Tuesday, January 4, 2011

exculpate \EK-skuhl-payt; ek-SKUHL-payt\, transitive verb:

• To clear from alleged fault or guilt; to prove to be guiltless; to relieve of blame; to acquit.

Exculpate is ultimately derived from Latin ex-, "without" + culpare, "to blame," from culpa, "blame, fault."

Comment Jump (v):

• to disregard, not acknowledge, or skip over a comment when replying on a post or status update.

Did you see when George comment jumped me!? I can't believe he ignored me like that, I thought we were friends.

Stephen just comment jumped Angelina. He has been avoiding her since last week.

 

Christina: Don't you just hate it when someone you don't like comments on a post, but there are other people you want to comment back to?

Drake: Just comment jump them!

Trivia

What newspaper cartoon feature was the first to include an illustration by Peanuts creator Charles Schulz?

• Ripley’s Believe It or Not, in 1937, when Schulz was 15. The illustration—of Schulz’s dog Spike, the inspiration for Snoopy—included the caption, “a hunting dog that eats pins, tacks and razor blades, is owned by C. F. Schulz, St. Paul, Minn.”

History

• McDonald Islands: uninhabited, barren, volcanic islands were discovered in the Indian Ocean near Antarctica (1854)
• appendectomy: the first such surgical removal of the appendix was performed in Iowa (1885)
• Great Society: President Lyndon B. Johnson outlined his domestic policies in his State of the Union address; he aimed to "end poverty and racial injustice" (1965)
• Nancy Pelosi: became the US's first female Speaker of the House (2007)

Birthdays

• Wilhelm Beer (1797-1850): astronomer who made the first map of the moon
• Louis Braille (1809-1852): musician, educator who developed a raised-point writing system for the blind; plus, inventor of shorthand Sir Isaac Pitman (1813-1897)
• Jane Wyman (1914-2007): Oscar-winning actress (Johnny Belinda); she shared a birthday with daughter Maureen Reagan (1941-2001)
• Floyd Patterson (1935-2006): first two-time world heavyweight champ
• Don Shula (81): NFL coach with the most wins
• Grace Bumbry (74): mezzo-soprano and recipient of 2009's Kennedy Center Honors; plus, R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe (51)
• Gao Xingjian (71): Nobel Prize-winning author; plus, writer Doris K. Goodwin (68)
• Julia Ormond (46): actor, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; also, actors Dyan Cannon (74), Ann Magnuson (55), Patrick Cassidy (49) and Dave Foley (48)
• Vanity (52): actress, singer, Born-Again Christian Evangelist now known as Denise Matthews