Wednesday, May 12, 2010

malapert \MAL-uh-purt\, adjective:

1. Unbecomingly bold or saucy.

noun:

1. A malapert person.

Malapert relates to the Old French mal apert, "ill-skilled," which means malapert and expert share a common ancestor.
Citation Needed

• A disclaimer for any time you quote something from Wikipedia as fact. Acknowledges that it isn't the world's most "reliable" source, but it's still good enough for you to use.

Drew: I heard the old Red Ranger from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers is gay, citation needed.

Cody: Yeah, I heard that elephant populations have tripled in three years, citation needed.

Trivia
Where on your body is there a helix and an antihelix?

• On each of your outer ears. The helix is the prominent rim around most of the outer ear; the antihelix is the curved inner elevation in front of it, but separated from it by a depression known as the scapha.

History

• odometer: pioneer and inventor William Clayton first used his "roadometer," an early tool for measuring distance traveled (1847)
• Berlin blockade: the Soviets ended their nearly year-long blockade of the Western-held sectors of Berlin (1949)
• hurricanes: the US Dept. of Commerce announced that storms would no longer be named after women only (1978)
• 2008 Sichuan earthquake: killed nearly 70,000 Chinese and left millions homeless (2008)

Birthdays

• Edward Lear (1812-1888): the author of "The Owl and the Pussycat"
• Florence Nightingale (1820-1910): founder of modern nursing
• Henry Cabot Lodge (1850-1924): US Senator; he was the first to receive a PhD in political science from Harvard
• Burt Bachrach (82): composer, That's What Friends are For, Alfie; plus, musicians Jules Massenet (1842-1912), Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) and Steve Winwood (62)
• George Carlin (1937-2008): counterculture comedian
• Gabriel Byrne (60): star of In Treatment; also, actors Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003), Lindsay Crouse (62), Bruce Boxleitner (60), Ving Rhames (51), Emilio Estevez (48), Stephen Baldwin (44), Samantha Mathis (40), Jason Biggs (32) and Emily VanCamp (24)