Thursday, November 19, 2009

obfuscate \OB-fuh-skayt\, transitive verb:

1. To darken or render indistinct or dim.
2. To make obscure or difficult to understand or make sense of.
3. To confuse or bewilder.

Obfuscate comes from Late Latin obfuscatus, past participle of obfuscare, "to darken," from Latin ob- + fuscare, "to darken," from fuscus, "dark." The noun form is obfuscation.

expiration chug

• when someone drinks milk very quickly on the day of the expiration date

Person a: what happened to that gallon of milk in the refrigerator?
Person b: Oh, I gave it an expiration chug, so it wouldn't go bad.
Person a: Good thinking!
Trivia

What major league record set by baseball great Stan Musial did slugger Nate Colbert witness as a youngster and duplicate as a player?

• Hitting five home runs in a doubleheader. When Musial did it in 1954 for the St. Louis Cardinals against the San Francisco Giants, 8-year-old Colbert was in the stands. Eighteen years later, Colbert, playing for the San Diego Padres, tied Musial’s record by hitting five home runs in a twin bill against the Atlanta Braves.

Today in History

• Jay's Treaty: was signed; it resolved some leftover issues between the United States and Great Britain after the Revolutionary War (1794)
• Gettysburg Address: United States president Abraham Lincoln spoke of equality and democracy on a Civil War battlefield that was being dedicated as a cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; the speech was 272 words long and took two minutes to deliver (1863)
• Anwar Sadat: became the first Arab leader to officially visit the state of Israel (1977)
• Milli Vanilli: German pop duo was stripped of its Grammy after it was revealed that neither member sang on their albums; they lip-synched in concert (1990)
• McCaughey septuplets: the first set of septuplets that all survived infancy was born in Iowa, a result of fertility treatments (1997)

Today's Birthdays

• James Garfield (1831-1881): 20th POTUS, assassinated after several months in office; other world leaders born on this date include Charles I (1600-1649) and Indira Gandhi (1917-1984)
• Larry King (76): host of Larry King Live; talk show host Dick Cavett (73) also celebrates his birthday today
• Ted Turner (71): business mogul who founded CNN; plus, broadcast journalists Garrick Utley(70) and Ann Curry (53)
• Calvin Klein (67): fashion designer who specializes in simple and elegant clothing
• Allison Janney (50): The West Wing's CJ Cregg and Juno's stepmom; also, actors Dan Haggerty(68), Robert Beltran (56), Kathleen Quinlan (55), Glynnis O'Connor (53), Meg Ryan (48), Terry Farrell (46) and Jodie Foster (47)
• Ryan Howard (30): Phillies 1st-baseman; MLB legend Roy Campanella (1921-1993) shared this birth date