DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF ESPERANZA AQUINO
Founded: December 2000 Created By: Esther Aquino & Joseph Garcia
Thursday March 17th, 2005
In Today's Edition
May the Good Lord take a liking to you, ...... but not too soon!
~Irish Blessing
Happy St. Patrick's Day and may ye all have a pleasant weekend!
Born On March 17th
Click here for your horoscope for today
Caroline Corr (1973)
Mia Hamm (1972)
Rob Lowe (1964)
Arye Gross (1960)
Gary Sinise (1955)
Kurt Russell (1951)
Patrick Duffy (1949)
John Sebastian (1944)
Paul Kantner (1941)
Rudolf Nureyev (1938)
Nat "King" Cole (1919)
Mercedes McCambridge (1918)
Bobby Jones (1902)
Shemp Howard (1895)
Silvia Villalba
18 Blondes
Q: Why did 18 blondes go to the R-rated movie?
A: They heard that under 17 was not admitted.
Today's useless fact - What is the smallest breed of dog in the world?
Before you can say "Yo Quiero Taco Bell," our hunt for smallest dog led straight to the Chihuahua.
According to the Lukol Chihuahua category, not only is the Chihuahua the smallest breed of dog in the world, it's the only "natural" toy breed. That means that the Chihuahua is naturally small and, unlike toy poodles and other small dogs, it hasn't been purposefully bred to be a smaller version of a larger breed.
Chichuahuas can weigh up to nine pounds, but must be less than six pounds in order to compete in American Kennel Club shows. The dogs are usually between six and eight inches tall. They can have either smooth, glossy coats or long, shaggy coats, and both varieties of coat come in many solid and patterned colors.
Chihuahuas originated in the warm climate of Mexico and are indoor dogs. They make good pets for people who live in apartments, but are not known to be good with children
The Buzzword For March 17th
scrutinize \SKROO-tuh-nyze\ verb
What does it mean?
: to examine very closely
How do you use it?
During the ballet performance, Madison scrutinized the dancers
to see who could jump highest and who could spin fastest.
Are you a word wiz?
A close look at the etymology of "scrutinize" reveals that
it stems from the Latin verb "scrutari." What do you think
"scrutari" means?
A. to learn
B. to discover
C. to explore
D. to search
Answer:
If you chose D, your search is over. The roots of the verb
"scrutinize" ultimately trace to the Latin word "scrutari,"
which means "to search" and "to examine." "Scrutari" is the
ancestor of several English words that entered English before
"scrutinize." These relatives include "scrutable" ("capable of
being understood"), "inscrutable," ("mysterious" or "not easily
understood"), and "scrutiny" ("a close examination or
inspection"). Less than 100 years after "scrutiny" entered the
language, English speakers used it to formed the verb
"scrutinize." Incidentally, word scholars think that "scrutari"
probably came from the Latin word "scruta," meaning "trash."
Today's Jigsaw Puzzle
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St. Patrick's Day
That's all for this week. Have a great weekend.
The following is what appeared in Wednesday's edition.
In Today's Edition
"As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed."
~James Madison, The Federalist, No. 10, 1787
Born On March 16th
Kevin Tod Smith (1963)
Erik Estrada (1949)
Bernardo Bertolucci (1940)
Jerry Lewis (1926)
Pat Nixon (1912)
Henny Youngman (1906)
James Madison (1751)
Thrown into the coliseum
A Christian was thrown into the Coliseum with
a lion. Terrified, he fell on his knees and started
praying. At the same time the lion dropped down
on its knees and started praying, too.
The Christian, overjoyed, exclaimed, "Thank God!
Another Christian!"
The lion replied, "I don't know about you, but
I'm saying grace."
Today's useless fact - Why do hotels keep a copy of the Bible in every room?
The astute motel-room observer will notice that all of these bibles come from the same place -- The Gideons. An evangelical organization founded over 100 years ago by two traveling salesmen, Gideons International now distributes more than 59 million bibles every year. That's about one million every week, or 112 per minute. That's a lot of Word.
According to its web site gideons.org, Gideons International is the "oldest Christian business and professional men's association in the United States of America." The two founders, John Nicholson and Samuel Hill, met while sharing a room in the over- crowded Central Hotel in Boscobel, Wisconsin. They named their association after the biblical figure who submitted himself to the will of God, regardless of his own judgments.
