef: Capt. James Cook discovered the world's largest coral reef (1770)
• Triple Crown: horse racing's top honor was won by Sir Barton (1919) and Seattle Slew (1977)
• sugar: US rationing ended after five bitter years (1947)
• Stand in the Schoolhouse Door: in a bid to resist racial integration, Alabama Governor George Wallace tried to block African-Americans Vivian Malone and James Hood from attending the University of Alabama; later that day he gave in (1963)
• immolation: Buddhist monk Quang Duc set himself afire on a Saigon street to protest the South Vietnamese government led by president Ngo Dinh Diem (1963)
• E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial: heartwarming sci-fi blockbuster film opened (1982)
• American Idol: the British spinoff debuted with judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson (2002)

Birthdays

• Ben Johnson 1572 - English Renaissance Dramatist
• John Constable 1776 - English Romantic painter
• Jeannette Rankin 1880 - First woman to be elected to the United States House of Representatives
• Bartolomeo Vanzetti 1888 - Known for his conviction of robbery and executed along with Nicola Sacco after a controversial trial in Massachusetts.
• Lawrence Spivak 1900 - Publisher, journalist
• Jacques Cousteau (Jacques-Yves Cousteau) 1910 - Naval officer, explorer, ecologist, filmmaker
• Risë Stevens 1913 - Opera singer
• Vince Lombardi 1913 - Football coach
• Richard Todd 1919 - Actor, soldier
• Shelly Manne (Sheldon Manne) 1920 - Drummer
• William Styron 1925 - Novelist and essayist
• Gene Wilder 1935 - Actor
• Chad Everett 1936 - Actor
• Johnny Brown 1937 - Actor
• Wilma Burgess 1939 - Country music singer
• Jackie Stewart (Sir John Young Stewart OBE) 1939 - Racing driver, team owner, nicknamed The Flying Scot
• Luciana Paluzzi 1939 - Actress
• Joey Dee (Joseph DiNicola) 1940 - Musician (Joey Dee and The Starliters)
• Adrienne Barbeau (Adrienne Jo Barbeau) 1945 - Actress, author
• John Lawton 1946 - Singer (Uriah Heep, Les Humphries Singers)
• Henry Cisneros (Henry Gabriel Cisneros) 1947 - Politician, businessman
• George Willig 1949 - Known as "the human fly" or "the spiderman," known for climbing the South Tower of the World Trade Center
• Ingrid Newkirk 1949 - Founder of PETA
• Frank Beard 1949 - Musician (ZZ Top)
• Pancho Carter 1950 - Race car driver
• Bonnie Pointer 1951 - Musician (Pointer Sisters)
• Connie Van Zandt 1952 - Musician (.38 Special)
• Peter Bergman 1953 - Actor ("All My Children," "Young and the Restless")
• Joe Montana 1956 - Football player
• Hugh Laurie 1959 - Actor ("House M.D.")
• Dan Lavery 1969 - Musician (Tonic)
• Smilin' Jay McDowell 1969 - Musician (BR5-49)
  Joshua Jackson 1978 - Actor
  Katelyn Nacon 1999 - actress (TWD)
  

   

   
  
  
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Hasselhoff Wednesday: Michael Knight

Or was he way ahead of his time? 

A brilliant thinker?

Wednesday, June 10, 2026

scintillate \ SIN-tl-eyt \ , verb;

1. to twinkle, as the stars.
2. to sparkle; flash: a mind that scintillates with brilliance .
3. to emit sparks.
4. Electronics . (of a spot of light or image on a radar display) to shift rapidly around a mean position.
5. Physics . a. (of the amplitude, phase, or polarization of an electromagnetic wave) to fluctuate in a random manner. b. (of an energetic photon or particle) to produce a flash of light in a phosphor by striking it.

Origin: Scintillate is related to the Latin scintillāre meaning "to send out sparks, flash." It entered English in the early 1600s.

turn down for what

• rhetorical question used by teenagers. "turn up" is the act of getting drunk and high and being reckless so "turn down" would mean sobering up. turn down for what is really saying i am fucked up and will continue to be all night no matter what. the only appropriate answer to this question would be "nothing"

Johnny: turn down for what ?! 

Ben: The cops and my dad. 

Johnny: You're a pussy! TURN DOWN FOR NOTHING

History

• US Mint: John Hull broke English colonial law to establish America's first mint (1652)

  
• University Boat Race: Oxford bested Cambridge in the first of what is now an annual rowing race (1829)
• Alcoholics Anonymous: was founded by Dr. Bob Smith and Bill W., on the date of Smith's first full "dry" day (1935)
• Rape of Lidice: Nazis murdered all the men of Lidice and deported the women and children (1942)
• ballpoint pen: Lásló Bíró got a patent for a pen he had been developing for nearly a decade (1943)
• Affirmed: the thoroughbred became the eleventh and most recent winner of the Triple Crown (1978)

Birthdays

• Andre-Marie Ampere 1836 - Developed technology for measuring electricity
• Hattie McDaniel 1889
• Frederick Loewe 1901
• Clyde Beatty 1903
• Howlin' Wolf 1910
• Terence Rattigan 1911
• Saul Bellow 1915
• Barry Morse 1919
• Prince Philip 1921 - Husband of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II
• Judy Garland 1922
• Earl Hamner, Jr. 1923 - Television writer and producer
• Nat Hentoff 1925 - Columnist
• June Haver 1926
• Lionel Jeffries 1926 - Actor, director
• Maurice Sendak 1928
• Gardener McKay 1932
• F. Lee Bailey 1933 - Attorney
• Alexandra Stewart 1939
• Jurgen Prochnow 1941
• Shirley Alston 1941 - Singer (The Shirelles)
• Jeff Greenfield 1943 - Television commentator
• Rick Price 1944 - Musician (The Move, Wizzard)
• Kevin Corcoran 1945
• Dan Fouts 1951 - Football player
• Andrew Stevens 1955
• Eliot Spitzer 1959 - disgraced Governor of New York
• Kim Deal (Kimberly Ann Deal) 1961 - Musician (Pixies, The Breeders)
• Kelley Deal 1961 - Musician (The Breeders)
• Maxi Priest 1961 - Reggae singer
• Brent Sutter 1962
• Gina Gershon 1962 - Actress, singer
• Elisabeth Shue 1963
• Jeanne Tripplehorn 1963 - Actress
• Jimmy Chamberlain 1964 - Drummer (Smashing Pumpkins)
• Kate Flannery 1964 - Actress ("The Office")
• Elizabeth Hurley 1965 - Model, actress
• Linda Evangelista 1965
• Doug McKeon 1966 - Actor
• Emma Anderson 1967 - Musician (Lush)
• Darren Robinson, aka Buffy the Human Beatbox 1967 - Rapper (Fat Boys)
• M. Doughty 1970 - (Soul Coughing)
• Jo-Jo 1971 - Singer (Jodeci)
• Faith Evans 1973 - Singer
• Hugh Dancy 1975 - Actor
• Shane West 1978 - Actor
• Lemisha Grinstead 1978 - Singer (702)
• DJ Qualls 1978 - Actor
• Hoku 1981 - Singer
• Tara Lipinsky 1982 - Figure skater
• Madeleine Thérèse Amélie Joséphine 1982 - Princess Madeleine of Sweden
• Leelee Sobieski 1983 - Actress
• Katherine "Kate" Upton 1992 - model