Sunday, December 26, 2010

powwow \POU-wou\, verb:

1. To confer.

noun:

1. A ceremony, esp. one accompanied by magic, feasting, and dancing, performed for the cure of disease, success in a hunt, etc.

2. A council or conference of or with Native Americans.

Powwow derives from the Narragansett tribal word for a spiritual leader who receives guidance from dreams.

This is actually happening

• A phrase for use to highlight an ensuing awkward or unbelievable event. Mentioning that it is 'actually happening' helps to address either the awkwardness or awesomeness in the situation to everyone present. Therefore, can be used as a positive reinforcement to encourage the behaviour or as a negative reinforcement to discourage the offender.

Use in positive situation: Three hot women approach man and his friends in a bar and ask if they can join them.

Lucky Man: "This is actually happening."

Use in negative situation: A friend among a group starts to complain about other members of the group in an irrational and mood-ruining manner.

Any other group member: "This is actually happening."

Trivia

Which comic book hero was the first to acquire superpowers as the result of a lab accident?

• The Flash, in January 1940. He was a college student who became capable of super speed after inhaling “hard water” fumes during a lab mishap.

History

• Winston Churchill: became the first British prime minister to address a joint session of US Congress, warning against the Axis powers (1941)
• The Glass Menagerie: Tennessee Williams' play opened in Chicago (1944)
• Time magazine: Man of the Year was "the computer" (1982)
• tsunami: huge wave triggered by an earthquake in the Indian Ocean killed more than 216,000 (2004)

Birthdays

• Laurent Clerc (1785-1869): America's first deaf teacher
• Charles Babbage (1791-1871): mathematician and inventor of the precursor to the computer
• Mao Zedong: communist leader, founder of the People's Republic of China (1893-1976)
• Steve Allen (1921-2000): writer, composer, first host of The Tonight Show
• Phil Spector: eccentric legendary music producer (70)
• Carlton Fisk (63): MLB hall-of-famer; shortstop Ozzie Smith (56) also celebrates his birthday today
• David Sedaris (54): essayist, Me Talk Pretty One Day; writers Thomas Gray (1716-1771), Dion Boucicault (1820-1890) and Henry Miller (1891-1980) shared this birth date
• Chris Daughtry (31): rock singer; other musicians born on this date include Abdul "Duke" Fakir (75), Lars Ulrich (47) and Jared Leto (39) who was best known as Paul Allen from American Psycho before forming 30 Seconds to Mars.
• Allie Sin (25): t3h pr0n