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Envelope Please - Unwrapping Oscar's Origin Stories
The “Oscar” – the golden statuette handed out annually since 1929 by the American Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences to reward outstanding artistic and scientific achievement in motion...
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Baseball Voodoo - a History and Origin of "Rooting" for One's Team
The Spokane Press (Spokane, Washington), May 12, 1909, page 7. Let me root, root, root for the home team, If they don't win, it's a shame.For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out, At the old...
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Submarines and Starving Children - a True History of the Real Captain America
Captain Americahas been saving the world from fictional evil since 1941; the real Captain America helped save the real world from real evil in 1919.In 2011, Marvel Studios unleashed Chris Evans as...
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Planes, Radios and Audiometrics - the History of the Real Captain Marvel
Marvel Studios released its first female superhero film, Captain Marvel, in early 2019. The character was based on Marvel Comics’ own Captain Marveldeveloped by Stan Lee and Gene Colan in 1967. But...
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Sweet, Elite Madness - an Alliterative History of March Madness, Sweet...
Indianapolis News, March 28, 1936, page 1.It’s MARCH MADNESS!!! Time for a CINDERELLA team to go to the BIG DANCE!!!Time to winnow the field down to the SWEET SIXTEEN!!! and the ELITE EIGHT!!!In...
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Shipping News and Starlets - a Revealing History of Cheesecake
The expression, “Cheesecake. . . a photographic display of shapely and scantily clothed female figures”[i]was coined by a ship news photographer at a time when a bare knee was about as scanty as the...
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Angels and Tigers and Ducks - a Baseball Biography of George A. Van Derbeck
Detroit Free Press, January 28, 1894, page 6. George Arthur Van Derbeck is best remembered today as the first owner (1894) of the team that would become the Detroit Tigers, and for building the first...
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An American Football Idiom . . . from Canada?!? – a History and Etymology of...
On March 22, 2019, Special Counsel Robert Mueller delivered the final report of his investigation, the “Mueller Report,” to the Department of Justice. Attorney General William Barr released a summary...
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Impeachment, Congressional Subpoenas and Property Damage – How the Easter Egg...
Tampa Tribune(Tampa, Florida), April 23, 1916, page 36.On Easter Monday 1878, President Rutherford B. Hayes opened the grounds of the White House for children to engage in the unique, local tradition...
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Rotgut Moonshine, Boston and Politics, a Potent Mix - an Electrifying History...
Caricature, Wit and Humor of a Nation in Picture, Song and Story, Thirteenth Edition, New York, Leslie-Judge Company, 1911. The “third rail” is a “controversial issue usually avoided by...
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Why Airplanes "Taxi" - An Update
The verb, “to taxi” meaning “to operate an aircraft on the ground under its own power (Merriam-Webster online), was derived from nearly flightless aircraft called “taxis” or “taxi-cabs.” The verb...
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Civic Pride Through Taxidermy - a Many-Pronged History of Jackalopes
The Morning Call (Allentown, Pennsylvania), January 6, 1942, page 25.What is it? A “jackalope.” Indigenous to the wide-open spaces in souvenir shops of the American West, “jackalopes” can also be...
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Who’d’a “Tunk” It? - How a Yale Researcher Helped Discover that Yale Freshmen...
“Strip poker” was invented (or at least popularized) by reports of Yale University freshmen playing the game in 1904. Appropriately enough, a Yale researcher’s discovery of the earliest known example...
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Mets Might Be Giants - an Alternative History of the New York Giants
The San Francisco Giants’ official team-history timeline dates the origin of their franchise to 1883, the year they joined the National League. By their calculations, they will celebrate their 140th...
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Mutrie and the Maroons – Why New York’s National League Team Became the Giants
“Giants” of the GameThe earliest unambiguous example of “Giants” as the nickname for New York’s National League baseball team appeared in a brief report of an exhibition game that took place in Jersey...
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Nadjy's Legs and Skinny Arms - Why Cleveland Became the Spiders
The Cleveland Indians of the American League of American baseball retired their longtime mascot, Chief Wahoo, from on-field use before the 2019 season. The decision came after a years-long, protracted...
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"Patsy Bolivar" in School - an Innocent History and Etymology of "Patsy"
Billy B. Van as “Patsy Bolivar” in The Errand Boy, Chattanooga News, March 17, 1906, page 13.The online etymology dictionary, etymonline.com, defines a “patsy” (first known use in 1903) as a “fall guy,...
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From Joe Quest to "Old Hoss" Radbourne - a Strained History and Etymology of...
Old Man Charley Horse, don’t you touch a muscle!They’ve been rusting all the winter; kind o’ tender grown. Those now knittedMust be fitted For the season’s tussle.Old Man Charley...
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Lincoln, Kennedy, Reagan and the Green Bay Packers - a History of the Annual...
"The Goddess of Thanksgiving as she flies over prosperous country on her noble steed the turkey"The Oshkosh Northwestern (Oshkosh, Wisconsin), November 25, 1899, page 12.The Presidential pardon of the...
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George Van Derbeck and the Early History of Night Baseball
George Van Derbeck founded three baseball teams, each of which introduced a now-familiar team-name into American sports: the Portland Webfooters (1890), a precursor of the Oregon Ducks name now...
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