At the office today we got into a discussion about the Grinch, which got me thinking about the original Christmas Grinch, Ebenezer Scrooge. In Charles Dickens’ Christmas classic, “A Christmas Carol,” Scrooge dismisses the idea of Christmas with his classic line “Bah, humbug!” …
Statue of Pheidippides, the famous original marathon runner along the road from Marathon to Athens. The story of the Battle of Marathon and its connection to the modern marathon is a wonderful one, and a little bit more complicated that …
The distance between Marathon and Athens is NOT a Marathon. Wait What? Read more »
Why is it that the bird is a “Chicken” but we eat “Poultry?” The animal is a “Cow,” but we eat “Beef?” The animal is a “Pig” but we eat “Pork?” The answer is…the Norman Invasion of 1066! Prior to …
Fun Fact of the Day: Weird Quirk of English Language History: The Animal vs. What we Eat Read more »
Halloween or “All Hallows’ Eve” is the day before All Hallows Day, more commonly known as All Saints Day. Every day of the year is dedicated to a saint. The most common ones we still celebrate are St Patrick’s Day, …
(At my real job I have begun sending out “Fun Facts” to my team, I realized they were really mini blog posts so I thought I would also include them here. Enjoy!) While most people know that Texas was its …
The Prester John myth is possibly the greatest myth in history, and it is sad that we don’t really remember it. It is a bit like the Atlantis myth in that it is very old and held on to the …
Prester John: The Greatest World Myth you Probably Have Never Heard of Read more »
A few years ago, I was hired by a historical consulting agency to help put together primary source documents for an electronic textbook. I was assigned to find primary source information and texts on the Mongolian Empire. I was tasked …
Modern Copyright can Hurt our Study of Ancient History Read more »
“Novem figure indorum he sunt 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Cum his itaque novem figuris, et cum hoc signo 0, quod arabice zephirum appellatur, scribitur quilibet numerus, ut inferius demonstratur.” “The nine Indian figures are 9 …
First…HUMP DAY! Next… The days of the week in English are based mostly on Norse Gods. Wednesday comes from “Wodan’s Day.” As mentioned previously, as languages change and morph it is common for letters to drop off due to slight …
This is one of the most stunning images I have ever seen. In college I owned it as a poster. I found two copies of it at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History where I volunteer a couple …
