NH

Chief Executive Jelly Bean Officer @pocketsest1974. Theology Nerd. Dry Humorist. Burger Aficionado. The Optimist's Optimist. Will retweet funny, regardless.

[cbr™️ @cbenjaminrucker]

Kim Mulkey drew up a better defense for the Washington Post than she did for Caitlin Clark

[NH @NelsonHoward]

@voxsartoria @dieworkwear I miss the old Tumblr.

[NH @NelsonHoward]

@wwornwwell

[NH @NelsonHoward]

@wwornwwell Pairs well with Loro Piana loafers and vest.

[NH @NelsonHoward]

@annex180 Ring Jacket with another win!

[Ralph D. Russo @ralphDrussoATH]

When you get outvoted by the rest of Home Owners Association.

[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.

[NH @NelsonHoward]

@wwornwwell

[NH @NelsonHoward]

@annex180 It’s also a reminder that New Mexico and Texas really do get the mix of sartorial and cowboy.

[NH @NelsonHoward]

@annex180 That fit is now saved in my “Dope fits” folder.

[NH @NelsonHoward]

@annex180 Best of both worlds: tuxedo with denim Pearl snap shirt. Ralph would be proud.

[NH @NelsonHoward]

@wwornwwell @Mr__Claymore Blame. You should be giving @Mr__Claymore a high five.

[College Football Report @CFBReport]

(2006) #1 USC vs #2 Texas
“Game of the Century”

• Texas snapped USC’s 34-game winning streak
• Keith Jackson’s final CFB game call

[derek guy @dieworkwear]

social media managers having to post the same joke on 18 apps now bc of elon musk

[James Holzhauer @James_Holzhauer]

One day we will invent the technology to eat hot dogs indoors

[NH @NelsonHoward]

@wwornwwell Man of the people.

[Well Worn. Worn Well @wwornwwell]

When the AI-initiated apocalypse comes, at least we never have to worry about #menswear becoming self-aware.

[The Cultural Tutor @culturaltutor]

You've probably seen this gentleman before... but who was he?

It's Dr Johnson, maybe the most important English writer since Shakespeare...

[NH @NelsonHoward]

@Mr__Claymore I’m willing to give the first two gents a pass. Once you get old, comfort is greater than fashion. As for Kraft… he thinks he’s going to an after party.