Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Spotlight
T.S. Eliot was born on this date in 1888. The author of The Waste Land (1922), he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1948. Eliot was born in Missouri, but moved to England in 1914, where he remained until his death. His plays include Murder in the Cathedral (1935) and The Cocktail Party (1949). One of Eliot's most famous poems is his early work, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (1915). Eliot's children's book, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939), was the inspiration for the hit musical Cats. He has said, "When a Cat adopts you there is nothing to be done about it except put up with it until the wind changes."

Quote
"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." — T.S. Eliot

Word of the day
testudo -- [L]  /tes-TOO-doe/ a cover of overlapping shields or a shed wheeled up to a wall used by the ancient Romans to protect an attacking force (© )

Today's News

• United States: to ease ban on liquids and gels on airplanes (story)
• Japan: Shinzo Abe elected new PM (story)
• Donald Rumsfeld: US secretary of defense is blasted by retired military officers on Iraq (story)
• phishing: beware — scams on the rise around the world (story)
• New Orleans: Saints reopen the Superdome with a bang (story)
• browsers: bugs proliferate in all except Opera (story)

Today's History

• New Zealand: became an independent dominion (1907)
• West Side Story: opened on Broadway (1957)
• The Beatles: released Abbey Road (1969)
• Biosphere 2: 8 people entered a sealed complex in Oracle, Arizona, for an experiment in self-sustained living (1991)

Today's Birthdays

• George Gershwin: composer of Rhapsody in Blue (1898-1937)
• Jack La Lanne: father of modern fitness (92)
• Jane Smiley: Pulitzer-winning author, A Thousand Acres (57)
• Serena Williams: tennis star (25)