Sunday, October 31, 2010

chicanery \shih-KAY-nuh-ree\, noun:

1. The use of trickery or sophistry to deceive (as in matters of law).

2. A trick; a subterfuge.

Chicanery comes from French chicaner, "to quibble, to use tricks," perhaps from Middle Low German schicken, "to arrange," with the sense "to arrange to one's own advantage."

Deja boo

Wearing the same old Halloween costume to parties, year after year.

Oh, hell, there's Amelia in that same slutty witches costume she wore 5 years ago when she was still skinny and hot!

It's deja boo all over again.

Trivia

What celebrity musician released the album Yes, I’m a Witch in 2007?

• Yoko Ono.

History

• 95 Theses: Martin Luther launched the Protestant reformation when he posted his written opposition to indulgences to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, Germany (1517)
• Harry Houdini: master magician/escape artist died of peritonitis resulting from a punch to the stomach that ruptured his appendix (1926)
• Mount Rushmore: drilling and sculpting work on the four presidents' heads near Keystone, South Dakota, was finished (1941)
• Indira Gandhi: the prime minister of India was assassinated outside her residence by her Sikh bodyguards (1984)

Birthdays

• Jan Vermeer (1632-1675): Dutch painter of Girl With a Pearl Earring
• John Keats (1795-1821): Romantic poet of odes
• Vallabhbhai Patel (1875-1950): Indian leader who peacefully unified the princely states
• Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975): Nationalist leader of the Republic of China and later of Taiwan
• Dick Francis (1920-2010): former jockey to Queen Elizabeth and prolific mystery novelist
• Dan Rather (79): CBS Evening News ex-anchor; and TV journalist Jane Pauley (60)
• Michael Landon (1936-1991): Little Joe on Bonanza, Pa Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie; also actors Ron Rifkin (71), David Ogden Stiers (68), Stephen Rea (64), Deidre Hall (63), John Candy (1950-1994), Dermot Mulroney and Rob Schneider (both 47)
• Peter Jackson (49): New Zealand-born director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy
• Vanilla Ice (42): Miami-born white rapper of "Ice Ice Baby"; also, musicians Ethel Waters (1896-1977), Larry Mullen, Jr. (49)