Saturday, October 2, 2010

mussitate \MUHS-i-teyt\, verb:

• To silently move the lips in simulation of audible speech.

Mussitate comes from the Latin mussitāre, "speak indistinctly." Mutter shares the same roots.

defenestrate

• To uninstall software from a Microsoft operating system, usually in frustration.

I couldn't get that program to do what I needed it to, so I defenestrated it and installed something better.

Trivia

How many mosquitoes—taking one suck each—would it take to drain all the blood from the average human adult?

• Approximately 1,200,000.

History

• Siege of Jerusalem: Islamic military leader Saladin retook the holy city from the Crusaders (1187)
• HMS Beagle: naturalist Charles Darwin returned to England after a five-year sea voyage, during which he formulated his theory of natural selection (1836)
• Opus Dei: Roman Catholic organization was founded by St. Josemaría Escrivá; it was popularized in Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code (1928)
• Thurgood Marshall: was sworn in as the Supreme Court's first African American justice (1967)
• Rock Hudson: movie star died of AIDS; he was the first celebrity to announce he had the disease (1985)

Birthdays

• Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948): leader who used civil disobedience to win Indian independence
• Groucho Marx (1890-1977): wisecracking comedian, one of the Marx Brothers; also, straight man comedian Bud Abbott (1897-1974)
• Graham Greene (1904-1991): author of The Quiet American and The Honorary Consul; and, poet Wallace Stevens (1879-1955)
• Donna Karan (62): fashion designer, DKNY
• Annie Leibovitz (61): celebrity photographer; movie critic Rex Reed (72) shares this birth date
• Sting (59): musician formerly with The Police; also, musicians Don McLean (65), Mike Rutherford (60), Phil Oakey (55), Robbie Nevil (52), Bud Gaugh (43) and Kelly Willis (42) and Tiffany (39)
• Lorraine Bracco (56): Dr. Jennifer Melfi in The Sopranos; actors Avery Brooks (62) and Kelly Ripa (40) share this birth date