Friday, January 28, 2011

rakish \REY-kish\, adjective:

1. Smart; jaunty; dashing.

2. Of a vessel: having an appearance suggesting speed.

3. Like a rake; dissolute: rakish behavior.

Rakish enters the English lexicon in the 1700s, but rake, as in "immoral person," goes back further, possibly descended from the Middle English rakel, "headstrong."

Traffuck

• Peak hour traffic or any general traffic which slows you down.

Im late for work and im stuck in traffuck.

Trivia

What was the first use made of green jackets at the Masters Tournament held annually at the Augusta National Golf Club?

• They were worn in 1937 by club members so they could be easily spotted by tournament spectators seeking information. The current tradition of awarding a green jacket to the champion was started in 1949, when Sam Snead was the winner.

History

• Diet of Worms: general assembly of the Holy Roman Empire began; it ended four months later with Martin Luther being declared an outlaw (1521)
• serendipity: word was coined by Horace Walpole in a letter to Horace Mann (1754)
• Carnegie Institute: Andrew Carnegie established this private scientific research foundation after the US government refused his gift of $10 million to finance the advancement of knowledge (1902)
• "We Are the World": Michael Jackson/Lionel Richie song that raised millions for famine relief in Africa was recorded by 45 popular performers (1985)
• Element 114: scientists announced the creation of the synthetic radioactive chemical element (1999)

Birthdays

• Henry VII (1457-1509): King of England
• Henry Morton Stanley (1841-1904): explorer who said "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"
• William Seward Burroughs (1855-1898): inventor of the adding machine
• Jackson Pollock (1912-1956): abstract artist famous for dripping and pouring his paint
• Alan Alda (75): actor, writer and activist; also, actors Susan Howard (67), Marthe Keller (66), Harley Jane Kozak (54), Kathryn Morris (42) and Elijah Wood (30), and writers José Martí (1853-1895) and Colette (1873-1954)
• Nicolas Sarkozy (56): president of France
• Nick Price (54): golf hall-of-famer
• Frank Darabont (52): director, The Shawshank Redemption; also, director Ernst Lubitsch (1892-1947)
• Dan Spitz (47): lead guitarist for thrash metal band Anthrax; plus, musicians Artur Rubinstein (1887-1982), Sarah McLachlan (43), Joey Fatone, Jr. (34) and Nick Carter (31)