Tuesday, February 10, 2009

osteopath \OS-tee-uh-path\, noun:

• a practitioner specializing in treatment chiefly by manipulation of the bones and muscles

by 1896, Americanism, back formation of osteopathy (osteo- "bone")
Twitterrhea

• Too many twitters per hour.

Guy Kawasaki had twitterrhea when he posted 18 Tweets in one hour on a Friday afternoon.
Trivia
A photo of which Sesame Street character appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 1970?

• Big Bird, on November 23, 1970. The headline that ran with the photo read “Sesame Street: TV’s Gift to Children.”

Today in History:

• Canada: was ceded by France to Britain when the Treaty of Paris ended the French and Indian War (1763)
• "Chattanooga Choo Choo": earned bandleader Glenn Miller the first gold record for sales of over 1 million (1942)
• Deep Blue: computer won its first game against world chess champ Garry Kasparov (1996)

Today's Birthdays:

• Boris Pasternak (1890-1960): Nobel Prize-winning novelist/poet, Doctor Zhivago; writers Charles Lamb (1775-1834) and Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) were also born on this date
• Harold Macmillan (1894-1986): English PM; Russian emperor Peter III (1728-1760) shared this birth date
• Leontyne Price (82): soprano best known for her interpretation of Verdi's Aida
• Mark Spitz (59): swimmer whose world record of seven gold medals in a single Olympics was broken last year by Michael Phelps
• Laura Dern (42): actor, Jurassic Park, Recount; other actors born on this date include Jimmy Durante (1893-1980), Judith Anderson (1898-1992), Lon Chaney, Jr., (1906-1973), Robert Wagner (79), Elizabeth Banks (35) and Chloë Moretz (12)
• Roberta Flack (70): singer, Killing Me Softly With His Song

Quote:

• "He sang as if he knew me/In all my dark despair/And then he looked right through me as if I was not there." — Charles Fox, Norman Gimbel, "Killing Me Softly With His Song"