Archive for the 'From the archive' Category

From the archive: The Turkey

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on October 1, 2008
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Ever watch a movie a thought that it was a waste of time? Well what about watching a pretty bad theatrical performance? There’s an actual word to describe performances that are a flop — turkey!

by Swami Stream

Q: Why is a theatrical flop called a “turkey”?

A: A “turkey” can describe any person or endeavour that doesn’t live up to its promise, but is most commonly used to describe a bad play. In the late nineteenth century, the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas was the busiest season for the opening of new plays, just as it is now for movies. This hurried effort to catch the tourist trade served up disappointments with the same tedium as the turkey served for dinner between the two holidays, and so they were called turkeys.

From the archive: Who is the Thinker?

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on August 25, 2008
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Photograph by Osbornb

Ever wonder who it really is…?

Q:  Who is the Thinker in Auguste Rodin’s famous statue?

A:  The French sculptor Auguste Rodin’s statue commonly called “The Thinker” (Le penseur) is one of the best-known pieces of art in the world.  Yet when Rodin (1840-1917) first cast a small plaster version in 1880, he meant it as a depiction of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri (circa 1265-1321) pondering his great allegorical epic “The Divine Comedy” in front of the Gates of Hell.  In fact, Rodin named the sculpture “The Poet”.  It was an obscure critic, unfamiliar with Dante, who misnamed the masterpiece with the title we use today — The Thinker.

Rodin’s statue is naked because the sculptor wanted a heroic classical figure to represent thought as poetry.

From the archive: The Original Purpose of the Chainsaw

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on July 24, 2008
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photo by hemmob

Photograph by hemmob

Q: What was the initial purpose of the chainsaw?

A: In unskilled hands, a chainsaw can be dangerous. It might even cut through an arm or a leg. ironically, that was what the first chainsaw was invented for. A German named Bernard Heine (1800-1846) invented an early type of chainsaw in 1830. He called it an osteotome. in those days, before general anaesthetics, surgeons depended on speed to shorten the suffering of patients. The chainsaw was designed to speed up amputations by cutting through bone more quickly than was possible with conventional methods. The device was operated by turning a crank manually, much like you would if you were using a hand mixer. A Swiss German, Andreas Stihl (1896-1973), patented and developed an electric chainsaw for cutting wood in 1926. Three years later he patented a gas-powered model. Stihl is generally regarded as the father of the modern chainsaw.

From the archive: A tale of “-stan”

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on July 18, 2008
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Q: Why do the countries Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, and others all end in “stan”?

A: The Middle Eastern suffix “stan” is an ancient Farsi word for “homeland.” Kazakhstan is from the word “kazakh, meaning “free,” while Kyrgyzstan means “home of forty tribes.” Pakistan is an exception. This modern republic took its name from the first letters of Punjab, Afghanistan, and Kashmir, with the suffix “istan” taken from the province of Balochistan. The name “Afghanistan” can be traced to the ninth-century Iranian Emperor Apakan.

Persepolis, Iran by indigoprime

Photograph by indigoprime

From the archive: The Origin of shares and “stock”

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on July 9, 2008
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Ever wonder about shares in a company?  With the stock market fluctuating so unpredictably throughout 2007 and into 2008, let us pose a simple question and maybe even dive back in time:

Photograph by Helico

Photograph of the New York Stock Exchange by Helico

Q: Why are shares in a company called “stock”?

A: The modern concept of sharing capital ownership was initiated by the Dutch East India Company in 1612, which raised money by selling pieces of the business to the public.  This process gave the Dutch East India Company the ability to grow and share its profits with its “shareholders.”  The original meaning of the word “stock” was the trunk of a tree.  Like that trunk, stock in a corporation supplies the necessities of life to the branches.  This nourishment to any size company is cash.

Stocks and shares are the same thing.  Stock refers to an overall ownership in one or more companies within a portfolio.  Shares signify ownership of one specific individual company.

Today a “stock market” is a place where securities are bought and sold, but the first one in London, England, was a fourteenth-century fish-and-meat market and was so called because it was built on a site formerly occupied by the stocks used for corporal punishment.

From the archive: Ketchup and Fries

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on June 30, 2008
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Let us dive into the wonderful world of food and what better way to sit back and enjoy a lunch with fries and ketchup than to ponder about the origins of this popular side dish and condiment.  But before you ponder away, let us give you some facts:

Q:  If it wasn’t the French, then who invented french fries?

A:  The Belgians are crazy about french fries; as a matter of fact, fries are their national dish, and they’ve been eating them with buckets of mussels since the mid-1800s.  The French also claim inventing fries, because to “french” any food means to cut it very thin.  The problem is that the Belgian claim predates the French technique by about fifty years.  Usually this discussion ignores the fact that 40 percent of Belgians speak French, so they can take the credit.

