Thursday, July 2, 2009

vagary \VAY-guh-ree; vuh-GER-ee\, noun:

• An extravagant, erratic, or unpredictable notion, action, or occurrence.

Vagary comes from Latin vagari, "to stroll about, to wander," from vagus, "wandering."
running latte

• showing up late to work because you stopped for coffee along the way.

I told them I got stuck in traffic, but really I was running latte.

Trivia

What parts of newt, frog, bat, and dog are mixed into the witches’ brew in Shakespeare’s Macbeth?

• As the Bard wrote it: “Eye of newt, and toe of frog, / Wool of bat, and tongue of dog.”

Today in History:

• Amistad: 53 African slaves rebelled and took control of their transport ship, La Amistad (1839)
• James A. Garfield: US president was shot by Charles J. Guiteau; he died on September 19 (1881)
• Amelia Earhart: disappeared with her navigator, Fred Noonan, while attempting the first round-the-world flight at the equator (1937)
• Wal-Mart: retail giant opened its first store, in Rogers, Arkansas (1962)
• Civil Rights Act: legislation that offered strong protection of minorities' rights was signed by US President Lyndon B. Johnson, who used over 75 pens (1964)
• Susan B. Anthony dollar: the 1st US coin to honor a woman was introduced (1979)
• artificial heart: first self-contained model was received by Robert Tools; he lived with it for 151 days (2001)

Today's Birthdays:

• Hermann Hesse (1877-1962): Nobel Prize-winning novelist and poet; Nobel laureate poet Wislawa Szymborska (85) shares this birth date
• Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993): first black US Supreme Court justice
• Vincente Fox (67): former president of Mexico; former heads-of-state Sir Alec Douglas-Home (1903-1995) and Patrice Lumumba (1925-1961) were also born on this date
• Larry David (62): writer/director, Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm
• Ashley Tisdale (24): actress, High School Musical 3; actors Robert Ito (78), Polly Holliday (72), Ron Silver (1946-2009), Saul Rubinek (61), Jerry Hall (53) and Lindsay Lohan (23) share this birth date