Stiff hand

In the context of blackjack, a "stiff hand" is a score between 12 and 16, because it is likely that if the player takes one more hit, they will bust.  However, savvy players know that there are contexts in which a stiff hand can likely lead to a win.

The 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

On December 15, 1933, the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed.  It repealed the 18th Amendment, ending Prohibition.  Now everyone (21 and over) can drink!

Hangul

Hangul is the name of the Korean script. Its name literally means "great script."  There are 24 nbasic letters.  The consonant characters are formed with curved or angled lines. The vowels are composed of vertical or horizontal straight lines together with short lines on either side of the main line.  Hangul was created in 1443 CE by King Sejong the Great.

Club 33

Club 33 is a five star restaurant hidden away in Disneyland.  It was at one time the only location at which you could get alcohol on the property.  Now there are several Club 33s at Disney properties all over the world.  Its name probably comes from its address, but there are several other theories.

Budget etymology

The modern word budget comes from its original meaning, a purse or satchel.  The economic meaning derives from the idea that financiers keep their papers inside a satchel.

Gerboise Bleue

Gerboise Bleue (blue jerboa) is the codename for the first French nuclear test, conducted in 1960 in French Algeria.   General Pierre Marie Gallois was instrumental in the endeavor, and earned the nickname of père de la bombe A ("father of the A-bomb").  

Melinoë

Melinoë is a chthonic nymph or goddess in Greek mythology.  She is associated with ghosts and dreams, and is associated with the underworld. Melinoë is often associated with the moon and the goddess Hecate. She is also sometimes associated with the punishment of those who have wronged the dead, and is said to haunt the places where the dead are buried. In some accounts, Melinoë is the daughter of the god Persephone and Zeus in the guise of Hades.

John Dalton

John Dalton was a chemist primarily known for his development of the modern atomic theory.  "Daltonism" is another word for color blindness because Dalton was colorblind.  In common with his brother, he confused scarlet with green and pink with blue. Dalton supposed that his vitreous humor was tinted blue, selectively absorbing longer wavelengths. He instructed that his eyes should be examined after his death, but the examination revealed that the humors were perfectly clear.

Emblem book

An emblem book is a book of emblems (symbolic, allegorical, or representational pictures) with accompanying text, usually poetic.  Francis Quarles was a 17th century English poet best known for his book Emblems, which was on Scriptural scenes.

Coronation Street

On December 9, 1960, the first episode of "Coronation Street," a soap opera based in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester, was broadcast. Coronation Street is the longest running TV soap opera in the world.  The show premiered its 10,000th episode on 7 February 2020, and celebrated its 60th anniversary later that year.

Glaucus

In Greek myth, Glaucus was a son of Sisyphus.  His myth varies but centers on death and horses.  In one version, he is killed in an accident during a chariot race.  In another, he fed his horses human meat and they turned on him and ate him.  In other stories he offends Aphrodite by refusing to mate his horses, so she spurs them on to slay him.  His shade is said to haunt the Isthmian Games and scare the horses.

Mary Anderson

Mary Anderson patented a device in 1903 to clear car and streetcar windows of rain, ice and snow.  Previously, drivers had to stop and get out to clear the windshield before moving on.  Others devised and patented wipers before her, but hers was developed and fit into cars.

Dives and Lazarus

The parable of the rich man and Lazarus is found in Luke 16:19-31.  The rich man finds himself in hell and the sick beggar Lazarus in heaven (in the bosom of Abraham) and asks for Lazarus to be sent to earth to warn his family.  Abraham responds that if they didn't listen to Moses and the prophets, they wouldn't listen to a resurrected dead man either.  In some European countries, the Latin description dives (Latin for "the rich man") is treated as his proper name: Dives.  A traditional English ballad tells the story.

Mount Cynthus

Mount Cynthus is on the isle of Delos.  In myth, it is the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis.  They are thus sometimes called Cynthius and Cynthia, respectively.  It is about 450 feet high, so not much of a mount, really.

Urechis unicintus

Urechis unicintus is a marine spoon worm popularly known as the fat innkeeper or the penis fish.  Because it's shaped like a thingy!

Eratosthenes

The ancient Greek mathematician and geographer Eratosthenes is credited with making the first accurate estimation of the Earth's circumference. In the third century BC, he observed that at noon on the summer solstice, the sun was directly overhead at the city of Syene (present-day Aswan, Egypt). At the same time, in the city of Alexandria, he measured the angle of the sun's rays relative to the ground and found it to be about 7.2 degrees.  Using these observations, Eratosthenes was able to calculate the Earth's circumference by assuming that the sun's rays are parallel (which is not exactly true, but close enough for his purposes) and using simple geometry. His estimate was remarkably accurate, and modern measurements have shown that it was only about 15% too high.  He was also the first to calculate Earth's axial tilt, which also proved to have remarkable accuracy.  He created the first global projection of the world, incorporating parallels and meridians based on the available geographic knowledge of his era.   He is also known for the sieve of Eratosthenes.

Crystal Palace

The Crystal Palace was an iron and glass structure built in Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851, the first of the World's Fairs.  Designed by Joseph Paxton, the Great Exhibition building was 1,851 feet long, with an interior height of 128 feet, and was three times the size of St Paul's Cathedral.  There is a football club, Crystal Palace F.C., in South London, that takes tts name from the structure.  The structure was destroyed on November 30, 1936, by a fire that began as a small office fire.

Titan

Titan is a moon of Saturn.  It is the only moon in the solar system known to have clouds and an atmosphere, and the only one with bodies of liquid on its surface.  The liquid is probably methane and ethane.

First World Cup host

The first nation to host the World Cup was Uruguay, in 1930.  They won, Argentina was the runner up, and the USA took third place, its best finish to this day!  Go USA!

Noble gases

Noble gases are a group of chemical elements in the periodic table with very low reactivity. They are located in group 18 of the periodic table and include helium, (He) neon (Ne), argon (Ar), krypton, xenon (Xe), and radon (Rn).  They have also been referred to as the inert gases or aerogens.

Fall of the Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1990.  German reunification was finalized in 1991.  More than 100 people died trying to cross the Berlin Wall over the course of its 28-year history.

Democritus

Democritus was known as "the laughing philosopher" because he advised being cheerful.  He taught that there are smallest indivisible bodies from which everything else is composed, and that these move about in an infinite void.  The atomists held that there are smallest indivisible bodies from which everything else is composed, and that these move about in an infinite void.

Erysichthon

In Greek myths, Erysichthon was king of Thessaly who was punished by the goddess Demeter for cutting down a sacred oak tree. As punishment, he was cursed with insatiable hunger, and no matter how much he ate, he remained ravenous. Some say Erysichthon became a starving beggar and some say he eventually ate himself to death, consumed by his own hunger.

The Talmud

The Talmud is a record of Jewish law dating back to 200 AD. It is composed of the Mishnah, a written record of holy law; and the later part, the Gemara, a commentary on the Mishnah as well as the Tanakh (the Hebrew acronym referring to the Old Testament).