Author: Headlight

Sunday

The term “sniper” to describe professional sharpshooters originates in colonial India. British soldiers stationed there found it very challenging to hunt the snipe, a well-camouflaged wading bird which flies in unpredictable patterns. Hence the term “sniper” came to indicate shooters skilled in the marksmanship and camouflaging needed for a successful snipe hunt.

Monday

Shotguns typically spray pellets rather than firing a single bullet, so taking a “shotgun approach” alludes to a broad-based “see what hits” strategy rather than a focused one.

Tuesday

No reputable casino will let you play “Russian roulette,” a term denoting a deadly risk. This terrifying “game” involves putting a single bullet into the cylinder of a revolver, which is then spun (like a roulette wheel) to lose track of the bullet before pointing the gun at one’s own head or another’s. If the cylinder holds six bullets, there is a one in six chance of firing the bullet when the trigger is pulled.

Wednesday

Acting prematurely has been called “jumping the gun” since the 18th century in reference to racers taking off before the starting gun was fired.

Thursday

Were you actually armed when you last hopped in the passenger seat to “ride shotgun”? This term came from the passenger, indeed armed with a shotgun, who sat next to the driver in horse-driven wagons of the old American west to ward of would-be attacks. Notably, however, this term came about shortly after the stagecoach era, helped by Hollywood.

Friday

A person energized for any challenge, especially a confrontation, is sometimes described as “loaded for bear.” This refers to the powerful weapons and ammunition you’d need for such a large, dangerous animal.

Saturday

Someone behaving in a cavalier or impulsive way is said to be “shooting from the hip.” This is because firing a holstered gun near your hip may be faster than aiming with the sights, but at the cost of accuracy.

Sunday

People used to find big bargains at a “fire sale,” a term first applied to discounted fire-damaged goods. You may still find these, but the term now more often applies to financially troubled sellers trying to raise money quickly with very low prices.

Monday

When apprenticeships in trades were more common, a new and unskilled apprentice might be asked to hold a candle for light while his master worked his craft. Only a very useless apprentice “can’t hold a candle to” his master’s work and perform even this menial task, and the term also indicates the great disparity between the abilities of the two. A 16th century writer who was among the first to use the term wrote that he was not worthy to hold a candle to Aristotle.

Tuesday

Working on a project late into the night? You likely have electric lights on, but in centuries past an oil lamp would have lit your work. This is the origin of the term “burning the midnight oil.”

Wednesday

You can’t go back if you’ve “burnt all your bridges” behind you (or burnt all your boats). However, this idiom derives from a practice of the ancient Roman armies, so that the invading Romans knew that no retreat was available and victory or death were the only options.

Thursday

One of several modern sayings derived from real torture methods of centuries past, “holding his feet to the fire” wasn’t just psychological pressure in the old days, but a much more unpleasant actual practice.

SOURCE: Pinker, Steven. The Better Angels of Our Nature, Why Violence Has Declined, New York, Penguin, 2011. (page i6)

Friday

“Bonfire of the Vanities” was a good book-turned-movie, named after a lesser-known historic practice. Starting in 1497, Dominican friar Girolama Savonarola urged the citizens of Florence to prepare for the end of the world, which he expected in the year 1500. This was done by burning items which he felt distracted them from religious obligations, including scientific tools, “objectionable” artwork, musical instruments, classical literature, cosmetics, dresses, and more. These giant fires were later dubbed “Bonfires of the Vanities.” The less uptight Florentines grew tired of the friar, as did the pope he often criticized, and he was hanged with his body burned on the same spot where his bonfires had blazed.

Saturday

Your attention is too divided to concentrate on any one task if you “have too many irons in the fire.” This old idiom derived from blacksmithing, where having too many irons in the fire means no one can be given proper attention. This also causes the fire to cool, such that none of these irons will heat properly.

Sunday

Stars twinkle when viewed from Earth, but not when viewed from space. The twinkle is caused by our atmosphere’s effects on starlight, which comes from very far away. Planets, viewed from earth, don’t twinkle, because they are much, much closer. For this reason, closer stars twinkle a little less.

Monday

“Shooting stars” or “falling stars” are not stars at all, but meteors and meteorites which burn bright as they enter the earth’s atmosphere and experience friction with the air. These typically consist of mostly space rock and dust, and meteorites make it to the surface while meteors burn up entirely in the atmosphere.

Tuesday

Our sun is big, bright, and warm in the summer sky, but is still about 93 million miles away. This means that even at the mind-boggling speed of light, if takes sunlight 8 minutes and 20 seconds to reach Earth.

Wednesday

What’s the closest star to Earth? The sun, or course, but the next is Proxima Centauri, which is really a three-star system. Even so, “close” is relative. Voyager I, already traveling at a brain-bending 38,000 mph, would take over 73,000 years to get there.

