This & That

I’m sure you know what a tattoo is and might even have one, but do you know the origin of the word? Compared with the history of the tattoo, the word for it is of comparatively recent origin. In 1769, the British seaman, Captain James Cook, first recorded the word in...

There is a particular folksy scene that is found in feel-good period movies where an idealized grandfather figure sits outside his cabin whittling a piece of wood with his hunting knife while his attentive grandson sits absorbing his words of wisdom. Have you actually...

A friend more literate than I recently recommended a book to me: “Orwell’s Roses” by Rebecca Solnit. Solnit has a considerable reputation as an author of fine prose on various contentious subjects such as social change and insurrection, feminism, misogyny, urban and...

The platinum/iridium bar that was the meter standard up to 1960. The definition is now based on a fraction of the speed of light. A simple question I am often asked is how the price of gas in England compares with the price here. A simple query, but life is...

The second Elizabethan age has drawn to a close and a new monarch, King Charles III, now occupies the throne of Britain. As I write, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s funeral is yet to take place, and the pomp and circumstance of a British monarch’s death is in progress...

In Victorian times, the Tuke family of northern England were Quaker philanthropists who contributed greatly to the treatment and housing of the insane. A misfit in their portfolio was a small cocoa factory in York that was being operated by a manager named Henry...

It’s there in your garage. It expands and contracts, just a little, with every shift in humidity like a living, breathing creature. It may be in your house, too, in some closet, pantry or cupboard, more than likely in the attic. It may hold your long-forgotten...

It sounds like something the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas might have written in his story titled “Under Milk Wood.” Perhaps it’s a vestige of memory from reading that work long ago. Though not all dogs have black noses, there are certainly many who bark. I had a beloved...

Wendi Peterson is a collector, but her desired objects are very specific: the myriad forms of seashells that wash up on the ocean’s margins, and she has quite a collection. It began when she first took her 4-year-old daughter to a beach many years ago. It just...

It may seem to an aspiring pilot that a career in flying is at once exciting and glamorous. Often forgotten is the heavily regulated, lengthy and expensive training path that leads to such an occupation. To some, perhaps, it is the challenge of developing the ability...