When I got my ears pierced at seven years old, my dad gave me little fleur-de-lys earrings. I scrunched up my nose and asked, “The boy scout symbol?” “No! That’s the symbol of France! Your heritage! It’s a beautiful flower. The Iris.” Chastised, I looked at the earrings in a Read more
I was fixing this professor’s computer, and we got along great. I was one of only two Unix support personnel at the university and he was a Unix user. He was also from Turkey and made me Turkish Coffee every time I came to his office, so I put that Read more
Fun fact: the original meaning of “whelm” was to capsize (14th century) or to turn upside-down. By the fifteenth century it was overtaken by the word “overwhelm” to mean the same thing. No doubt started by some alewife saying, “Thou thinkst thy life is whelmed? Mine life is over-whelmed!” I’ve Read more