There's an old Irish legend about a thief who avoids condemnation in hell by outwitting the devil. But being a thief, Jack wasn't heaven-bound either. So Jack wanders earth eternally with a lantern carved out of a turnip (an old Irish tradition) and lit with a single burning ember from hell.
He was thus "Jack of the Lantern," and since at least 1837, we have the term "Jack-o'-lantern."
Happy Halloween!
Photo: sth via Flickr (CC license)
Where are the best literary destinations in the world? You'll find them in Great Britain, at least according to one list.
World Hum tipped us off to a list of the world's best literary destinations, according to editors at the travel website TripAdvisor.
London—home to Dickens, Chaucer and Keats—edged out Shakespeare's Stratford for the top spot. Edinburgh, Scotland—home of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and J.K. Rowling—placed third.
Three U.S. cities made the list: New York, Concord (Massachusetts) and San Francisco.
Photo: ianlord via Flickr
Most people know that Switzerland is a neutral country, but may not realize that the Swiss are not alone in their neutrality. There are a total of eight neutral countries: Austria, Costa Rica, Finland, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkmenistan.
Broadly, neutrality means not taking sides in armed conflict between warring countries, but it has a range of real-world manifestations: For instance, Switzerland and Sweden are famous for their large armies (and those armies, in turn, are famous for pocketknives and bicycles, respectively), while other countries keep very small fighting forces. Likewise, Ireland allows foreign military forces inside its borders—specifically, military aircraft can land at Shannon Airport—while other neutral countries don't.
Neutral countries in Europe (Austria, Sweden, Ireland and Finland, but not Switzerland) also find themselves in the conundrum of belonging to—and being bound by the policies of—the European Union, which is not neutral.
The United States Census Bureau includes a section on the census that asks Americans to state their ancestry. In the 2000 census, 80 percent of respondents complied, dutifully stating their origins. The results are interesting and possibly unexpected.
The most commonly claimed ancestry in the United States is … German. Forty-two million Americans (or 15 percent) indicated that their roots were either German or part-German. The runner-up ancestry was Irish, with 11 percent. Third was African-American, at 9 percent (24.9 million people), which just barely edged out English, also 9 percent (24.5 million). Rounding out the top five was Mexican, at 7 percent.
Although it's now customary to wear green on St. Patrick's Day, the color used to be considered unlucky in Ireland. According to Irish Culture and Customs,
Irish folklore holds that
green was the favorite color of the Good People (the proper name for
fairies), who were likely to steal people (especially children) who wore too much green.
Blue originally was the traditional color of St. Patrick's Day—the feast day of Ireland's patron saint—until the 19th century, when green became Ireland's national color. Today, in Ireland, people traditionally wear a sprig of shamrocks on their jackets or caps.
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