Initially conceived as a Christian organization of "traveling men," in 1908 the group dedicated itself to providing a bible for every hotel room in America, a step towards fulfilling their mission of "distributing the Bible in the human traffic lanes and streams of everyday life." As the numerous copies of the book found in hotels and motels across the country can attest, they've pretty much completed their goal.
Besides placing the Bible in hotels, the Gideons also provide the "Good Book" to nursing homes, domestic violence shelters, schools, prisons, as well as the military, law enforcement personnel, firefighters, and EMTs.
The Buzzword For March 16th
impervious \im-PER-vee-us\ adjective
What does it mean?
1 : not letting something enter or pass through
2 : not disturbed or upset
How do you use it?
Having heard every excuse in the book, the experienced teacher
was impervious to the pleas of students who failed to hand in
their homework on time.
Are you a word wiz?
Which one of these sentences do you think uses "impervious"
correctly?
A. After being elected to class office, the once humble Terry
assumed an impervious attitude.
B. The builders mixed impervious, sand, and gravel to produce
the concrete they needed.
C. Hank's parents considered the number of children and pets
in their family, then chose a carpet that was impervious to
stains.
D. The moisture soaked right through the impervious material
of Marta's cheap raincoat.
Answer:
The answer that's impervious to criticism is C. In A, Terry
is behaving like an emperor, which makes him "imperious," and
totally unlike his formerly modest self. We can count B out
of the running since it uses "impervious" as a noun, and we
know that "impervious" is an adjective. In D, Marta's
raincoat has proven to be "permeable," the opposite of
"impervious," in allowing water to get through it. That
leaves C, and the carpet that probably has a lot of spills in
its future.
Today's Jigsaw Puzzle
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That's all for today. Tune in tomorrow for more stuff.
The following is what appeared in Tuesday's edition.
In Today's Edition
A man never knows how many faults he has until he gets married.
Born On March 15th
Mark Hoppus (1972)
Fabio (1961)
Sly Stone (1944)
Phil Lesh (1940)
Judd Hirsch (1935)
Harry James (1916)
Macdonald Carey (1913)
Samuel "Lightnin'" Hopkins (1912)
Andrew Jackson (1767)
Esther Aquino
Flag Pole
A group of managers were given the assignment to measure the height of a flagpole. So they go out to the flagpole with ladders and tape measures, and they're falling off the ladders, dropping the tape measures - the whole thing is just a mess.
An employee comes along and sees what they're trying to do, walks over, pulls the flagpole out of the ground, lays it flat, measures it from end to end, gives the measurement to one of the managers and walks away.
After the employee has gone, one manager turns to another and laughs. 'Isn't that just like an employee. We're looking for the height and he gives us the length.'
Waiting up at 3 a.m.
Today's useless fact - What is the Adam's apple and what does it do?
According to the links in the Lukol Anatomy category the big bump jutting out from the throats of most men is really a part of the larynx or voice box. When boys go through puberty, hormones cause the larynx to grow rapidly, deepening their voices and causing the bulge to form. Girls' voices also deepen with puberty, but since their larynxes don't tend to grow as much, they don't usually develop an "Eve's apple."
We learned the protrusion is actually composed of thyroid cartilage. Your larynx is surrounded by a skeleton of cartilage plates that prevents it from collapsing. The Adam's apple, properly called the prominentia laryngea, is the central ridge where two plates of cartilage meet.
Technically speaking, the Adam's apple doesn't really "do" anything. In fact, some folks consider the bobbing bump an eyesore and undergo cosmetic surgery to make it less prominent. The procedure is called a trachea shave and is typically performed on men who either want to reduce an uncommonly large Adam's apple or who want to make the bump completely invisible after a gender reassignment.
It is usually said that Adam's apple takes its name from the biblical story about Adam, Eve. the serpent and the apple. A piece of the forbidden fruit stuck in Adam's throat and created the anatomic Adam's apple. So the story goes. However, it may be wrong.
Adam's apple in Latin is "pomum Adami." This may have been a mistranslation of the Hebrew "tappuach ha adam" which also means male bump. Between Latin and English there's many a slip.
