Craig Giffen

My kids keep me pretty busy, other than work that is what I do.

[Ohio University @ohiou]

Repost to officially welcome the OHIO Class of 2028 to Athens! 💚

#ForeverOHIO

[The Onion @TheOnion]

Analysts: Biden Can Negate Debate Performance By Pulling Train With Chain Clenched Between Teeth https://t.co/uaMnfhr6qM

[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.

[Craig Giffen @dontcallmegreg]

Earbud charging is bad. The pins they use aren't a reliable enough connection. Plugged in my buds, both flashed as they were charging. Start mowing an hour later. One's charged, the other not. #DoBetter #soundcore #engineeringjudgemnt #earbuds

[Jono Tan @jonotan86]

Apple announces new port for the iPhone 15

[Chris Combs (iterative design enjoyer) @DrChrisCombs]

If you're ever frustrated by someone with a PhD acting like a know-it-all outside their niche field of study, just remember that Albert Einstein tried to design an airfoil but it performed so poorly during testing it's flight characteristics were compared to a "pregnant duck"

[Craig Giffen @dontcallmegreg]

@jon_prosser Do you like or dislike the "a" naming convention? I've never been a fan.

[Craig Giffen @dontcallmegreg]

@plutokiller See the kayak works here too. Maybe some kind soul will make you a foldable, towable kayak? 😂

[Craig Giffen @dontcallmegreg]

@plutokiller When I was a kid I saw some commercial that showed a person kayaking to work and that has always been my dream. I just need a kayak and a job on a river ocean or giant stream. E-bike might be as close as I get.

[Craig Giffen @dontcallmegreg]

@plutokiller And I worry about mosquitoes

[Craig Giffen @dontcallmegreg]

@plutokiller I'm sure she'll be better soon!

[Years Progress @YearsProgress]

Twitter is closing its doors to hobby bots like this one. They tell us a week before this happens.

There's been a lot of measured, well-mannered commentary from other makers of Twitter bots. I thought I'd share my uncensored thoughts instead.

Fuck this.

1/?

[Cookie Monster @MeCookieMonster]

New Year's resolution: Me eat more cookies.

[Craig Giffen @dontcallmegreg]

@evleaks It's not that you don't understand exactly, it's just not ever something you would do, which is just a testament to you.

[The Onion @TheOnion]

Experts Warn Number Of Retirees Will Completely Overwhelm Scenic Railway Industry By 2030 https://t.co/Ah23iT1uh9

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Cybertruck will be waterproof enough to serve briefly as a boat, so it can cross rivers, lakes & even seas that aren’t too choppy

[Craig Giffen @dontcallmegreg]

@plutokiller Let me guess a capacitor went out?

[Craig Giffen @dontcallmegreg]

All potato chips should be folded in half. I would pay double for a bag of those. #potato #potatochips #vacation #notmuchtothinkabout

[Craig Giffen @dontcallmegreg]

@plutokiller So this is a common occurrence? I love CA, but i don't think sharing at this level is in my dna

[Craig Giffen @dontcallmegreg]

@elonmusk my 80 yo dad is going to buy a @Tesla. Thank you 💕