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Plenty of city names are straightforward, but others (Kansas City, Missouri, anyone?) could benefit from some context. For instance, did you know that Chicago derives from the Algonquian word for wild garlic? Or that Anchorage, Alaska was named after a local hardware store? If the video above from the mental_floss List Show isn’t enough to satisfy your knowledge cravings, check out this roundup of name origins for every state in the U.S.
January 1, 2017 – 2:00am
If you’re feeling sad that the holidays are over, fear not: the first month of the year is chock-full of very fun, very specific, and sometimes very weird holidays to help you ease your way into 2017. Just because the most festive season is over, doesn’t mean there isn’t still a ton to celebrate.
This punny day is basically just another occasion to honor our feline friends. What more do we need to say?
A dimpled chad is when someone attempts to punch a hole in a sheet of paper, but the cutout remains attached and leaves just a dent. So … the opposite of what’s happening in the photo above. You might remember the term from the 2000 U.S. presidential election.
It’s a new year! Time to get organized, and this desk-piration is here to get you motivated.
Apparently there are people who like Mondays? This offbeat holiday is all about the possibility that comes with a fresh start, which we guess we can get behind.
Don’t panic: this is not about your coworker doing an open mic in the conference room. Instead, it’s about encouraging you to see the poetry in your everyday tasks, and putting those fuzzy feelings into verse.
My name is -.-. .- .. – .-.. .. -. … -.-. …. -. . .. -.. . .-. ! (For the lazy among us, the internet has Morse code translators.)
Chances are, it’s cold out there. Warm up with a piping hot cup o’ tea.
If you’ve got any mistakes you want to unload, today’s the day.
See that blank calendar? That’s what this “un-event” is all about.
Be advised, this comes just a few days after Blame Someone Else Day.
Encourage a kid to make something on this day.
We could write a 10,000 word ode to pie, but we’ll just eat a lot instead.
There’s no better occasion than the anniversary of author Virginia Woolf’s birthday to find a room for you and only you.
Take your crafty resolutions to a local quilt shop, where there are actual human beings to help you with your sewing screw-ups and quilting conundrums.
Not even the festivities-averse can escape their own dedicated holiday.
It’s 2017 and you might not even listen to answering messages much anymore, so take this day to give thanks for that.
Holidays found in Chase’s Calendar of Events 2017. All photos courtesy of iStock.
January 1, 2017 – 12:00am
In the late 1990s, computer nerds (myself included) were up in arms about the Y2K problem. In brief, the issue was that many computer systems used six-digit dates (two digits each for day, month, and year), which meant that when the year 2000 hit, the system might read it as 1900. That could be a big problem.
Much money, time, and computer programming was necessary to fix the Y2K Problem, and for the most part, we survived just fine. But anyone using a computer in 1999 (especially for business) was pretty concerned about keeping things clean. In this 1999 episode of Computer Chronicles, host Stewart Cheifet goes deep on the Y2K bug. Exhibit A is Cheifet’s own credit card from Shell, which expires in the year “1000.” Oops.
In this episode, Cheifet and friends dig into a bunch of actual applications that are not Y2K-safe. Perhaps the biggest problem was with spreadsheets, which often included lots of dates and date math. In this episode, a Symantec rep comes along with a tool that reviews all your Windows apps for problems. A Microsoft rep shows some Wizards (oh, the 90s) to help with Excel problems.
Have a look, and think back to a time when we were thoroughly ready to flip out on New Year’s Eve:
There’s one other notable part of this episode—the demo of Audible (now Audible.com), around the 26-minute mark. At the time, Audible was a combination web service and hardware player (basically a proto-MP3 player with poor fidelity). The player cost $200, or $99 if you committed to buying a handful of books on tape, er, digital. Amazon eventually bought Audible in 2008.
December 31, 2016 – 8:00pm