Sunday, June 28, 2009

orotund \OR-uh-tuhnd\, adjective:

1. Characterized by fullness, clarity, strength, and smoothness of sound.
2. Pompous; bombastic.

Orotund derives from Latin ore rotundo, "with a round mouth," hence "clear, loud," from os, oris, "the mouth" + rotundus, "round." It is related to oral.

brain bleach

• What one might use to erase a particulary nasty image or memory.

Man, I just saw Olga in skin-tight canary-yellow stretch pants. I need to score me about five gallons of brain

Trivia
How much does a giant panda weigh at birth?

• Three to five ounces. When full grown, a male giant panda will weigh as much as 275 pounds; a female as much as 220 pounds.

Today in History:

• Ned Kelly: Australian bushranger was captured at Glenrowan; he was later hanged for murder (1880)
• Franz Ferdinand: archduke and heir to the Austrian throne was assassinated, along with his wife, in Sarajevo by a Serbian; the event precipitated WWI (1914)
• Treaty of Versailles: was signed, ending WWI (1919)
• Slobodan Milosevic: former Yugoslavian leader was turned over to the UN war crimes tribunal (2001)
• Iraqi Interim Government: took power after US handover (2004)

Today's Birthdays:

• Henry VIII (1491-1547): England's king who had six wives
• Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640): Flemish Baroque painter
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778): political philosopher and writer
• Richard Rodgers (1902-1979): composer of the Broadway musicals Oklahoma! and The Sound of Music; playwrights Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936) and Mel Brooks (83) share this birth date
• John Elway (49): the only quarterback to have started in five Super Bowls
• John Cusack (43): actor appearing most recently in War, Inc., and as the voice of Igor in the eponymous animated film; also, actors Bruce Davison (63), Kathy Bates (61), Alice Krige (55), Mary Stuart Masterson (43), Gil Bellows (42), Tichina Arnold (38) and Alessandro Nivola (37)