Andrew Mathews

Used to be in Marine Biology, then used to be in Craft Beer, now in Biomedical Science. O Henro-san. Gimme a coastline ❤️ he/him

[Andrew Mathews @Biomedical_Roo]

How to basic: "Ghostbusters Slime"

1. 10bbl fermenter - Zuur
2. Fill giant tea bags with annihilated blackberries
3. Drain yeast
4. Success

[Andrew Mathews @Biomedical_Roo]

Don't use twitter at all these days since *The Event*, but popped back for this little slice of joy

What a beer and what a bloody glass, cheers @QueerBrewing 😘

[JESSICA MASON @drinksmaven]

If you’re wondering why fewer women think beer is for them, maybe just look at the comments I get on a daily basis when I share, write or question anything on the topic of beer. See how women are treated when they do take an interest in beer. It is no wonder we are where we are.

[Andrew Mathews @Biomedical_Roo]

Please help Sam work out my fever dream

[Bao @RealBaoZakeruga]

I'll take any and every opportunity to let people know the infamous dancing kid from this video went on to be the voice actor of main character Vaan in Final Fantasy XII

[Andrew Mathews @Biomedical_Roo]

@pubcathope @CAMRA_London Brilliant! Great to see those happy faces again 😁

[Andrew Mathews @Biomedical_Roo]

@ThePineHouse Is this because of that blinder of a Spotted Dicks post?

[Francisco Fonseca @_Francis_co_Art]

I’m on the third floor 🏠

[Andrew Mathews @Biomedical_Roo]

@tabamatu Oh man this was supreme. Pls get some over to Good Libations ❤️

[Andrew Mathews @Biomedical_Roo]

@tabamatu @Brother_Alfred Zing 🔥

[Andrew Mathews @Biomedical_Roo]

@ellepoursdrinks For fuuuuuuucks sake 🤮

[Andrew Mathews @Biomedical_Roo]

@ThePineHouse Oooosh look after yourself chum x

[Andrew Mathews @Biomedical_Roo]

@kernelbrewery by camplight

Biere de Saison damson 😘

[Andrew Mathews @Biomedical_Roo]

@jessmilton91 @hopandwedge Aaaaah she's gorgeous. I'll say hi next time!

[Andrew Mathews @Biomedical_Roo]

@hopandwedge Cheers Sarah 😁

Can't wait!

[Andrew Mathews @Biomedical_Roo]

@PollysArron

[Andrew Mathews @Biomedical_Roo]

@hopandwedge @LilyWaite_ Always keen to chat Japan 😍

[Andrew Mathews @Biomedical_Roo]

Neat

[The Cultural Tutor @culturaltutor]

What the hell is an ampersand and why does it look like that?!

The first thing you need to know is that "&" used to be the 27th letter of the alphabet...

But there are three parts to this story. And the first begins over two thousand years ago in Ancient Rome with a single word: et. It's the Latin for "and". At some point Roman scribes started combining the two letters of et into a single symbol, which was the ancestor of our modern &.

The earliest example of the "et" symbol is actually from graffiti in Pompeii. In any case, it did not disappear with the fall of the Roman Empire.

Latin survived as the language of the Catholic Church and of scholarship in Medieval Europe. Scribes during the Dark Ages continued to use the & symbol. It evolved down the centuries, in places losing any semblance of the letters e and t whatsoever.

The second part of the story is that during the 18th and 19th centuries, as education and the teaching of literacy spread, & was added to the end of the alphabet as a sort of 27th letter.

On a related note, although "et cetera" is now usually just abbreviated as etc., for a long time it was instead abbreviated as "&c". The & was for et and the c for cetera.

The third and final part of the story is about how the alphabet was taught to children — and how it was read out loud.

As this 1822 Glossary of Words and Phrases explains, it had been normal during the Renaissance, when speaking the alphabet, to add "per se" before any letter which could also be a word on its own — "per se" means "by itself" in Latin.

Take the letter A, which can also be a word of its own. When reading out the alphabet people would say "A, per se A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, per se I..." and so on. O was also considered a word of its own.

Which means, when people got to the end of the alphabet, with & being the 27th letter, they would say: "S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z, and per se &."

When this old way of reading the alphabet was taught to children in the 18th century and they were reciting it aloud, they would garble "and per se " into what eventually became... ampersand.

A Dic­tion­ary of Slang and Col­lo­quial Eng­lish from 1905 relates some of the many other pronunciations school children apparently came up with:

"Am­persand. The sign &; am­persand. Vari­ants: Ann Passy Ann; an­pasty; an­dpassy; an­parse; aper­sie; per-se; am­passy; am-passy-ana; am­pene-and; am­pus-and; ampsyand; am­pazad; am­siam; am­pus-end; ap­perse-and; em­per­siand; am­perzed; and zumzy-zan."

Well, of all the many pronunciations that might have stuck, it was "ampersand" which came to be accepted and is now the official name for &... rather than zumzy-zan. So, from hurried Roman scribes to unruly school children, that's where "&" came from.

[Andrew Mathews @Biomedical_Roo]

@culturaltutor Paging @AmpersandBrewCo x

[Andrew Mathews @Biomedical_Roo]

@SamuelWRoberts Samuel: time of his life
Andrew: six pound down and livid