Monday, January 31, 2011

thimblerig \THIM-buhl-rig\, verb:

1. To cheat or swindle, as in the traditional shell game known as thimblerig.

noun:

1. A game in which the operator rapidly moves about three inverted thimbles, often with sleight of hand, one of which conceals a token, the other player betting on which thimble the token is under.

Thimblerig as a verb derives from the con artist's game of the same name. The word is a combination of thimble, the small metal cap used in sewing, and rig, in the archaic sense of "to trick or scheme."

Hype Aversion

• Rejection of an insanely popular idea, game, show, place etc. simply because it is so insanely popular.

I'm enjoying season three of 'Lost'."

"Season three came out four or five years ago."

"I know, I suffer from hype aversion."

Trivia

What leading American industrialist threatened that he would be “through with manufacturing” if Prohibition was repealed?

• Auto-maker Henry Ford, who explained, “I wouldn’t be interested in putting automobiles into the hands of a generation soggy with drink.” He didn’t deliver on his threat when Prohibition was repealed.

History

• Guy Fawkes: was hanged for his part in the Gunpowder Plot to blow up Parliament and kill the king of England (1606)
• Great Flood of 1953: tidal surge killed thousands and affected shorelines in the UK and the Netherlands
• Explorer I: the US launched its first Earth satellite, whose mission was to detect cosmic rays (1958)
• McDonald's: first opened in the Soviet Union, in Moscow (1990)

Birthdays

• André-Jacques Garnerin (1769-1823): parachutist; plus, balloonist Charles Green (1785-1870)
• Benjamin Hooks (1925-2010): civil rights leader
• Ernie Banks (80): MLB hall-of-famer; second-baseman Jackie Robinson (1919-1972) and pitcher Nolan Ryan (64) share this birth date
• Kenzaburo Oe (76): Nobel Prize-winning author; also, writers Zane Grey (1872-1939), John O'Hara (1905-1970), Thomas Merton (1915-1968) and Norman Mailer (1923-2007)
• Beatrix (73): queen of the Netherlands
• Minnie Driver (41): actor, on screens now in Motherhood; also, actors Jessica Walter (70), Anthony LaPaglia (52), Portia de Rossi (38) and Kerry Washington (34)
• Justin Timberlake (30): Grammy-winning pop singer; also, musicians Franz Schubert (1797-1828), Philip Glass (74), Charlie Musselwhite (67) and Johnny Rotten (55)