Author: The chronographer

#OTD 26 November – The house of white

The Latin word “albus” for white hasn’t taken off. We may eat the egg’s albumen everyday and we may know that an albino has a deficiency in pigmentation but beyond this things get murky. The assertion that the Romans called Britain “Albion” because of the white cliffs of Dover is no more than hypothesis. albus… Continue reading #OTD 26 November – The house of white

#OTD 26 December – Box the beadle

St Stephen is the first Christian martyr. Acts 6 records that the apostles arranged for Stephen and six others to serve food while the apostles served the word; by the end of Acts 7 he had been stoned to death. Yet Boxing Day is concurrent with and not derived from his feast day.Rather, the day… Continue reading #OTD 26 December – Box the beadle

#OTD 25 December – Announcement or appropriation?

There are two theories of why Christmas Day is 25 December, the announcement theory and the appropriation theory. The Annunciation, the announcement by Gabriel to Mary that she would conceive and bear a son through a virgin birth, is usually celebrated on 25 March. The announcement theory is that nine months works. The appropriation theory… Continue reading #OTD 25 December – Announcement or appropriation?

#OTD 24 December – Wellington, boots & all

The government of Great Britain had two foreign policy issues on the plate in late 1814. The first was the war with the US and the second was the Congress of Vienna, the conference to reshape Europe after the abdication of Napoleon and his exile to Elba. By the middle of the year, the hero… Continue reading #OTD 24 December – Wellington, boots & all

#OTD 23 December – Fish or fast?

Invite him to dinner, Emma, and help him to the best of the fish and the chicken, but leave him to chuse his own wife.  Mr Knightley, Emma chapter one. By the novel’s end, Emma and he were engaged. Emma was first published on 23 December 1815. It is unlikely that Emma’s suitors would have… Continue reading #OTD 23 December – Fish or fast?

#OTD 22 December – The romance of music

Music being the art to which all others aspire, it is unsurprising that its climaxes claim moments that pictures or writing or talk can never convey. The hope which emerged upon Napoleon’s collapse in Russia is rendered triumphant in the 1812 Overture. Another climax was upon the mess of a war economy four years before.… Continue reading #OTD 22 December – The romance of music

#OTD 21 December – A neologist’s day

Neologisms come from many sources. An invented name, a character, an acronym, a genericization. So “Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation” becomes laser and “Xerox” becomes “xerox”. Leading to the paradoxical proposition “Xerox saved itself from extinction by moving from xeroxing to laser printing”. Mass culture offers mass choice for the neologist. We might… Continue reading #OTD 21 December – A neologist’s day

#OTD 19 December – The art of art

Art is hard to nail down. The Latin “ars” is an art, a skill or a craft, so on the one hand it’s easy to see art as a human process. An “artifact” is something made – ie “factum” – by art. On the other hand, art as a human process leaves at least two… Continue reading #OTD 19 December – The art of art

#OTD 18 December – Biggest day in corporate history

18 December 1271 marks the largest corporate reorganisation in history. The great khan Kublai, chairman of the largest empire the world had seen, stepped back to a non-executive role. He did so to focus his efforts on the empire’s major subsidiary, the northern Chinese khanate. Kublai achieved this by creating the Yuan Dynasty and by… Continue reading #OTD 18 December – Biggest day in corporate history