The Prophet Muhammad started out as a camel driver, and apparently varieties of the name are now the most common first name for taxi drivers in New York City.
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The Fall and Rise of the Cigar, and the Two Gilded Ages
During the mid-20th century the image of the cigar was a rather tacky one. Its high class image flourished in the First Gilded Age, 1865-1917, and again in the Second Gilded Age, approximately 1975 to the present day. In the […]
Down With the Macron!
A difficult feature of the current – and most popular method – of romanizing Japanese makes it difficult to pronounce properly or understand some words. Would you prefer a Nô play, a Noh play, a Nou play, or a Noo […]
The Median Center of Population and Why It Matters
The ‘mean center of population’ gets a lot of publicity. But it is misleading, and it even misled me for 70 years. There is a less publicized ‘median center of population’ that is more useful for some purposes, like where […]