I’ve always thought Hispanic and Latino were interchangeable, but apparently they’re different. Latino means “from a country Latin America,” whereas Hispanic means “from a country that primarily speaks Spanish.” The confusion is understandable, since most people that are one of these are also the other, but there are exceptions. Somebody from Brazil or Haiti would …
Category Archives: Learning with Adam
Catching Alzheimer’s Early
One of the first things Alzheimer’s does is damage the part of the brain that processes the smell of lemons. So if someone can’t smell lemons, it could serve as an early warning sign. It also keeps a person from smelling other things, most notably natural gas (which is technically odorless, but a scent is …
4/20
April 20th isn’t just a stoner holiday. It’s also Adolf Hitler’s birthday. Which is ironic, because Hitler seems like exactly the sort of person who should have been celebrating April 20th…
Wish Granted
Ulysses S Grant was born Hiram Ulysses Grant. When he enrolled in West Point, his name was accidentally entered as Ulysses Simpson Grant. He just rolled with it because he had always hated the fact that his initials were HUG. Source: https://www.damninteresting.com/the-reconstruction-of-ulysses-s-grant/ The whole thing is a good read. Also of note: Grant blamed himself …
On Cat Calling
A Russian fella recently told me that over there, instead of saying “Heeeere, kitty kitty kitty!” they beckon cats by saying “kss kss kss” because that sounds more like the noises a cat makes. I tried it out today on a cat that didn’t want anything to do with me, and she never got within …
Weirdest Ninja Assassination Ever
From Stephen Turnbull’s History of the Ninja: “Circa 1570: Several popular works mention an attempt by Hajikano Jube’e to kill the famous ninja Momochi Sandayu using a bagful of hungry weasels, though I have not been able to trace the original source. Sandayu apparently thwarted the assassination by the unlikely act of throwing a bag …
Thou ought to know
Sorry, that was rude of me. Although we associate the pronoun thou with high-fallutin’ fancy talk since nobody says it anymore, it was in practice used informally. Basically an anglicized equivalent of tu (it was originally spelled thu), as seen in French, Spanish and Latin, it would have been used to address a close friend, …
What’s that hat called?
Ski masks are called balaclavas. Robin Hood is commonly depicted wearing a bycocket. Napoleon is commonly depicted wearing a bicorne. Pilgrims are commonly depicted wearing capotains. Keystone cops wore custodian helmets. Sherlock Holmes is commonly depicted wearing a deerstalker. The newsy hat has like 8 names, ranging from apple cap, to baker boy, to gatsby. …
Bizarre Facts about North Korea
North Korea is kind of an obsession of mine. For a country filled with brutal oppression and horrifying human rights abuses, it has some very interesting and often amusing quirks. But first, a brief history of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (their official name) if anyone needs to be brought up to speed. Korea …
Adam Rinsky 