Monday, February 14, 2011

inveigle \in-VAY-guhl; -VEE-\, transitive verb:

1. To persuade by ingenuity or flattery; to entice.

2. To obtain by ingenuity or flattery.

Inveigle comes from Anglo-French enveogler, from Old French aveugler, "to blind, to lead astray as if blind," from aveugle, "blind," from Medieval Latin ab oculis, "without eyes."

love

• nature's way of tricking people into reproducing

Trivia

What do black vultures, gray wolves, trumpeter swans, and sea horses have in common?

• They all mate for life.

History

• St. Valentine's Day massacre: seven gangsters were killed as Al Capone's gang ambushed Bugs Moran's (1929)
• ENIAC: "Giant Brain" Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer was unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania (1946)
• fatwa: edict was issued by Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini urging Muslims to kill Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie (1989)
• NEAR Shoemaker: space probe went into orbit around 433 Eros, becoming the first craft to orbit an asteroid (2000)
• Dolly the sheep: the first cloned mammal was put to sleep at age 6.5, suffering from lung cancer (2003)

Birthdays

• Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834): economist and demographer; theorized that populations will always grow faster than food supplies
• Frederick Douglass (1818-1895): slave who became an abolitionist
• Christopher Sholes (1819-1890): inventor who received the first patent for the typewriter; and, inventor of the modern Ferris wheel George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. (1859-1896)
• Jack Benny (1894-1974): penny-pinching, violin-playing comedian who made the silent stare into an art form; also, entertainers Hugh Downs (90), Florence Henderson (77), Gregory Hines (1946-2003), Teller (63), Meg Tilly (51), Enrico Colantoni (48), Simon Pegg (41) and Freddie Highmore (19)
• Michael Bloomberg (69): mayor of New York City
• Carl Bernstein (67): journalist who, along with Bob Woodward, broke the Watergate story
• Renée Fleming (52): opera and lieder soprano; also, musicians Maceo Parker (68) and Michael Doucet (60)
• Steve McNair (1973-2009): NFL quarterback; NFL members Woody Hayes (1913-1987), Jim Kelly (51) and Drew Bledsoe (39) were also born on this date