Tuesday, November 16, 2010

gest \JEST\, noun:

1. A notable deed or exploit.
2. Archaic: A metrical romance or history.

Gest shares the same roots as jest, "to joke," from the Latin gerrere, "to carry on."

or the terrorists have won

• the best excuse to get what you want.

Continue buying SUVs or the terrorists have won.

Repeal the Constitution or the terrorists have won.

Dance naked in front of me or the terrorists have won.

Trivia

What were the first land animals to have vocal cords?

• Frogs.

History

• Jadwiga: blonde blue-eyed beauty became "king" of Poland (1384)
• Battle of Cajamarca: conquistador Francisco Pizarro massacred thousands of Incas in a surprise attack in Peru, and captured the emperor Atahualpa (1532)
• US-USSR relations: FDR extended formal diplomatic recognition to the Soviet Union (1933)
• Sound of Music: the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical opened on Broadway (1959)

Birthdays

• Tiberius (42 BCE–37 CE): second Roman emperor
• José Saramago (1922-2010): 1998's winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature; authors George Kaufman (1889-1961), Chinua Achebe (80) and Elizabeth Drew (75) share this birth date
• Marg Helgenberger (52): Catherine Willows on C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation; also, actors Clu Gulager (82), Harry Lennix (46), Lisa Bonet (43), Martha Plimpton (40), Maggie Gyllenhaal (33), Kimberly J. Brown (26) and Noah Gray-Cabey (15)
• Diana Krall (46): Grammy-winning jazz pianist and singer; other musicians born on this date include Rodolphe Kreutzer (1766-1831), W.C. Handy (1873-1958), Paul Hindemith (1895-1963), Hubert Sumlin (79) and W. C. Clark (71)
• Osi Umenyiora (29): British-born defensive end for the NY Giants; plus figure skater Oksana Baiul (33)
• Suzi Simpson (42): Athens Greece, playmate (Jan, 1992)