Wednesday, February 3, 2010

aubade \oh-BAHD\, noun:

• A song or poem greeting the dawn; also, a composition suggestive of morning.

Aubade comes from the French, from aube, dawn + the noun suffix -ade: aube ultimately derives from Latin albus, white, pale, as in "alba lux," the "pale light" of dawn.

Vaguebooking

• An intentionally vague Facebook status update, that prompts friends to ask what's going on, or is possibly a cry for help.

Mary is: "wondering if it is all worth it"

Mark is: "thinking that was a bad idea"

Example: "Have you talked to Mark? He's vaguebooking again. I wonder if he's back with Mary..."

Opposite: Tammy is: "in line at the grocery store"

Trivia
What country’s capital was named for a British prime minister?

• New Zealand’s. The city of Wellington was named after the first duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, in 1840. It became the capital in 1865. Wellington defeated Napoléon at Waterloo and served as British prime minister from 1828 to 1830.

History

• income tax: was authorized on afederal level in the US (1913)
• The day the music died: a plane crash killed rock stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and "the Big Bopper" (1959)
• Luna 9: Soviet spacecraft became the first to soft-land on the moon (1966)

Berfdays, yo!

• Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847): composer, conductor
• Gertrude Stein (1874-1946): avant garde author; also, editor Horace Greeley (1811-1872) and writer James Michener (1907-1997)
• Norman Rockwell (1894-1978): illustrator who painted a nostalgic, idealized picture of small-town US life
• Juan Negrin (1894-1956): Spanish Republican PM during Spanish Civil War
• Paul Sarbanes (77): Maryland's longest-serving senator; he sponsored the Sarbanes-Oxley Act
• Bob Griese (65): NFL hall-of-famer; quarterback Fran Tarkenton (70) also celebrates his birthday today
• Nathan Lane (54): comic actor, The Producers; other actors born today include Joey Bishop (1918-2007), Shelley Berman (84), Blythe Danner (67), Morgan Fairchild (60), Thomas Calabro (51), Maura Tierney (45), Warwick Davis (40) and Isla Fisher (34)