Pylimitics

There are people who like to write, there are people who need to write because of their work, and then there are people who are “writative.” The difference is probably something like this: someone who likes to write might keep a journal, but having forgotten to pack their diary for a weekend trip, would simply… Continue reading

If you raise a number to its second power, you have the square of the number. If you raise it to the third power, you have the cube. I’m pretty sure most people know that. But here’s an obscure bit of trivia: if you raise a number to its eighth power, what you have is… Continue reading

The word “noggin” has a longer history than you might expect for a slang term for your head. When the word is used today, it’s used the way it appeared in “Landfall” in 1951: “Thanks, chum,’ said Vic, ‘You used your noggin.’” Roald Dahl used it, too, in “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar:” “Of… Continue reading

When you’re reading a series of texts chock-full of obscure words and other barely interesting trivia (don’t look at me; I don’t know where you’d find anything like that), you might reasonably ask yourself: “chock-full? What’s a chock, and how can it be full?” The phrase “chock-full” has been around for a very long time.… Continue reading

“Autology” is a word that was fairly rare even when it was in use back in the 1600s. It meant self-knowledge, or the study of oneself. Some years later there was also the form “autological” for referring to things having to do with autology. Since Freud didn’t happen across the word, it probably would have… Continue reading