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Pockets. Not only was there this ridiculous fashion era where women had to wear pantyhose (I have that lived experience and will never go back), but we women didn’t get pockets in our clothing until the 17th century. And they weren’t even pockets the way we think of them today (1). Men have had real pockets since the Renaissance. Let’s just call this what it is. Systematic fashion sexism (2) By “pockets,” I’m using the modern definition—a pouch or envelope sewn directly into clothing. Women’s fashion finally developed true pockets when they began to work outside the home in the mid 19th century AND with the push for equality …

Platinum and the Periodic Table of Death and Mystery over a steel bank vault door

Mad Hatter – “Why is a RAVEN like a writing desk? Have you guessed the riddle yet?” Alice – “No, I give it up. What’s the answer?” Mad Hatter – “I haven’t the slightest idea.” We might NEVAR know. (1) Let’s get the dry details out of the way so we can get to the good stuff. Mercury (Hg for the Greek hydrargyrumwhich means liquid silver) is a slippery silvery substance with an atomic number of 80. It’s also liquid at room temperature (quicksilver), and I remember a kid in grade school bringing some Hg in a glass vial and pouring …

Gallium (Ga) was discovered by the French scientist Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran in 1875, who also discovered two other elements, samarium (Sa), and dysprosium (Dy)—which means difficult to obtain in Greek. All you Francophiles might have noticed that Lecoq (French) and Gallus (Latin) sort-of-kind-of mean the same thing. But in an 1877 article Lecoq de Boisbaudran protested he named the element after Gaul, from Gallia (Latin for France) (2). It was a nice coincidence, though. Right, Paul-Émile? Ga has an atomic weight of 31 and sits just to the right of zinc and right below aluminum on the Periodic Table. It’s a silvery white metallic element which can be …

FYI, I just completed a fairy tale course and will attempt to write this article in that style. And remember, Disney fairy tales have happy endings, but the original folk and fairy tales tended to be, Hans (1, 2) down, more Grimm (3, 4). What to look for in a fairy tale: ‘flatness’ of tone, repetition—especially of numbers, and everyday magic. Once upon 1909, outside of Paris, a girl—Marguerite—was born into a relatively affluent family. Her father owned a flour mill, and her mother took care of their five children. But when the young girl was five, tragedy struck with a stock market crash, …