Tuesday, February 27, 2024

flexuous \FLEK-shoo-uhs\, adjective:

• Full of bends or curves; sinuous.

Flexuous is derived from the Latin word flexuōsus which meant full of turns or crooked. This is an interesting example where the suffix changes the implication of the word. Unlike the more common word flexible, which means "capable of being bent" because of the suffix -ible, flexuous has the suffix, -ous meaning "full of."

 

Business Casualty

• When someone wears business casual and it looks horrible.

The long dressy skirt and polo didn't look good together, it was a business casualty and tucking it in didn't make it look any better.

History

• Dominican Republic: became independent of Haiti (1844); then got its first elected president after 38 years of dictatorship (1963)
• Leaning Tower of Pisa: the Italian government requested aid in preventing the tower from toppling; however, it was considered important to retain the tilt (1964)
• carbon-14: radioactive isotope that is the basis of radiocarbon dating was discovered at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (1940)
• Kuwait: oil-rich Arabian Peninsula country was liberated from Iraqi occupation during the Gulf War (1991)

Birthdays

• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 - Poet
• Enrico Caruso 1873 - Opera singer
• Hugo (Layfayette) Black - U.S. Supreme Court Justice
• Marian Anderson 1897 - Opera singer
• John Steinbeck 1902 - Writer ("The Grapes of Wrath")
• Gene Sarazen 1902 - Golfer
• James T. Farrell 1904 - Author
• Franchot Tone 1905 - Actor ("Mutiny on the Bounty")
• Joan Bennett 1910 - Actress ("Little Women [1933]", "House of Dark Shadows")
• Ted Horn 1910 - Auto racer
• Irwin Shaw (Irwin Gilbert Shamforoff) 1913 - Novelist ("The Young Lions")
• John Connally 1917 - Governor of Texas, was shot during the JFK assassination.
• Guy Mitchell (Al Cernick) 1927 - Singer
• James Herlihy 1927 - Actor ("Four Friends"), writer ("Midnight Cowboy")
• Joanne Woodward 1930 - Actress ("The Three Faces of Eve")
• Elizabeth Taylor 1932 - Actress ("Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?")
• Ray Berry 1933 - Football player, coach
• Ralph Nader 1934 - Consumer advocate
• Chuck Glaser 1936 - Singer (Glaser Brothers), songwriter
• Jay Silvester 1937 - Discus athlete, first to throw over 60m
• Barbara Babcock 1939 - Actress
• Peter Revson 1939 - Auto racer
• Howard Hesseman 1940 - Actor ("WKRP in Cincinnati")
• Mary Frann (Mary Frances Luecke) 1943 - Actress ("Newhart")
• Wil (Wilbur) Jones 1947 - Basketball player, coach
• Eddie Gray 1948 - Musician (Tommy James & The Shondells)
• Debra Monk 1949 - Actress
• Steve Harley (Nice) 1951 - Musician (Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel)
• Dwight Jones 1952 - Basketball player
• Neal Schon 1954 - Musician (Journey)
• Reinhard Fendrich 1955
• Garry Christian 1955 - Musician (The Christians)
• Johnny Van Zant 1957 - Country singer
• Adrian Smith 1957 - Musician (Iron Maiden)
• Paul Humphreys 1960 - Musician (OMD)
• Grant Show 1962 - Actor ("Melrose Place", "Beverly Hills 90210")
• Adam Baldwin 1962 - Actor ("Wyatt Earp", "Ordinary People")
• Mike Cross 1965 - Musician (Sponge)
• Chili 1971 - Singer (TLC)
• Roderic Clark 1973
• Tony Gonzalez 1976 - Football player
• Chelsea Clinton 1980 - fugly daughter of U.S. President Clinton
• Bobby Wilson 1981 - Musician (Mista)
• Josh Groban 1981 - Singer
• Liz Chavez 1985