Thursday, July 3, 2008

Spotlight: I am not making this up: Dave Barry turns 61 today. The humorist, who won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, wrote a weekly column syndicated to hundreds of newspapers worldwide and has written some two dozen books, two of which were made into films (Big Trouble and his Complete Guide to Guys). In 2005, he decided to stop writing his regular column, though his postings still appear a few times a year. Barry has played lead guitar in a rock band called the Rock Bottom Remainders, along with other writers like Stephen King, Amy Tan and Ridley Pearson. He has said of the group, "They are not musically skilled, but they are really loud."

Quote: "Cigarette sales would drop to zero overnight if the warning said 'CIGARETTES CONTAIN FAT.'" — Dave Barry

Question of the Day: Was the exploding whale a figment of Dave Barry's imagination?
While Dave Barry wrote about exploding whales, he got the idea from a news item he read. Unbelievably, it actually happened in Oregon in the 1970s -- in an attempt to dispose of the carcass of a dead, beached sperm whale, the Oregon Highway Commission blew it up.

Turnip

Word of the day: turnip truck
To fall off a turnip truck means to be inexperienced, unworldly and gullible.
The phrase evokes a country bumpkin hitching a ride to the big city on a vegetable conveyance. Upon arrival, he is green and ripe for exploitation by city slickers.

(© Answers Corporation)

Today's History:

Algerian (top) and French Flags

• Quebec: city was founded by Samuel de Champlain (1608)
• great auks: the last pair of the extinct species, found incubating an egg, was killed (1844)
• Battle of Gettysburg: decisive Civil War battle ended after 3 days, in a major victory for the North (1863)
• Algeria: became independent after 132 years of French rule (1962)

Today's Birthdays:

Pete Fountain

• Franz Kafka (1883-1924): author of The Metamorphosis; writer M. F. K. Fisher (1908-1992), Tom Stoppard (71) and Jay Tarses (69) share this birth date
• John Kundla (92): basketball hall-of-famer and coach; baseball outfielder Moisés Alou was also born today
• Pete Fountain (78): jazz clarinetist
• Montel Williams (52): former TV talk-show host
• Tom Cruise (46): 3-time Golden Globe winning actor; other actors born on this date include Kurtwood Smith (65), Jan Smithers (59), Thomas Gibson and Hunter Tylo (both 46) and Yeardley Smith (44)