2-3-14

ABSURDITY: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion. 
--Ambrose Bierce
The Devil's Dictionary

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Did You Know . . .?

The U.S. now consumes some $2 billion worth of mayonnaise each year. The ketchup market is worth less than half that -- around $800 million.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

Klaus Fuchs, a German-born British scientist who helped developed the atomic bomb, was arrested in Great Britain for passing top-secret information about the bomb to the Soviet Union. The arrest of Fuchs led authorities to several other individuals involved in a spy ring, culminating with the arrest of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and their subsequent execution.

Fuchs' capture set off a chain of arrests. Harry Gold, whom Fuchs implicated as the middleman between himself and Soviet agents, was arrested in the United States. Gold thereupon informed on David Greenglass, one of Fuchs' co-workers on the Manhattan Project. After his apprehension, Greenglass implicated his sister-in-law and her husband, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. They were arrested in New York in July 1950, found guilty of conspiracy to commit espionage, and executed at Sing Sing Prison in June 1953.

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WORD FOR TODAY

gavage  [guh-VAHZ]
noun
Introduction of nutritive material into the stomach by means of a tube.

Force-feeding is the practice of feeding a person or an animal against their will. The term "gavage" refers to the supplying a nutritional substance by means of a small plastic tube passed through the nose or mouth into the stomach, not explicitly "forcibly".

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Maura Therese Tierney

(born February 3, 1965)

Maura Tierney is an American film and television actress, who is best known for her roles as Lisa Miller on the sitcom NewsRadio and Abby Lockhart on the television medical drama ER.

Blythe Katherine Danner

(born February 3, 1943)

Blythe Danner is an American actress. She is known for her portrayal as Will Truman's mother, Marilyn, on Will & Grace and for her role in the 2000 comedy hit Meet the Parents, and its sequels, Meet the Fockers and Little Fockers. She is the mother of actress Gwyneth Paltrow.

Morgan Fairchild

(born February 3, 1950)

Morgan Fairchild is an American actress. She achieved prominence during the late 1970s and early 1980s with continuing roles in several television series, in which she usually conveyed a glamorous image.

Michele Dominguez Greene

(born February 3, 1962)

Michele Greene is an American actress, singer, and songwriter. She is perhaps best known for her role as attorney Abigail "Abby" Perkins on L.A. Law from 1986 to 1991.

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"And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt."
--Sylvia Plath

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