Word of the Day for Thursday, July 31, 2008

egress \EE-gress\, noun:

1. The act of going out or leaving, or the right or freedom to leave; departure.
2. A means of going out or leaving; an exit; an outlet.
3. To go out; to depart; to leave.

Egress is from Latin egressus, from egredi, "to go out," from e-, "out" + gradi, "to step."
i'm just sayin'

• A phrase that is used when someone is offended by something you said. This phrase then removes all the offensiveness of the previous statement, making it all good.

Ryan: That chick has nice tits!

Rob: Damn, that's my sister!

Ryan: I'm just sayin'

Rob: Oh, okay, it's cool.

Trivia

How many times was baseball great Rickey Henderson caught stealing in 1982, the year he stole a record 130 bases?

• A record 42 times. The fleet-footed Henderson was with the Oakland Athletics at the time.

Today in History

• Trinidad: island in the Caribbean was discovered by Christopher Columbus (1498)
• Christchurch: became the first New Zealand city to be chartered (1856)
• NYSE: closed due to the outbreak of World War I, but opened again four months later to help the war effort by selling bonds (1914)

Today's Birthdays

• Primo Levi (1919-1987): Italian chemist who wrote of his experiences during the Holocaust
• Evonne Goolagong Cawley (57): tennis champ
• Deval Patrick (52): governor of Massachusetts; former Mass. governor William Weld (63) was also born on this date
• J.K. Rowling (43): creator of Harry Potter (who shares the same birthday)
• Will Champion (30): rocker, Coldplay; also, musicians Kenny Burrell (77), Lobo (65), Gary Lewis (63), Bill Berry (50), Fatboy Slim (45) and Jim Corr (44)
• B.J. Novak (29): comedian, The Office; also, actors France Nuyen (69), Susan Flannery (65), Geraldine Chaplin (64), Michael Biehn (52), Wesley Snipes (46), Dean Cain (42) and Ben Chaplin (38)