Saturday, November 14, 2009

quiescent \kwy-ES-uhnt; kwee-\, adjective:

• Being in a state of repose; at rest; still; inactive.

Quiescent derives from the present participle of Latin quiescere, to rest, from quies, rest.
Weiner Cousins

• When two men have had sex with the same woman/women, they become weiner cousins. This is a bond that can never be broken.

We're weiner cousins now, that means we're closer than brothers.
Trivia

Why did author J. K. Rowling use initials rather than her full name when she launched her Harry Potter series?

• She had been told young boys might object to reading a book written by a woman. So Joanne Rowling—who had no middle name—borrowed the K from her late grandmother Kathleen and became J. K. Rowling.

Today in History

• Nellie Bly: New York journalist began her around-the-world-in-72-days trip, beating the time of Phileas Fogg, the hero of Jules Verne's novel Around the World in Eighty Days(1889)
• Coventry: central England city was largely reduced to rubble by Nazi air raids (1940)
• Apollo 12: second successful manned mission to the moon was launched (1969)
• Sedna: this trans-Neptunian object and very far-away dwarf planet candidate was discovered (2003)

Today's Birthdays

• Robert Fulton (1765-1815): inventor and engineer who made a better steamboat
• Astrid Lindgren (1907-2002): author of Pippi Longstocking; also, writer P.J. O'Rourke (62)
• Boutros Boutros-Ghali (87): sixth UN Secretary-General
• Prince Charles (61): heir to the throne of Great Britain; world leaders Hussein I (1935-1999) and Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) share this birth date
• Yanni (55): keyboardist/composer; other composers born today include Aaron Copland (1900-1990) and Wendy Carlos (70)
• Curt Schilling (43): one of baseball history's best postseason pitchers
• Josh Duhamel (37): actor, Transformers; also, actors McLean Stevenson (1927-1996), Laura San Giacomo and D.B. Sweeney (both 48) and Patrick Warburton (45)