Image: Wikimedia Commons The color fuchsia is named after the flower of that name, which was named after 16th-century German botanist Leonhart Fuchs. And Fuchs is German for fox. So the color is named after a plant named after a man named after an animal. The color orange is named after the fruit, rather than the other way around. Canaries are named after the Canary Islands, rather than the other way around. 04/20/2024 UPDATE: The Canary Islands in turn derive their name from the Latin name Canariae Insulae, “islands of the dogs.” Pliny the Elder records that the islands contained “vast multit ..read more

Fletcher Christian’s first son was named Thursday October Christian. SLICES OF BREAD = DESCRIBES LOAF (Dean Mayer) 16384 = 163 × (8 – 4) Of the 46 U.S. presidents to date, 16 have had no middle name. “It is ill arguing against the use of anything from its abuse.” — Elizabeth I, in Walter Scott’s Kenilworth Star Trek costume designer William Ware Theiss offered the Theiss Theory of Titillation: “The degree to which a costume is considered sexy is directly proportional to how accident-prone it appears to be.” (Thanks, Michael ..read more

The most names ever held by a historical royal belonged to Don Alfonso de Borbón y Borbón (1866-1934), a great-great-grandson of Charles III of Spain, reflecting a trend favored by Spanish royalty in the 19th century. His full name was Alfonso María Isabel Francisco Eugenio Gabriel Pedro Sebastián Pelayo Fernando Francisco de Paula Pío Miguel Rafael Juan José Joaquín Ana Zacarias Elisabeth Simeón Tereso Pedro Pablo Tadeo Santiago Simón Lucas Juan Mateo Andrés Bartolomé Ambrosio Geronimo Agustín Bernardo Candido Gerardo Luis-Gonzaga Filomeno Camilo Cayetano Andrés-Avelino Bruno Joaquín-Picolim ..read more

This is fascinating if it’s true: Ten municipalities meet at the summit of Mount Etna, producing a “decipoint” and one of the most complex arrangements of political boundaries outside Antarctica. I say “if it’s true” because, for such a striking fact, it’s surprisingly hard to confirm. Many sources point to a blog post at Condé Nast Traveler by Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings, but that cites no source. On the other hand, no one else seems to doubt it, and this map by Patrick McGranaghan won the American Geographical Society’s monthly map contest in November 2017. Maybe I’m too skeptical? 09/21 ..read more

Image: Wikimedia Commons The bird known as the red phalarope in North America is the grey phalarope in England — it bears red plumage during its breeding season, but the British see only its drab winter dress. A poem by Lord Kennet, from my notes: I live in hope some day to see The crimson-necked phalarope; (Or do I, rather, live in hope To see the red-necked phalarope ..read more

Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and James Monroe all died on July 4. Australia is wider than the moon. NoNRePReSeNTaTiONaLiSm can be assembled from chemical symbols. 1 × 56 – 1 – 7 = 15617 “‘Needless to say’ is, needless to say, needless to say.” — Enoch Haga ..read more

In his 2008 book 100 Essential Things You Didn’t Know You Didn’t Know, cosmologist John D. Barrow considers how long a straight line a typical HB pencil could draw before the lead was exhausted. A soft 2B pencil draws a line about 20 nanometers thick, and the diameter of a carbon atom is 0.14 nanometers, so a pencil line is only about 143 atoms thick. The pencil lead has a radius of about a millimeter, so its area is about π square millimeters. If the pencil is 15 centimeters long, then it contains 150π cubic millimeters of graphite. Putting this together, if we draw a line 20 nanometers thic ..read more

New Zealand’s Whangarei Aerodrome and Morocco’s Tangier Ibn Battouta Airport are on precisely opposite sides of the earth: In an antipodal map projection, which maps each part of the world to its opposite location, the two airports’ runways even cross. Unfortunately, at 1,097 meters, Whangarei’s longest runway is too short to accommodate a commercial jet with the necessary range, so there’s no way to actually fly from one to the other. For the dedicated air traveler, the next best pairing is Taipei and Asuncion, which are 19,912 kilometers apart. 02/28/2022 UPDATE: Wait, I’m wrong — a reader ..read more

Image: Wikimedia Commons The oldest living thing in the New York metropolitan area is this 40-meter tulip poplar in Alley Pond Park in Queens. With an estimated age of 350 to 450 years, it may already have been growing when Henry Hudson sailed into New York Bay in 1609 ..read more

A raindrop that falls in Erie County, Pa., will travel 2,147 miles to the Gulf of Mexico rather than 15 miles to Lake Erie. Via MapPorn. River Runner will trace any drop falling in the contiguous United States ..read more