Photograph by Justin Taylor, via Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/bludgeoner86/)
Things that make you go hmm: Uncle was doing a project and realized they had no idea ‘why washers are called washers”. So he poked the hive mind at AskMetafilter and various explanations flew out!
Audubon's Oriole | National Butterfly Center | Mission | TX | by Bettina Arrigoni (cc by)
Names like "Satanic nightjar" still gets a pass under the new system, though, yes? Because otherwise I would like a word... — Nerd of the North. From gingerbeer, Big news from the world of birding: The American Ornithological Society announces that it will start changing the names of birds named after humans.
An Italian cameo bracelet representing the days of the week by their eponymous deities via Wikipedia
The days of the week are associated with the seven 'luminaries' ... A fascinating explainer from heatherlogan about why the days of the week are named as they are.
"What's in a name?" by jack dorsey (cc by)
as someone who studies gender, the evolution of nonbinary / trans communities, and cultural ideas about androgyny, I'd categorize "Bixby" as in the name group moving pretty rapidly from a prior masculine-of-center position, to a current "gender neutral" position, and possibly soon to be in the feminine-of-center position. Some Interesting observations from DrMew on ambiguous, androgynous, gender neutral, and unisex naming trends in the We need to talk about Kévin thread.
Tribute to Signe Brander - Explored by Poupetta
the umlaut is probably the least threatening of the diacritic marks ... Kattullus on why Finnish-language brandnames appeal to anglophone marketers.
Acting suprised by www.ownwayphotography.com (cc by)
If only I had a penguin... has introduced Post Your Animal Month in Metatalk: "If you have an animal in your username, post (directly, tangentially, barely-relatedly) about your animal over the next month." The animals have already begun to reproduce! (use tag "postyouranimal")
still from Tales from Earthsea, Studio Ghibli
On Ask Metafilter, kandinski asks about The mythical power of knowing someone's "True Name"
Grace - Mirror by phil41dean (cc by)
Kid, champ, you, we: what do you call yourself when you're talking to yourself?
Humor, family history and linguistic innovation: some great Mefite stories about minority languages in threads on Yiddish and Chinese dialects
Rolling your tongue and using bright light to induce a sneeze: body tricks that not everybody can do
Seeing where it all starts: fun experiments on your toddler's amazing brain
FGR: Belly by bloody marty mix (cc by-nc-nd)
The oldest use of the f-word has been discovered, dating the word some 165 years earlier that had ever been seen. It appeared in the name "Roger Fuckebythenavele"
and in the dream-jobs-you-never-knew-you'd-kill-to-have department, litlnemo offers, "I teach a class on dirty surnames (yes, really) and this one so has to go into my list. Those medieval English people were not the most delicate of speech, let's just put it that way."
In other deep thoughts on names and other things, MCMikeNamara asks, Has Axl Rose ever commented on the fact that his stage name is an anagram for "oral sex"?
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