Romans in China Redux
Folks who follow me on Twitter (for whatever reason) know that I spent much of yesterday returning to using Thunderbird as my email program of choice, during the course of which I came across assorted things which I had put aside to check out later, etc.. Among those items was the oft-repeated story about people [...]
Vatican
Something I’ve always wondered about, but never long enough to actually look up, is the origin of the word ‘Vatican’ … A piece in CathNews saves me a bit of trouble: Sanctified by what is believed to be the site of Peter’s martyrdom and burial, this ground was numinous even in pagan days. First, it [...]
Rhesus Pieces
The Standard Freeholder ponders the meaning of pH and Rh … the latter is of interest to us: The technical “Rh factor” refers to a protein characteristic of blood. The blood of about 85 percent of the world’s population is Rh positive while that of the other approximately 15 percent is Rh negative (lacking the [...]
I Can Has Autograph?
In a piece about the sorts of folks who hound celebrities for autographs, Barry Koltnow writes in the Orange County Register, inter alia: After all, autograph-collecting (philography) has been practiced since the ancient Greeks, although I doubt whether any Greek would have asked Paris Hilton for an autograph. Unlike most of our ‘origins’ commentary, this [...]
Soccer Origins — Not
At UEFA.com there’s an interview with Ukrainian football/soccer star Anatoliy Tymoshchuk … towards the end he sez: These days, some consider the role of captain as just a nod to tradition. But remember that Herodotus described a game in ancient Greece, where soldiers played to develop their fighting capacities and used the head of the [...]
Hopscotch Origins
Every now and then, this story about the purported Roman origins of hopscotch pops up … most recently in the East London Advertiser: The game involving hopping between squares on a chalk grid dates back to Roman times. It was used originally for military training when foot soldiers ran in full armour and field packs [...]
Lupercalia …NOTHING to do with Valentine’s Day
Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh. The older I get the less patience I have with this one … every year in the first couple of weeks of February, piles of journalists and/or their editors parade their stunning lack of critical thinking throughout the world (but mostly in the North American press) by claiming some sort of link between Lupercalia [...]
Pizza Origins Again
We often see pizza being ascribed to the Romans, or to the Romans via the Greeks, but the Daily Pilot adds a twist I haven’t seen before: Ever had a pizza? I have. Do you know what “pizza” means in Italian? I do. Nothing. It’s from the Latin word “picea”… what the Romans called a [...]
Integritas?
It’s been one of those days followed by one of those evenings (a power failure seems to have done something so my computer alone of all the wireless devices in our house won’t connect) so I’ll start with one that’s been also bugging me all day since I read it this a.m.. A piece in [...]
Ajax
An excerpt from a piece in the Guardian notes, inter alia: “Blyth Spartans were named after the Greek army,” James Henry points out, before getting to the heart of the matter: “What is the weirdest explanation for a football team’s suffix?” Blyth are named after the Spartan army, the legendary fighting force of the 6th [...]
