Saturday, January 30, 2010

rapacious \ruh-PAY-shuhs\, adjective:

1. Given to plunder; seizing by force.
2. Subsisting on prey.
3. Grasping; greedy.

Rapacious comes from Latin rapax, rapac-, "seizing, grasping, greedy," from rapere, "to seize, to snatch."

the time

• Giving the time to someone means having sexual intercourse with that person. Salinger uses this phrase quite often in his novel, The Catcher in the Rye.

"I don't think he gave that girl the time that night-but damn near."
Trivia
Which Batman villain was named Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot at birth?

• The Penguin.

History

• Charles I: monarch of Great Britain and Ireland was beheaded for treason (1649)
• Mahatma Gandhi: nonviolent Indian political and spiritual leader was assassinated in Delhi by a Hindu extremist; Gandhi had been working to promote Hindu-Muslimunity (1948)
• Tet Offensive: theVietcong launched a series of surprise attacks (1968)
• Bloody Sunday: 14 civil rights protesters were shot to death by British troops in Derry, Northern Ireland (1972)
• Iraq: held its first free election in 50 years (2005)

Berfdays, yo!

• Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945): the only POTUS elected to four terms; also, heads of state Félix Faure(1841-1899), Dick Cheney (69) and Abdullah II (48)
• Barbara Tuchman (1912-1989): Pulitzer Prize-winning author, The Guns of August; writers Edward Martyn (1859-1923), Richard Brautigan (1935-1984) and Michael Dorris (1945-1997) share this birth date
• Boris Spassky (73): chess master
• Phil Collins (59): drummer/singer, for Genesis and solo; musician Marty Balin (68) also celebrates a birthday today
• Gene Hackman (80): two-time Oscar-winner, for The French Connection and The Unforgiven; also, actors Dorothy Malone (85), Tammy Grimes (76), Vanessa Redgrave (73), Charles S. Dutton (59), Brett Butler (52), Norbert Leo Butz (43), Christian Bale (36) and Wilmer Valderrama (30)