Thursday, June 18, 2009

prescience \PREE-shuns; PREE-shee-uns; PRESH-uns; PRESH-ee-uns; PREE-see-uns; PRES-ee-uns\, noun:

• Knowledge of events before they take place; foresight.

Prescience is from Latin praescientia, from praescio, praescire, to know beforehand, from prae, before + scio, scire, to know.

Air Bowing

• term referring to novice violin and chello players who pretend to play during musical performances in order to impress their parents.

When I was in fourth grade, all I did was air bow. Carolyn is a really good violin player, when I was her age I just air bowed. There were several children air bowing the concert.

Trivia
How many tiny black seeds are there on the average strawberry?

• 200. The strawberry is the only fruit with seeds on the outside.

Today in History:

• War of 1812: US President James Madison declared war on Great Britain (1812)
• Battle of Waterloo: Napoleon was defeated by the Duke of Wellington (1815)
• Susan B. Anthony: was fined $100 for her attempt to vote in the 1872 US presidential election; she did not, however, pay it (1873)
• Amelia Earhart: became the first woman to fly transatlantically; she went from Newfoundland to Wales (1928)
• "This was their finest hour": address delivered by PM Winston Churchill to the House of Commons to inspire his embattled nation during WWII (1940)
• Egypt: republic was declared; monarchy abolished (1953)
• Sally Ride: became the first American woman in space, aboard the space shuttle Challenger (1983)

Today's Birthdays:

• Bartolommeo Ammannati (1511-1592): sculptor and architect
• Anastasia (1901-1918): youngest daughter of Czar Nicholas II of Russia
• Red Adair (1915-2004): renowned innovator in firefighting
• Roger Ebert (67): film critic who was the first to receive a Pulitzer Prize in his field
• Sir Paul McCartney (67): singer/composer/guitarist with The Beatles and the world's most commercially successful pop musician; lyricist Sammy Cahn (1913-1993) shared this birth date
• Isabella Rossellini (57): Italian actress and model; also, actors Linda Thorson (62), Carol Kane (57) and Alana de la Garza (33)