The Buzzword For March 15th
dragnet \DRAG-net\ noun
What does it mean?
: a net dragged along the bottom of a body of water
How do you use it?
The scientists use a dragnet to capture fish, which they then
identify, tag, and release back into the reservoir.
Are you a word wiz?
"Dragnet" isn't just used to talk about catching fish. The
word has another meaning, too. Which of the following do you
think is the other meaning of "dragnet"?
A. a mask that is worn to prevent one from catching a cold
B. an unusual or unexpected object that catches one's eye
C. a series of planned actions for catching a criminal
D. a netlike mitt that one uses to catch a ball in some games
Answer:
If answer C caught your attention, you picked the right one!
When "dragnet" was first used around the mid-1500s, it
described exactly what it sounded like: a fishing net that is
dragged. Within a hundred years or so, "dragnet" had developed
a new meaning beyond its literal fishing meaning. People used
the word to describe something used to catch other things,
especially criminals. Now most people use "dragnet" when
they're talking about police actions designed to catch a
criminal.
Today's Jigsaw Puzzle
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That's all for today. Tune in tomorrow for more stuff.
The following is what appeared in Monday's edition.
In Today's Edition
A mother may hope that her daughter will get a better husband than she did, but she knows her son will never get as good a wife as his father did.
Born On March 14th
Taylor Hanson (1983) Kirby Puckett (1961) Billy Crystal (1947) Michael Caine (1933) Quincy Jones (1933) Frank Borman (1928) Hank Ketcham (1920) Les Brown (1912) Albert Einstein (1879)
Christine Aquino
Seconds
The teacher said, "Now class, we know their are 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, and 365 days in a year, so who can tell me how many seconds there are in a year?"
All the kids looked baffled by the question except Little Johnny, who raised his hand and waved it excitedly.
The teacher said, "Johnny, how many seconds are there in a year?"
Little Johnny said, "Twelve . . . January second, February second, March second . ."
Today's useless fact - Where did the term "widow's peak" come from?
Here's what we learned from the links in the Word Origins category:
Dictionary.com defines a widow's peak as a "v-shaped point formed by the hair near the top of the human forehead." Evan Morris' Word Detective site goes on to explain that according to English folklore, a woman with a widow's peak is destined to outlive her husband. The male counterpart being, naturally, a widower's peak, a la Jack Nicholson or Eddie Munster.
We found the origin of the term in the newsletter of the East Meadow Kiwanis Meeting at Potter's Pub on January 2, 2001. Author Robert Manson explains, "the use of 'peak' to refer to the beak or bill of a headdress, particularly a widow's hood, dates to 1530. So the term derives from a mourning hood."
The etymology journal "Take Our Word For It" also sites the hood worn by widows, a biquoquet, as the origin of the term and mentions another expression, a "widow's lock," which refers to a distinct lock of hair on a woman's head. Sadly, this is another omen of imminent widowhood.
The Buzzword For March 14th
biopic \BYE-oh-pik\ noun
What does it mean?
: a biographical movie
How do you use it?
We got to see a biopic on Abraham Lincoln at school today.
Are you a word wiz?
As you have probably guessed, "biopic" comes from the prefix
"bi-" or "bio-," meaning "biographical," and a shortening of
the word "picture." Which words do you think also come from
shortening?
A. cockroach, freebooter, crayfish
B. airplane, ampersand, flabby
C. ahem, blah, oomph
D. soccer, stereo, varsity
Answer:
"Soccer," "stereo," and "varsity" were all formed by
shortening (and sometimes slightly altering) another
word. "Soccer" comes from "association football"; "stereo" is a
shortening of "stereophonic"; and "varsity" is a shortening and
alteration of "university." The words in A were all formed by
folk etymology, the transformation of a word to one with more
familiar elements (Spanish "cucaracha" became "cockroach,"
Dutch "vrijbuiter" became "freebooter," and Middle
English "crevis" became "crayfish"). The words in B are all
alterations of other words ("airplane" comes
from "aeroplane," "ampersand" from "and per se and,"
and "flabby" from "flappy"). And the answers in C are all
words that are imitative of sounds.
Today's Jigsaw Puzzle
Click Here
That's all for today. Tune in tomorrow for more stuff.
