Monday, November 16, 2009

hoi polloi \hoi-puh-LOI\ , noun;

• The common people generally; the masses.

Origin: Hoi polloi is Greek for "the many."
Bike-Curious

• A man interested in buying a Harley motorcycle.

Jim dreams of buying a Harley someday; Jim is bike-curious.

Trivia
When it comes to Internet slang, what phrase is represented by the number 224?

• Today, tomorrow, forever—as in 2-day, 2-morrow, 4-ever.

Today in History

• Jadwiga: blonde blue-eyed beauty became "king" of Poland (1384)
• Battle of Cajamarca: conquistador Francisco Pizarro massacred thousands of Incas in a surprise attack in Peru, and captured the emperor Atahualpa (1532)
• US-USSR relations: FDR extended formal diplomatic recognition to the Soviet Union (1933)

Today's Birthdays

• Tiberius (42 BCE–37 CE): second Roman emperor
• José Saramago (87): 1998's winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature; authors George Kaufman (1889-1961), Chinua Achebe (79) and Elizabeth Drew (74) share this birth date
• Marg Helgenberger (51): Catherine Willows on C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation; also, actors Clu Gulager (81), Harry Lennix (45), Lisa Bonet (42), Martha Plimpton (39), Maggie Gyllenhaal (32), Kimberly J. Brown (25) and Noah Gray-Cabey (14)
• Diana Krall (45): Grammy-winning jazz pianist and singer; other musicians born on this date include Rodolphe Kreutzer (1766-1831), W.C. Handy (1873-1958), Paul Hindemith (1895-1963), Hubert Sumlin (78) and W. C. Clark (70)
• Osi Umenyiora (28): British-born defensive end for the NY Giants