Saturday, January 1, 2011

plenipotentiary \plen-uh-puh-TEN-shee-air-ee; -shuh-ree\, adjective:

• Containing or conferring full power; invested with full power; as, "plenipotentiary license; plenipotentiary ministers."

noun:

• A person invested with full power to transact any business; especially, an ambassador or diplomatic agent with full power to negotiate a treaty or to transact other business.

Plenipotentiary derives from Latin plenus, "full" + potens, "powerful."

Twitter Bang

• Hooking up with someone who you've spoken less than 140 words to.

Sarah: How did you meet Rafael?

Jenn: At some random friend-of-a-friends' party. I'm not sure even how we ended up in bed. We pretty much met over brunch the next morning.

Sarah: Sounds like a twitter bang!

Trivia

What celebutante posed nude, spray-painted gold, in ads promoting “blonde, bubbly” Rich Prosecco as an alternative to champagne?

• Hotel heiress Paris Hilton, in 2007.

History

• The Times of London: first edition was published under this title; it was previously known as The Daily Universal Register (1788)
• Ellis Island: opened (1892); over the next 60-plus years, some 20 million immigrants were processed through its stations
• New York City: was chartered with 4 boroughs — Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens; Staten Island followed a few weeks later (1898)
• Australia: Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Northern Territory became a single nation (1901)
• St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line: world's first scheduled airline had its maiden flight, connecting St. Petersburg and Tampa, Florida (1914)
• Czechoslovakia: peacefully split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia (1993)
• euro: coins and notes were launched, creating the Eurozone (2002)

Birthdays

• Lorenzo de' Medici (1449-1492): ruler of the Florentine Republic and patron of the arts
• Paul Revere (1735-1818): US Revolutionary War figure who took a midnight ride to warn colonists that the British were coming; the seamstress purportedly responsible for sewing up America's first flag, Betsy Ross (1752-1836), shared this birth date
• Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946): photographer and art exhibitor, pioneer of modern photography
• J. Edgar Hoover (1895-1972): controversial and intimidating director of the FBI
• Hank Greenberg (1911-1986): baseball superstar
• J. D. Salinger (1919-2010): reclusive novelist, The Catcher in the Rye; also, writers James George Frazer (1854-1941), E. M. Forster (1879-1970) and Catherine Bowen (1897-1973)
• Frank Langella (73): actor, Frost/Nixon; also, actor Verne Troyer (42)
• Flat Stanley (47): globetrotting fictional character