Friday, December 24, 2010

chaffer \CHAF-er\, verb:

1. To bargain; haggle.

noun:

1. Bargaining; haggling.

verb:

1. To bandy words; chatter.

Chaffer is an alteration of the Middle English chapfare, "a trading journey." The archaic chap maintains a modern presence in the common term related to shopping, cheap.

Xmax

• Xmax is a bit like Christmas, but not religious. It is the Xtreme version of Xmas and is way cooler. It is possible to celebrate Xmax inadvertantly, so if you're having quite a lot of fun at Xmas and nobody's talking about the baby Jesus, then you're probably celebrating Xmax. Don't worry tho, Xmax is much better.

"I can't believe it's December 25th again so quickly"

"Yeh, I know. Thanks for this amazing present by the way, it's much better than any Xmas present i've had before!"

Trivia

Who did Forbes magazine list as America’s richest fictional character, with an infinite estimated net worth—represented by a dollar sign and the infinity symbol ($∞)?

• Santa Claus—in 2005.

Today's Holiday

• Christmas Eve

History

• Kiritimati: Pacific atoll also called Christmas Island was discovered by Captain Cook (1777)
• Treaty of Ghent: ended the War of 1812 between the US and Great Britain (1814)
• Library of Congress: majority of collection was destroyed by fire (1851)
• Ku Klux Klan: violent racist organization was founded in Pulaski, Tennessee, by a group of Confederate veterans (1865)
• Aida: Giuseppe Verdi's opera had its world premiere in Cairo to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal (1871)

Birthdays

• Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556): founder of the Jesuits
• Kit Carson (1809-1868): frontiersman and folk hero
• Howard Hughes (1905-1976): reclusive aviator, movie producer and billionaire
• Kate Spade (48): luxury designer
• Ricky Martin (39): pop singer
• Stephenie Meyer (37): author of the Twilight vampire series of novels; plus, writers Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), Juan Ramón Jiménez (1881-1958), Johnny Gruelle (1880-1938), I.F. Stone (1907-1989) and Mary Higgins Clark (82)
• Ryan Seacrest (36): host of American Idol and E! News