Friday, January 28, 2005

Spotlight
Artist Jackson Pollock was born on this date in 1912. Pollock was famous for his technique of splattering and pouring paint on the canvas, rather than using more traditional painting tools.

Quote
"Abstract painting is abstract. It confronts you. There was a reviewer a while back who wrote that my pictures didn't have any beginning or any end. He didn't mean it as a compliment, but it was." -- Jackson Pollock

Word of the day
thixotropy -- /thik SOT ro py/ the property of certain gels of becoming fluid when agitated and of reverting back to a gel when left to stand (© )

Today's News

• Procter & Gamble -- to acquire Gillette for $57 B (story)
• cruise control -- glitch causes Ford to recall 800,000 pickups and SUVs (story)
• Venus flytrap -- scientists offer explanation (story)

Today's History

• Julia Ward Howe -- first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1908)
• Louis Brandeis -- was appointed the first Jewish justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1916)
• Challenger -- exploded 73 seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, killing all seven crew members (1986)

Today's Birthdays

• Henry Morton Stanley -- explorer of Africa (1841-1904)
• Colette -- French novelist who wrote Gigi (1873-1954)
• Arthur Rubinstein -- virtuoso pianist (1887-1982)
• silver screen -- Ernst Lubitsch (1892-1947), Alan Alda (69), and Elijah Wood (24)