How did spelling in English get so messed up? If you have a child who is learning to spell, you may have taken the approach that I have – there’s no rhyme or reason to how it happened so you simply have to memorize it. It turns out that there is a reason, if a bit convoluted, that is often hidden in the rhyme. It’s a small comfort for the many people around the world, young and old alike, that have to learn how to write the most popular language, but it’s at least a great story.
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Author Archives: Erik Hare
Happier Time
Perhaps it was nothing more than a good way to avoid work on the first few daze back after vacation, but the idea of Popular Doom caught the attention of a lot of people. Last night, however, we had this wonderful essay by John Oliver at the Daily Show that I have to bring into the discussion, if for no other reason than to ride his coattails:
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Popular Doom
For the second time in 10 years, a major wave of doom prophesy has become very popular. Like the Y2K predictions of disaster, the Mayan Endgame is based on the idea that the end of human-devised cycle is the end of everything – which is to say that we are the center of the universe. What’s different this time is that the proposed failures that make up general doom and/or panic are more mystical. Nevermind that not a single Mayan ever said that the end of their cycle is the end of time – they would have simply gone to the Cozumel Hallmark store and purchased a new calendar. The end of the 5,125 year cycle proposed by a group most people never heard of is as good an excuse as any to end it all. The question is – why is Doom so popular?
Happy New Year!
I’ve decided to skip a post and simply wish everyone a year that is much better than the one that we just had. Happy New Year, world!
A Lost Decade
At the end of a decade, it is popular to look back to the many things that have changed. There are loved ones who have passed on, events that have thrilled or terrified us, and new inventions that made life a bit different. Yet for all of these turning points there is one thing that has not changed that probably should have in the last decade. Our political world is, more or less, about what it was ten years ago. That may not seem remarkable – but it is far more interesting than any of the great changes that swept over the same barren, dry landscape.
Barataria - The work of Erik Hare 