Thursday

Stars are popular. They appear on the flags of 59 different countries, featuring stars with anywhere from 4 points (Aruba) to 24 points (Marshall Islands).

Friday

Stars aren’t even remotely similar in size or temperature. Among observed stars, the largest are up to 60,000,000 times larger than the smallest, and surface temperature can range by over 65,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

Saturday

You know that Moby song “We Are All Made of Stars”? It’s true. The carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and all other elements in your body came from the end-of-life explosions of stars long ago, which ejected these heavier elements into space for the raw material of younger stars, planets, people, and about everything else we see.

Sunday

If someone has “got you over a barrel,” it implies they’re in control and you’re not. People rescued from near-drownings used to be draped over a barrel while the water was cleared from their lungs. However, in more sinister situations, people were put over barrels and tied in this position to receive beatings.

Monday

Since booze often used to be shipped in barrels, “barrel fever” can be sickness from excessive drinking, a hangover, or in the longer term, the physical debilitation from chronic drinking.

Tuesday

The shipping of booze in barrels gave the early oil industry the idea for shipping their liquid in this standardized unit. A standard oil barrel was made 42 gallons, 2 gallons more than a whiskey barrel to cover spillage and evaporation in transport. Though most modern oil never sees the inside of a barrel, this unit remains standard worldwide.

Wednesday

Food was also traditionally stored in barrels, so when you were running out and had to take the leftovers on the very bottom, you were “scraping the bottom of the barrel.”

Thursday

Perhaps you may have gone barreling down the highway in your car, but this term likely comes from the wooden vehicle. Back when barrels were common in households and farms, thrill-seeking youngsters would climb in and roll down hills. You cannot steer nor stop the average barrel from inside, so this pastime was rather dangerous.

Friday

The surname “Cooper” originally meant a person in the business of making and fixing barrels, buckets, and casks. It is now a common first name.

Saturday

The long tube of a gun or cannon which ammunition travels through is called a “barrel” because these tubes were either designed from or looked like actual barrels in early weapons.

Sunday

When one player scores three goals in a single hockey game, it is called a “hat trick,” but this term actually originated in a 1858 cricket match in England, when bowler H.H. Stephenson hit all 3 wooden stakes behind the batter 3 times in a row, that is, he bowled three consecutive wickets. Money was collected to recognize his impressive feat and used to buy him a hat.

Monday

But can’t you hang a hat just about anywhere? Yes, which is why the saying “home is where you hang your hat” refers to wherever you happen to live as opposed to a place you have a sentimental connection to.

Tuesday

Boxing wasn’t always two predetermined fighters facing off in a square ring. It used to be an actual circular ring with spectators who could themselves become the fighters. Someone would “throw their hat in the ring” to announce their interest, and the referee would look for a second hat from a challenger.

Wednesday

Once all competitors were ready, races and fights had to start on a clear, quick signal. Before starting guns, this was often an official dropping a hat or swiftly swinging one downward. Hence, something done or decided quickly is said to be done “at the drop of a hat.”

Thursday

Tipping your hat to someone, which may include merely touching it or removing it is a sign of acknowledgment or respect. It is most often done by men and is likely related to military saluting (see post of 10/18/2020). However, where there was a difference of status between the tippers, one may only need to touch his hat while another had to remove it, similar to the depth of a bow in bowing cultures.

Friday

This status-indicating hat etiquette described above also explains why a humble person might appear “hat in hand,” acknowledging their subordinate position.

Saturday

Though the first magician or “conjurer” to pull a rabbit out of a hat could have been either Louis Conte or John Henry Anderson, this classic magic trick has been around since the early 19th century.

Sunday

Rapper Jay-Z had the childhood nickname “Jazzy,” and also grew up near the J/Z subway station in New York, so adopted that musical name (he was born Shawn Carter).

Monday

Electronic musician Moby’s late father gave him that nickname because Moby is the great, great grandnephew of Herman Melville, author of the classic novel Moby Dick (born Richard Melville Hall).

Tuesday

Rapper Eminem is just using his initials; he was born Marshall Mathers III.

Wednesday

Public Enemy’s Chuck D is shortening his real name, Carlton Douglas Riddenhour.

Thursday

The Beastie Boys’ stage names are related to their birth names: Mike D was born Michael Diamond, Ad-Rock is Adam (Horowitz) and MCA is short for MC Adam (Yauch).

Friday

Notorious B.I.G., aka Biggie, was indeed a large man. Born Christopher Wallace, his autopsy reported that he was 6’2″ and 395 lbs. when he died at age 24.

Saturday

Run-DMC was named for Joseph Simmons’ earlier DJ name, DJ Run, and the D and Mc of member Darryl McDaniels. The other member was Jam Master Jay, born Jason Mizzel.

