Monday, September 13, 2010

tittle \TIT-l\, noun:

1. A dot or other small mark in writing or printing, used as a diacritic, punctuation, etc.

2. A very small part or quantity; a particle, jot, or whit

Tittle is the etymological sibling of title, both coming from the Latin titulus, "a mark over a letter or word."

cell phone samba

• the erratic movements of a person trying to get better cell phone service.

The other day, a man ran into me while doing the cell phone samba in the grocery store.

Trivia

What popular candy was developed and marketed by a man who had once worked as a dairyman for the Hershey Chocolate Company?

• Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. The man who created the chocolate-covered peanut butter treat was Harry Burnett Reese. His company was purchased by Hershey’s for $23.5 million in 1963.

History

• Margaret Chase Smith: became the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress when she was elected US senator from Maine (1948)
• Attica: the four-day revolt at New York's maximum security prison ended when state police and National Guardsmen stormed the facility; forty-two people died (1971)
• Super Mario Bros.: best-selling video game of all time was first released, in Japan, by Nintendo (1985)
• Oslo Accord: historic handshake between Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat in Washington marks the signing of a secret peace agreement in Oslo (1993)

Birthdays

• Clara Wieck Schumann (1819-1896): pianist and composer; composer Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) shares this birth date
• Milton Hershey (1857-1945): chocolatier, businessman
• Sherwood Anderson (1876-1941): author of short stories and novels, Winesburg, Ohio; writers J. B. Priestley (1894-1984) and Roald Dahl (1916-1990) were also born on this date

• David Clayton-Thomas (69): singer, Blood, Sweat & Tears; plus, musicians Bill Monroe (1911-1996), Peter Cetera (66), Randy Jones (58), Stephen Perkins (43) and Fiona Apple (33)
• Louise Lombard (40): CSI's Sofia Curtis; also, actors Claudette Colbert (1903-1996), Eileen Fulton (77), Richard Kiel (71), Jacqueline Bisset (66), Jean Smart (59) and Geri Jewell (54)