Thursday, October 21, 2010

coruscate \KOR-uh-skayt\, intransitive verb:

1. To give off or reflect bright beams or flashes of light; to sparkle.

2. To exhibit brilliant, sparkling technique or style.

Coruscate comes from Latin coruscatus, past participle of coruscare, "to move quickly, to tremble, to flutter, to twinkle or flash." The noun form is coruscation. Also from coruscare is the adjective coruscant, "glittering in flashes; flashing."

Dracula sneeze

• holding your arm up over your face in a position similar to Dracula holding up his cape and then sneezing into you elbow

Do to the H1N1 swine flu pandemic the Centers For Disease Control recommends using the Dracula sneeze technique to avoid spreading germs.

Trivia

For what product—still being sold today—were the first promotional coupons offered more than 100 years ago?

• Coca-Cola, in 1894. Asa Candler, the enterprising druggist who purchased the Coke formula, distributed handwritten tickets through employees and magazines, offering a free glass of what was then a soda-fountain drink.

History

• Old Ironsides: the United States Navy frigate USS Constitution was launched in Boston Harbor (1797)
• Thomas Edison: invented a workable incandescent electric lamp in his Menlo Park lab (1879)
• Guggenheim: stunning Frank Lloyd Wright structure housing a museum of modern art opened on Museum Mile in New York (1959)
• Vietnam War: tens of thousands marched in Washington, DC, protesting America's involvement in the war (1967)
• 1975 World Series: Carlton Fisk hit a ball that bounced off a left field foul pole, giving him a home run and a Red Sox win over the Reds in 12 innings in the series' sixth game (1975)

Birthdays

• Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834): author of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner; and, writers Ursula K. Le Guin (81) and Frances Fitzgerald (70)
• Alfred Nobel (1833-1896): inventor of dynamite, founder of the Nobel Prize
• Martin Gardner (1914-2010): math puzzler
• Dizzy Gillespie (1917-1993): jazz trumpeter; and, musicians Georg Solti (1912-1997), Celia Cruz (1925?-2003), Manfred Mann (70) and Lee Loughnane (64)
• Judy Sheindlin (68): TV's Judge Judy
• Benjamin Netanyahu (61): Israeli PM
• Kim Kardashian (30): socialite/reality TV star, Keeping Up With the Kardashians; also, actors Joyce Randolph (86), Carrie Fisher (54), Ken Watanabe (51), Melora Walters (50), Will Estes and Michael McMillian (both 32), and Matt Dallas (28)
• Willis McGahee (29): Ravens running back; plus, MLB legend Whitey Ford (82)