Friday, July 10, 2009

Spotlight
A smile brightens any day. And smiles — and smileys — abound, thanks to Harvey Ball, who was born on this date in 1921. Ball, who was in the advertising business, was hired in 1963 by an insurance company interested in raising company morale; he was directed to create a smiling face to put on buttons, stickers and posters. Ball created the smiley face in just a few minutes, earning $45 for his work. He later founded the World Smile Corporation which organizes World Smile Day, held on the first Friday in October. Its slogan is, "Do an act of kindness — help one person smile."

Quote
"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." — Dr. Seuss

Question of the Day
What is an emoticon?
An emoticon, also called a smilie, is a sequence of printable characters such as :), ^-^, or :-) or a small image that is intended to represent a human facial expression and convey an emotion. Emoticons are a form of paralanguage commonly used in email messages, in online bulletin boards, or in chat rooms. The word emoticon is a portmanteau based on emotion and icon.

Emoticon= emotion + icon

Word of the day
magenta

1. See fuchsin.
2. A purplish red, one of the subtractive primary colors.

[After Magenta, a town of northwest Italy.]

(© Houghton Mifflin Company)

Today's History

Telstar

• Monkey Trial: proceedings began against John Scopes, who broke Tennessee state law by teaching evolution to high school students (1925)
• Meher Baba: Indian spiritual master began a silence "to save mankind from monumental ignorance," which ended up lasting 44 years till his death (1925)
• Telstar: the first communications satellite was launched into orbit (1962)
• Coca-Cola Classic: the Coca-Cola Co. announced it would bring back its original formula after customers reacted negatively to New Coke (1985)

Today's Birthdays

Jessica Simpson

• Camille Pissarro (1830-1903): Impressionist painter
• Marcel Proust (1871-1922): novelist, Remembrance of Things Past; other authors born on this date include Robert Chambers (1802-1871), Jorge Icaza (1906-1978), Saul Bellow (1915-2005) and Alice Munro (78)
• Carl Orff (1895-1982): composer of Carmina Burana; composers Jerry Herman (78?) and Arlo Guthrie (62) were also born on this date
• Joe Shuster (1914-1992): co-creator of Superman
• Jake LaMotta (88): boxing great portrayed by Robert De Niro in Raging Bull; tennis champ Arthur Ashe (1943-1993) was also born on this date
• Jessica Simpson (29): singer/actress, Dukes of Hazzard; also, actor Adrian Grenier (33)