As I have indicated previously in this space, since I gave up watching MSNBC I have an enormous amount of time on my hands. Rather than put it to good use, I have been doing endless crossword puzzles. After working through a book of 150 superhard TIMES crosswords, I ordered another book of them from Amazon, and have just started my thirty-second. I experience an unfinished crossword puzzle as presenting an objective gestalt demand [I get this from a theory in philosophical aesthetics that was popular half a century ago, back when I was still reading Philosophy journals.]
In this latest puzzle, I have just learned something so simultaneously delicious and trivial that I had to share it with you. Apparently, in the language of the Sioux, the word Topeka, from which the Kansas city gets its name, means "a good place to grow potatoes."
That is, all by itself, enough to justify the hours I have spent filling in little squares.
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2 comments:
Love it.
Okay...you got me to googling and I came up with a puzzle question (no fair googling for the answer); are you ready?
Here's the puzzle question:
"State named after an ancient volcano that was last active over 400 million years ago."
After reading this blog I googled "Massachusetts," my home state and found this (among other things):
The word Massachusetts is an Algonquin Indian word which roughly translates to “large hill place” or “at the great hill.” In the native language the word is spelled massa-adchu-es-et, where “massa” means “large,” “adchu” means “hill,” “es” is a diminutive suffix and “et” is a locative suffix that identifies a place. The word specifically refers to the Great Blue Hill in Milton, Massachusetts which is an ancient volcano that was last active over 400 million years ago.
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