The namesakes of the planets in our solar system are:

Sunday

Fast-moving Mercury is named for the speedy Roman messenger god.

Monday

Venus is named for the Roman goddess of love and beauty.

Tuesday

Earth, the only planet not named for a Greek or Roman deity, gets its name from Germanic words for “ground.”

Wednesday

Red Mars is named for the Roman god of war.

Thursday

Jupiter, our largest planet, is named for the king of the Roman gods.

Friday

Saturn is named for the Roman god of agriculture, and Uranus is named for the Greek god of the sky.

Saturday

Bright blue Neptune was named for the Roman sea god. Condolences to Pluto, demoted from planet status in 2006, but still named for the Roman god of the underworld.

Sunday

Everyone knows that Batman fights the baddies of Gotham City, but Gotham is both a real English town and an old nickname for New York City. Gotham just means “goat’s town” and in an old folk tale called “The Wise Men of Gotham,” the citizens of Gotham hear that the king will travel through their town, a visit which they fear will disrupt their quiet village life. Since madness was believed infectious at the time, they perform “crazy” stunts and shenanigans until news of the town spreads to the king and he bypasses it. Apparently, author Washington Irving referenced this tale in 1807 when writing about New York City, gently poking fun at its residents, and the name stuck. Indeed, one modern NYC magazine is even called “The Gothamist.”

Monday

Modern New York City was previously the capital of the Dutch colony of New Netherland, so was called “New Amsterdam” before it was surrendered to the English in 1664. Nonetheless, plenty of pre-English reminders remain. “Manhattan” was the name of the Native American tribe from whom the Dutch bought / fought for the island, and Peter Stuyvesant, its last Dutch governor, has his name on a modern day New York City neighborhood, housing complex, street and high school.

Tuesday

Like many large cities, New York annexed adjacent towns around it as it grew, and until 1898, its most populous borough of Brooklyn was a separate city. If this was still the case, Brooklyn, with over 2.5 million people, would be the fourth most populous city in the US after New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

Wednesday

New York is named after the English city of York, but indirectly. New York was named for James Stuart, the Duke of York, but he got his title from the English town.

Thursday

Modern Wall Street is on a site where, in 1652, Manhattan’s Dutch settlers built a cannon-fortified wooden wall 9 feet tall and 2,324 feet long to defend against the British. The earthen parts of the wall were pre-existing fortifications against slaves and Native Americans. Sadly, slaves were also sold on Wall Street for about 100 years of its history as a trading center.

Friday

Broadway, the Manhattan street famous for theater productions and the city’s oldest thoroughfare, was named by the British after they encountered this unusually wide road. The Dutch had done the widening and called it “Gentleman’s Way,” but hadn’t done the original building; both European nations were building on Wickquasgeck Road, originally cut by Native Americans.

Saturday

NYC’s nickname of “The Big Apple” has an unlikely origin in New Orleans horse stable workers, who were likely referring to the big prizes (“apples”) that went to race winners in New York. In 1920, a visiting New York reporter covering horse racing heard the term and started using it in his own columns. After disappearing for a while, the moniker was revived to promote tourism to New York in the 1970s and has stuck since.

Sunday

Newborn flamingos have grey feathers, but become pink by eating brine shrimp. These shrimp are full of carotenoids, which the shrimp in turn get from the tiny algae they eat. Flamingos break down these carotenoids in their liver and deposit the compounds as orange and pink pigment throughout the bird’s body.

Monday

Salmon flesh also gets that salmon color from the tiny algae-eating crustaceans in their diet.

Tuesday

Those fishy carotenoids don’t just make things orangey-pink, though. The strikingly blue (and large) feet of the blue-footed booby also comes from these compounds in the bird’s seafood diet.

Wednesday

Nudibranchs, a type of sea slug, move slowly and spend a lot of time on top of what they’re eating, often sponges, algae, coral, and bright anemones, so incorporating the color of their prey into the nudibranchs’ bodies helps camouflage them while eating.

Thursday

Cedar waxwings are songbirds with naturally yellow tail tips, but the red berries of the Morrow’s honeysuckle bush, which the birds love, turns their tails orange.

Friday

The striking neck “cape” of the frill-necked lizard picks up colors from the food the reptile eats, which generally includes insects, smaller reptiles and mammals.

Saturday

The brilliant yellow of the mature male American goldfinch is also obtained from pigments in his seedy, plant-y diet.

Sunday

AWOL = absent without leave

Monday

NASA = National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Tuesday

SWAT = Special Weapons and Tactics

Wednesday

PATRIOT Act (the US federal statute) = Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism

Thursday

ESPN = Entertainment and Sports Programming Network

Friday

STEM = Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics

Saturday

NSFW = Not Safe For Work, usually a warning of internet content inappropriate for the workplace.