On This Day:
Friday August 2, 2013
This is the 214th day of the year, with 151 days remaining in 2013.
Fact of the Day: ceramics
Ceramic products are almost as old as the human race. Ceramics are created from common, naturally occurring raw materials such as clay minerals and quartz sand and are usually baked hard at high temperatures. These materials are made into pottery, clay brick and tile, and many other items such as insulators. Ceramics are heat-resistant and do not conduct electricity. Scientists have devised methods of making ceramic materials as strong as steel.Holidays
Feast day of St. Theodota and her Three Sons, St. Eusebius of Vercelli, St. Plegmund, St. Stephen I, pope, St. Syagrius of Autun, and St. Sidwell or Sativola.Costa Rica: Feast of Our Lady of the Angels.
Macedonia: National Day.
Events
1776 - Members of the Continental Congress began signing the Declaration of Independence.1824 - Fifth Avenue was opened in New York City.
1858 - The rule of the East India Company was transferred to the British government.
1887 - Barbed wire was patented by Rowell Hodge.
1921 - A jury in Chicago acquitted several former members of the Chicago White Sox baseball team and two others of conspiring to defraud the public in the notorious "Black Sox" Scandal.
1934 - With the death of German President Paul von Hindenburg, Chancellor Adolf Hitler became absolute dictator of Germany under the title of Führer.
1939 - Albert Einstein wrote a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt urging creation of an atomic weapons research program.
1943 - A Navy patrol torpedo boat, PT-109, commanded by Lt. John F. Kennedy, sank after being cut in half by a Japanese destroyer off theSolomon Islands.
1990 - Iraq invaded Kuwait, seizing control of the oil-rich emirate; the Iraqis were later driven out in Operation Desert Storm.
Births
1754 - Pierre Charles L'Enfant, French-born American architect and engineer who designed the plan for city of Washington, D.C.1820 - John Tyndall, Irish-born English physicist.
1835 - Elisha Gray, American inventor who invented the telephone at about the same time as did Alexander Graham Bell.
1892 - Jack Leonard Warner, American movie mogul.
1924 - Carroll O'Connor, American Emmy Award-winning actor.
1924 - James Baldwin, American essayist, novelist, and playwright.
Deaths
1799 - Jacques Étienne Montgolfier, French pioneer developer, along with his brother, Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, of the hot-air balloon.1997 - William S. Burroughs, American Beat movement writer.
Word of the Day for Friday, August 2, 2013
lam \lam\, verb:
1. to beat; thrash.
2. to beat; strike; thrash (usually followed by out or into).
2. to beat; strike; thrash (usually followed by out or into).
Like kingpins, one steel tier lammed into another, then they all crashed to the floor with a sound as of the roof falling.
-- Richard Wright, Black Boy, 1945
That was just before he lammed out—the time he knocked off that crumb from uptown. I remember once when Harry cut up a guy so bad, the guy couldn't walk.
-- Ed McBain, Learning to Kill, 2006
Lam likely finds its roots in the Old Norse lemja meaning "to lame." It entered English in the late 16th century.
Spanish Word of the Day
Friday, August 2, 2013
regular, adverb
so-so; not brilliantly
so-so; not brilliantly
If you ask someone how they are in Spanish they may reply with the single word regular:
¿Cómo te encuentras? - Regular.
How are you? - So-so.
Regular means ‘ok’ but not exceptional.
¿Qué te pareció la película? - Regular.
What did you think of the film? - So-so OR Nothing special.
Me fue regular en el examen.
My exam didn’t go brilliantly.
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