Saturday, September 15, 2007

 

Spotlight: He who laughs last... On this date in 1982, when USA Today first hit the newsstands, the short (some would call them shallow) articles, combined with the colorful graphics and news tidbits from all over the country, brought jeers along with the accolades. Critics couldn't imagine why readers would want a newspaper that was so light on real news and that seemed to spread itself so thin. Twenty-five years later, USA Today is the US's top-selling daily newspaper. Published by Gannett Company, Inc., USA Today markets itself to traveling businessmen and -women; it's carried on airplanes and in hotels in 60 countries outside America.

Quote: "USA Today has come out with a new survey. Apparently, three out of every four people make up 75% of the population." — David Letterman

Word of the day: TANSTAAFL
There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch (© Answers Corporation)

Today's News:

• New York City: judge strikes down calorie content menu requirement (story)
• Old Farmer's Almanac: predicts that 2008 will be the US's warmest year in a century (story)
• China: promises all safe toys for Christmas (story)

Today's History:

• Central America: Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica became independent of Spain (1821)
• penicillin: bacteria-killing mold was noticed by Sir Alexander Fleming (1928)
• Nuremberg laws: denaturalized all German Jews and part-Jews (1935)

Today's Birthdays:

• William H. Taft (1857-1930): POTUS who preferred the bench
• Agatha Christie (1890-1976): mystery novelist
• Oliver Stone (61): Oscar-winning director, Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July
• Tommy Lee Jones (61): actor, The Fugitive, Men in Black
• Prince Harry (23): son of Prince Charles and Princess Diana