Sunday, November 7, 2010

palpitate \PAL-pi-teyt\, verb:

1. To pulsate with unusual rapidity from exertion, emotion, disease, etc.; flutter.

2. To cause to pulsate or tremble.

Palpitate derives from the Latin palpare, "to stroke."

What It Do?

• How are you doing, what's going on, what's new?

"Hey gurl, What It Do?"

Trivia

What is the name of the special metal alloy used in making the music industry’s Grammy awards?

Grammium, which is a custom zinc and aluminum alloy developed specifically for the Grammies. After the miniature gramophones are cast in grammium, they are plated in 24-karat gold.

History

• Canadian Pacific Railway: transcontinental system was completed, linking Montreal with Port Moody, British Columbia (1885)
  Birthdays
  • Marie Curie: Nobelist in Physics and Chemistry (1867-1934); plus, physicists Lise Meitner (1878-1968) and Chandrasekhara Raman (1888-1970)
  • Leon Trotsky (1879-1940): Communist revolutionary
  • Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989): zoologist, ornithologist and ethologist
  • Albert Camus (1913-1960): author of The Stranger
  • Billy Graham (92): evangelist who has received both the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom
  • Joni Mitchell (67): folk singer, "Both Sides Now"; soprano Joan Sutherland (1926-2010) also celebrates her birthday today
  • Yunjin Kim (37): Lost's Sun-Hwa Kwon
• Bolshevik Revolution: Lenin's forces overthrew Kerensky's government (1917)
• Blue law: overturned in Pennsylvania, permitting sports on Sunday (1933)
• Galloping Gertie: suspension bridge over the Tacoma Narrows collapsed due to aeroelastic flutter, killing a cocker spaniel and becoming a textbook engineering disaster case (1940)
• Richard Nixon: quit politics, saying "You won't have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore" (1962); he was elected US President on the same date (1972)
• African-American civil rights movement: Carl B. Stokes became the first black mayor of a major US city, Cleveland (1967); Douglas Wilder became the first elected black governor of a US state, Virginia (1989)
• Magic Johnson: LA Lakers basketball star announced he had AIDS and was retiring (1991)