| Sunday, November 1, 2009 |
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A Masked Jacques Plante |
Answer of the DayWhen did goalie masks come into fashion? Imagine being on ice skates and having a 220-pound (100-kilogram) man come speeding toward you at 20-30 mph (30-45 kph), waving a stick. Imagine him using the stick to send a hard, flat disk — a hockey puck — flying toward you at a speed of about 100 mph (160 kph). And imagine what it would feel like to misjudge his aim and have that puck slam hard into your arm, your chest or your face. Goalkeepers tried different ways, most unsuccessful, to protect themselves. And, then, Montreal Canadiens goalie Jacques Plante glided onto the ice with fresh stitches on his face and wearing a face mask made of fiberglass and resin. Plante's coach had refused to allow him to wear the mask during games, afraid it might impede Plante's vision. When he was hit in the face during a game against the NY Rangers fifty years ago today, Plante refused to go back out onto the ice without better protection. Rather than forfeit the game, the coach gave Plante the okay, and the team won the game. Plante took some ribbing for wearing the mask, but soon other goalkeepers followed suit.
Quote"How would you like a job where when you made a mistake, a big red light goes on and 18,000 people boo?"
Word of the daycatachresis
- The misapplication of a word or phrase, as the use of blatant to mean "flagrant."
- The use of a strained figure of speech, such as a mixed metaphor.
When one works with words, there are many things that can go wrong: they can be misspelled, misused, mispronounced, or go otherwise awry or missing. Here is a selection of words that refer to a variety of lexical mishaps.
Today's History
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Inside the Sistine Chapel |
- Sistine Chapel: Michelangelo's legendary ceiling frescoes of biblical scenes were first exhibited to the public (1512)
- Axis: term was coined by Benito Mussolini to refer to the alliance between Italy and Nazi Germany (1936)
- Ivy Mike: the United States detonated its first hydrogen bomb on Enewetak, a Pacific atoll (1952)
- Maastricht Treaty: went into effect, creating the European Union (1993)
Today's Birthdays
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| Gary Player |
- Benjamin Guinness (1798-1868): brewer, politician and philanthropist who was Ireland's richest man
- Stephen Crane (1871-1900): novelist and short story writer who wrote The Red Badge of Courage
- Gary Player (74): champion golfer
- Bo Bice (34): American Idol runner-up; other musicians born on this date are Bill Anderson (72), Kinky Friedman (65), Dan Peek (59), Keith Stegall (55), Lyle Lovett (52), Anthony Kiedis (47) and Rick Allen (46)
- Penn Badgley (23): Gossip Girl's Dan Humphrey; also, actors Barbara Bosson (70), Robert Foxworth (68), Marcia Wallace (67), Rachel Ticotin (51), Toni Collette, Jenny McCarthy and David Berman (all 37) and Aishwarya Rai (35)
