Friday, November 20, 2009

billingsgate \BIL-ingz-gayt; -git\, noun:

• Coarsely abusive, foul, or profane language.

Billingsgate is so called after Billingsgate, a former market in London celebrated for fish and foul language.

spit take

• A visual gimmick used in film and on stage where a person is surprised or taken aback by another's actions or words while drinking, and spits or sputters that liquid.

"He did a spit take when she told him she was pregnant."
Trivia

Why was Kathie Lee Gifford disqualified from the America’s Junior Miss Pageant in 1970?

• She inadvertently broke pageant rules by chatting with a man in public. She was 17 at the time, and winner of the Maryland Junior Miss title.

Today in History

• Mexican Revolution: lengthy multi-sided war was triggered by a letter written by Francisco Madero from prison, the Plan de San Luis Potosí, which called for armed struggle against president Porfirio Díaz to begin on this date (1910)
• Nuremberg trials: at the Palace of Justice, an Allied tribunal began trying Nazis for war crimes; the defense of "I was following orders" was not accepted (1945)
• Elizabeth II: the future queen of England married Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, in Westminster Abbey (1947)

Today's Birthdays

• Edwin Powell Hubble (1889-1953): astronomer, namesake of the Hubble Space Telescope
• Alistair Cooke (1908-2004): longtime host of Masterpiece Theatre; journalist Judy Woodruff (63) shares this birth date
• Nadine Gordimer (86): author known for her anti-apartheid views in her native South Africa; other writers born on this date include Thomas Chatterton (1752-1770) and Selma Lagerlöf(1858-1940)
• Joseph Biden (67): US vice president; presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy (1925-1968) was also born on this date
• Ming-Na (46): E.R.'s Dr. Jing-Mei "Deb" Chen; also, actors Estelle Parsons (82), Richard Dawson(77), Dick Smothers (71), Veronica Hamel (66), Samuel E. Wright (63), Richard Masur (61), Bo Derek (53), Sean Young (50), and Nadine Velazquez (31)