| Tuesday, July 7, 2009 |
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| David McCullough |
SpotlightIts membership list reads like a Who's Who of America's power elite: presidents William H. Taft and the Bushes — George H.W. and George W.; supreme court justice Potter Stewart; US cabinet members Henry Stimson, Averell Harriman, Robert A. Lovett, McGeorge Bundy and John Chafee; businessmen Harold Stanley and H.J. Heinz II. Members include heavyweights in the worlds of publishing, filmmaking, diplomacy and law. All are Yale University graduates and members of the secret Skull and Bones society. Fifteen students are tapped each year to join the exclusive group, which only began accepting women into its ranks in 1992. Happy 76th birthday to Skull and Bones alumnus David McCullough, who went on to become a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian.
Quote"First of all, you can make the argument that there's no such thing as the past. Nobody lived in the past."
Question of the DayWho is the only author to win two Pulitzer Prizes for Biography?
David McCullough won the Pulitzer Prize for Best Biography or Autobiography for Truman in 1993 and for John Adams in 2002.
Both of these books were adapted separately for television by HBO, with Gary Sinise starring as Harry Truman and Paul Giamatti portraying John Adams in a seven-part miniseries.
McCullough also wrote an earlier book, Mornings on Horseback, about Teddy Roosevelt, ages 10 through 28.
Word of the daybayonet
n.
A blade adapted to fit the muzzle end of a rifle and used as a weapon in close combat.
tr.v.
To prod, stab, or kill with this weapon.
[French baionnette, after Bayonne, a town of southwest France.]
WORD HISTORY It is not unusual for a word to come from a place name.... The word bayonet, a very undomestic sort of word, also derives from a place name, that of Bayonne, a town in southwest France where the weapon was first made. The French word baionnette could also mean "a dagger or a knife," and the English word bayonet is first found in 1672 with this meaning. The word is first recorded in its present sense in 1704.
Not everyone has the opportunity to travel, but no matter. This week we'll look at words that are derived from place names; their origins may surprise you.
Today's History
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| Sliced Bread |
- California: was annexed to the US after a Mexican garrison surrendered; Hawaii was annexed 52 years later (1846, 1898)
- sliced bread: first commercially produced loaf was sold in Chillicothe, Missouri (1928)
- Hoover Dam: work began on the Colorado River project, then known as Boulder Dam (1930)
- Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini: was canonized as the first saint of the United States (1946)
- London bombings: explosions on a bus and in three Underground stations killed 52 (2005)
Today's Birthdays
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| Pierre Cardin |
- Gustav Mahler (1860-1911): Viennese composer/conductor
- Marc Chagall (1887-1985): painter, printmaker and stained-glass artist
- Leroy "Satchel" Paige (1906-1982): hall-of-fame pitcher
- Robert Heinlein (1907-1988): sci-fi author of Stranger in a Strange Land
- Pierre Cardin (87): French fashion designer
- Ringo Starr (69): drummer for The Beatles; musicians Doc Severinsen (82), Warren Entner (65) and Vonda Shepard (46) were also born on this date
- Billy Campbell (50): actor, Once and Again, The 4400; also, actors Joe Spano (63), Shelley Duvall (60), Jorja Fox (41) and Kirsten Vangsness (37)
- Michelle Kwan (29): five-time world figure-skating champ
