Saturday, August 30, 2008

Spotlight: Under the threat of being taken prisoner by Roman emperor Caesar Augustus (aka Octavian), Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt, poisoned herself, on this date in 30 BC. It is said that her love affair with Marc Antony split up the Second Triumvirate, made up of Antony, Octavian and Marcus Lepidus. When Octavian defeated Antony and Cleopatra, Antony fell on his sword and Cleopatra followed his lead. According to legend, she died by allowing an asp to bite her. "Cleopatra" is Greek for "father's glory."

Quote: "He who has never hoped can never despair." — George Bernard Shaw, Caesar and Cleopatra, Act 4; the play enacts Cleopatra's early years.

Question of the Day: Antony pulls back the cloak from Caesar's body and points at various stab wounds on the body. What is he referring to and what does he mean when he says 'This was the most unkindest cut of all'?
Antony shows the commoners Caesar's wounds to emphasize the cruelty of the conspirators' actions. When he says "this was the most unkindest cut of all" he's referring to where Brutus stabbed Caesar.

Elephant

Word of the day: white elephant
An unwanted or useless item, as in The cottage at the lake had become a real white elephant--too run down to sell, yet costly to keep up, or Grandma's ornate silver is a white elephant; no one wants it but it's too valuable to discard. This expression comes from a legendary former Siamese custom whereby an albino elephant, considered sacred, could only be owned by the king. The king would bestow such an animal on a subject with whom he was displeased and wait until the high cost of feeding the animal, which could not be slaughtered, ruined the owner.... (© Houghton Mifflin Company)

Today's History:

Melbourne

• Melbourne: Australian city named for British prime minister Lord Melbourne was founded (1835)
• Second Battle of Bull Run: in the US Civil War, the Confederates achieved a victory over Union forces (1862)
• Thurgood Marshall: was confirmed as the first black US Supreme Court justice (1967)

Today's Birthdays:

Cameron Diaz

• Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851): author of Frankenstein
• Jacobus Hoff (1852-1911): first winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry; other Nobel Prize winners born on this date include Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937), E. M. Purcell (1912-1997) and Sir Richard Stone (1913-1991)
• Warren Buffett (78): businessman and billionaire
• Jean-Claude Killy (65): champion skier; other sportsmen born on this date include Robert Parish (55), Shaun Alexander (31) and Andy Roddick (26)
• Cameron Diaz (36): actress, What Happens in Vegas; also, actors Bill Daily (81), Elizabeth Ashley (69), Peggy Lipton (62), Lewis Black (60), Timothy Bottoms (57), David Paymer (54), Michael Chiklis (45), Michael Michele (42) and Lisa Ling (35)