I go by Tamahome Jenkins because I have this Mark Twain/George Orwell nom de plume thing going on. When I was born, though, my parents gave me the name Steven, which of course is a derivative of the name Stephen. However, I've lived my entire life thinking about how there...
Everybody knows that on July 20, 1969 the first men set foot on the moon, you know Apollo 11 and all. But since the advent of the Gregorian calendar there have been over 400 July 20th's, so lets see what else has happened, shall we? 1656: Swedish forces under the command...
[caption id="attachment_1166" align="alignleft" width="183" caption="Dr. Paul L. Williams"] [/caption] Recently, a scholar by the name of Dr. Paul L. Williams wrote an essay describing the myriad number of ways in which the War on Terror should specifically be a war...
I was watching The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie the other day and kept seeing Acme brand products everywhere, all of which were silly, such as Acme brand rocket-powered roller skates and Acme brand exploding tennis balls. It had me thinking of how Acme must be the Wal...
The NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, aka the Big Dance, aka March Madness begins today. I would have posted about this sooner, but I'm still reeling from the fact that my beloved Gators are spending their second year in a row in the NIT. Anyway, I was going...
Similar to Mardi Gras, St. Patrick's Day was originally a religious holiday. St. Patrick's Day is named for St. Patrick, the Patron Saint of Ireland. Born in the 4th century A.D., St. Patrick was a Roman-British missionary to Ireland. Not much is known about the work...
This is the last of a two-part series. Click here for part one. Many products are so ubiquitous that we don’t even try to think of where their name originated, but as the tagline says, “haven’t you ever wondered?” In this part, I'll show you an ironic name, a name with...
Many products are so ubiquitous that we don't even try to think of where their name originated, but as the tagline says, "haven't you ever wondered?" In the old days, product names were obvious as they were either named after the person who invented it, such as the Tesla...
[caption id="attachment_787" align="alignright" width="288" caption="Courtesy of kxlly on Flickr"] [/caption] The name conjures up images of Wild West showdowns, but you might be surprised to know that Truth or Consequences, New Mexico did not get its name from the...