The largest producer of french fries in the world is McCain Foods Limited, a Canadian company in Florenceville, New Brunswick.  McCain has thirty potato processing plants on six continents around the
world.

Ketchup and Fries by rick

Photography by rick

and on to one of our favourite condiments…

Q:  What’s the origin of ketchup?

A:  In the 1690s the Chinese mixed together a tasty concoction of pickled fish and spices and called it ke-tsiap.  By the early 1700s, the table sauce had made it to Malaysia, where it was discovered by British explorers, and by 1740, it had become an English staple. Fifty years later, North Americans added tomatoes to the Chinese recipe, and ketchup as we now know it had arrived.  Tomatoes were considered poisonous for most of the eighteenth century because they’re a close relative to the toxic belladonna and nightshade plants.

From the archive: Brrrr! — The Pole of Cold

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on June 23, 2008
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With all the crazy temperature changes across North America, you’ve got to wonder where the real cold spot is since we’ve definitely received our share of an odd blend of cold and warm temperatures here in Canada …

north pole expedition by PodKnox

Photograph from Alaska by Podknox

Q:  Where is the “Pole of Cold”?

A:  The arctic is not all that cold.  Temperatures at the North Pole average -24 degrees Fahrenheit (-31 degrees Celsius) in the wintertime and get up to 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius) during the summer.  The real cold spot north of the equator is Russia’s “Pole of Cold,” south of the Arctic Circle in Siberia.

Two towns in this area fight to be considered the world’s coldest permanently inhabited communities. Verkhoyansk, population 1,500, has official recognition with a temperature of -93.6 degrees Fahrenheit (-69.8 degrees Celsius).  Oymyakon, a town of 800, created by the Soviet Government to encourage nomadic reindeer herders in the northern Siberia to modernize, claims a reading of -96.2 degrees Fahrenheit (-71.2 degrees Celsius), using methods that did not meet official standards.

From the archive: Piping Hot!

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on June 13, 2008
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Almost everyone loves piping hot soup — which got us to thinking about the whole expression…

hot soup by Szeto Clan

Photograph by Szeto Clan

Q: Why do we describe warm food as “piping hot”?

A: Today, piping hot usually means comfortably warm food straight from your own oven to the table, but it took a few centuries to evolve into that meaning. There was a time when everyone bought freshly baked bread every day from a neighbourhood or village baker. When the bread was ready, the baker would signal from his front door by blowing on a pipe or horn, which caused people to hurry to get bread before it ran out and gave us the expression “piping hot.”

From the Archive: Spilling the Beans

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on June 4, 2008
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Ever wonder about the political issues that seem to be on the front page of the news almost everyday? Let’s dive into the realm of politics and take a look at some history.

Q: Why when someone tells a secret do we say they’ve “spilled the beans”?

A: As a system of voting, the ancient Greeks placed beans in a jar. These small beans or balls were called “ballota”, which gives us the word ballot. A white bean was a “yes” and a brown bean was a “no.” The beans were then counted in secret so the candidates wouldn’t know who voted for or against them. If the container was knocked over, and the beans were spilled, the secret was out of the jar.

beans ... jelly beans

Not yet spilled beans?  Photograph by al-hayat

From the Archive: Eeney, meeney, miney, moe

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on May 28, 2008
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Choices, choices, and more choices! In fact, we’re faced with this dilemma every week when we decide … hmm … what answer should we send out this week? Sign-up for our weekly Q&A! If you have a particular category that you are interested in (i.e. science, literature, history, etc.), let us know!

too many choices by anyjazz65

Photograph by anyjazz65

We’re typically provided with so many choices on a daily basis that we sometimes even ignore quite a few of them around us. Some of us are decisive. Some of us procrastinate. Others try to gather as much information as possible. Perhaps a few even try their luck. What about children? Well, a number of us should remember “eeney, meeney, miney, moe”…

Q: What is the origin of the children’s rhyme “Eeney, meeney, miney, moe”?

A: “Eeney, meeney, miney, moe” is a children’s rhyme where, with each word, the person counting or reciting points at one of a group of players to establish who will be “it.”. The ritual was handed down from the Druids, who used the same counting formula to choose human sacrifices. The precise meanings and origins of the words eeney, meeney, miney and moe are unknown. The theory that the rhyme is from an ancient Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, or Welsh numbering system can’t be proven.

The rhyme was first written down in 1855 along with several other versions, for example, “Hanna, mana, mona, mike.”