Ping Pong originated in Britain during the 1880s as an after-dinner parlor game.  It was then referred to as “wiff waff.”  This is quite possibly the most pompous, snooty post-dinner party British name ever.

The caruncula is the tiny little pink thing in the corner of your eye. 

It’s probably my sexiest body part.

The name “Barbara” comes from the Latin feminine form of Barbarus (strange, foreign, barbarous), which comes from the similarly defined Greek word Barbaros.  The concept of “alien” was viewed as exotic for women, leading to Barbara becoming a popular name.

Nothing says exotic like someone named Barbara.

More on this tomorrow.

This is fun.  I was looking at a list of Presidential Pets, or First-Pets, or whatever cutesy name you want to call the animals that live at the White House.  There have been some good ones.  The early presidents often had horses and donkeys.  Thomas Jefferson had two bear cubs.  John Quincy Adams had an alligator.  James Buchanan had an eagle (the pinnacle of badass pets).  Benjamin Harrison apparently had opossums (the least badass pets).  Calvin Coolidge pretty much had a zoo.  But my favorite pets of them all were owned by John Adams.  John Adams had two dogs.  One was named Juno.  The other one was named Satan.

I won’t even ruin this by saying anymore. The guy had a dog named SATAN!  Brilliant!

From 1968 to 2000, Alan Smithee was the official pseudonym used by film directors who didn’t want their real names attached to a film (perhaps due to disagreeable editing, a loss of creative control, censorship for TV or airplane broadcasts, etc.).  If your name is Alan Smithee, it probably means your parents didn’t want to take credit for you.

Harsh.

For the first couple years of his life, Gerald Ford was named Leslie Lynch King, Jr., after his father.  As it turned out, his father was an abusive douche-bag, so the future President’s mom divorced him, married a guy named Gerald Ford, and decided to rename her son after him.  It’s bizarre to me how his mom treated him like a classroom gerbil that gets a new name after every school year.  But at least she married a guy with an all-American sounding name.  Imagine if she would have married a guy with an Arab sounding name.  There would be no chance for a guy with a Middle-Eastern name to be elected President… 

Earth Day was founded on April 22, 1970 by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson.  That was forty years ago today.  I can’t believe people who were born in 1970 are now forty!  Well, actually I can believe it.  What I can’t believe is the fact that I made it through so many Earth Days in elementary school without knowing that a guy named Gaylord founded it.

Typical Tuesday.  Just perusing lists of names referring to groups of animals.  You know, like flock of seagulls or a pack of wolves.  But what if a bunch of domesticated cats approached me, and I wanted to tell people about it?  Apparently, it’s called a clowder of cats.  A coalition of cheetahs.  A mob of emus.  A business of ferrets (that sounds terrifying).  A charm of goldfinches.  A bloat of hippopotamuses.  A mischief of mice.  A gaze of raccoons.  A fever of stingrays.  A gulp of swallows.  Who names these?!  It’s gotta be so fun to name all of these.  But seriously, when will I ever come across a chain of bobolinks?  I can’t even recognize one bobolink! 

P.S.  It’s a bird.  CHAIN of BoboLINKS.   I want to name animals!

P.P.S. I have huge aspirations.

As we know, names are given to tropical storms (wind speed over 39 mph) and hurricanes (winds over 74 mph).  The storms were originally given saints’ names, but by World War II, the storms were being named after women.  Then in 1978 and the following year, men’s names were used half of the time.  Before every year, meteorologists create a list of 21 names in alphabetical order, alternating male or female.  Thus, the first tropical storm or hurricane of the year will start with an A.  The letters Q, U, X, Y, and Z are not used.  You can only have Hurricane Xylophone so many times before people start getting bored.

The transatlantic telegraph cable was the first cable that stretched across the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, connecting North America and Europe.  The cable went from eastern Newfoundland to western Ireland.  This enabled messages to be sent across the ocean in a matter of minutes, a great improvement to the weeks that a ship may take.  There were many attempts to lay the cable, but the first telegraph sent across the ocean was in 1858, when Queen Victoria sent a congratulatory message to President James Buchanan.  This particular cable was short-lived though.  The next month, the cable was destroyed when Wildman Whiteman used excessive voltage to try to make the telegraph operation faster.  But you can’t really blame Wildman Whiteman.  You have to blame the guy that thought it would be a good idea for a guy named “Wildman” to use something nice.