Below are things I’ve learned, remembered, or found interesting in the past month:
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The word “Till” (meaning up to) is older than the word “Until”. Until is actually a lengthening of until
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The capital of Washington State is Olympia, the 23rd (or 24th) largest city. It was briefly Vancouver, before that was overturned because of improperly filed paperwork. Among other things, the bill establishing the capital neglected to include the phrase “Be it enacted”.
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Caity Weaver is a hilarious writer, and I adore her 2014 article about testing the limits of TGI Friday’s endless apetizers.
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Dozens of apartment buildings all using the default password on electronic locks makes for very low security indeed!
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Resurfacing a 2022 article from Cory Doctorow about the origins of money. It’s a long one, but worth the read. Even my heavily abridged takeaways page is pretty hefty.
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New York mayor LaGuardia banned pinball for gambling in the 30s. The ban was overturned in the 70s when it was demonstrated to be a game of skill, not luck.
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For hundreds of years we’ve been trying to figure out how roman cement is so dang strong. We’ve gotten close a few times. But maybe this time we figured it out?
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This Nature article arguing that humans should (and can!) learn echolocation
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I’ve previously posted about Illinois’ quest to redesign their flag. After much hullaballoo, they have decided… not to change it at all. It feels rude to ask, but given the state’s history, I have to wonder if we’ve thoroughly checked that this whole thing wasn’t just an elaborate money laundering scheme.
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I hadn’t seen this incredible video, but as a fan of Alanis, I have to share it.
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Who doesn’t love a good tale of professional revenge? How about a bonus for the road?
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Courtesy of Tom Scott’s newsletter, this piece about self-storage in America.
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In the early 2000s, an ossuary was unearthed purporting to belong to James, brother of Jesus. You can see it in Atlanta.
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Video of a windmill’s blade mid-transport that a) is massive and b) looks like nothing more than a big ol’ dino coming around a bend.
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Goodbye was originally a contraction of “God be with ye.” Ye, here, is the second person plural (now out of use in English). Not to be confused with “ye olde”, which was pronounced “the old”, as the thorn was not present on moveable types.
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I’ve played dozens of games of Ticket To Ride, and always assumed that you were playing as railroad tycoons competing to build the best network across the US. I’ve taught many people that this was the theme. But I’ve been wrong this whole time! Per the rules, emphasis mine:
On a blustery autumn evening five old friends met in the backroom of one of the city’s oldest and most private clubs. Each had traveled a long distance — from all corners of the world — to meet on this very specific day… October 2, 1900 — 28 years to the day that the London eccentric, Phileas Fogg accepted and then won a £20,000 bet that he could travel Around the World in 80 Days.
When the story of Fogg’s triumphant journey filled all the newspapers of the day, the five attended University together. Inspired by his impetuous gamble, and a few pints from the local pub, the group commemorated his circumnavigation with a more modest excursion and wager – a bottle of good claret to the first to make it to Le Procope in Paris.
Each succeeding year, they met to celebrate the anniversary and pay tribute to Fogg. And each year a new expedition (always more difficult) with a new wager (always more expensive) was proposed. Now at the dawn of the century it was time for a new impossible journey. The stakes: $1 Million in a winner-takes-all competition. The objective: to see which of them could travel by rail to the most cities in North America — in just 7 days. The journey would begin immediately… Ticket to Ride is a cross-country train adventure. Players compete to connect different cities by laying claim to railway routes on a map of North America.