deckardcanine | Entries tagged with history

An Easter Hare was mentioned in the 16th century,
Then known among the Lutherans of southwest Germany.
This hare delivered candy, eggs, and sometimes even toys,
But only, like Kris Kringle, to the better girls and boys.

So why a hare? Some claim the pagan goddess of the spring
From whom we got the “Easter” label must have had a thing
For hares. That’s unsupported by the Venerable Bede,
The only old-time source on her, so most have disagreed.

The ancient Greeks and Romans thought a hare could reproduce
Without a mate (their concept of biology was loose).
Because of that, medieval Christian scholars formed a link
Between the Virgin Mary and the hare, or so some think.

Consider the three hares as well, a circular motif
That came to be connected with the Trinity belief,
Although their first depiction’s in a Chinese temple cave.
We can’t say why for sure; no explanation has been saved.

Some note a similarity between a lapwing’s nest
In grasslands in the springtime and where hares would opt to rest,
Creating the impression that the mammals could lay eggs.
A wish to hide the truth of egg dyes gave the legend legs.

And why the eggs? Some Christians wouldn’t eat them during Lent,
Which made them quite inviting when the Lenten season went.
They also formed a symbol of the tomb that Jesus fled.
That covers all the theories for the practice that I’ve read.

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You may have heard this story: In the 18th century,
James Cook and Joseph Banks became the first White men to see
A macropod and asked a nearby local for its name.
The local answered, “Kangaroo,” which rather is a shame,
Because the phrase meant “I don’t know” or “I don’t understand,”
But Cooks and Banks assumed it was the label in the land.
In element’ry school, I read the legend as a fact.
It turned out just a fib I wished the teller would retract.
We haven’t traced the start; it must have had an early date,
For Walter Roth corrected it in 1898,
But only in the ‘70s did anyone confirm
The Guugu Yimithirr used gangurru, a native term
Specific to the eastern grey variety of roo.
The origin of “Yucatán” has such a legend too.
These myths sure are tenacious, and I think that I know why:
They serve as an analogy that’s useful to apply
To other situations where communication fails.
They’re also kind of funny, but I hope the truth prevails.

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A T. rex chased a stegosaur until the latter said,
“Excuse me: By the time that you exist, I should be dead.
My era’s late Jurassic, whereas yours is late Cretaceous.
By eighty million years, I must predate you; that’s veracious.”

Now, T. rex brains are larger than traditionally thought,
But this one got confused and thus responded, “I think not.
You herbivores do not engage in larger-game predation.
You might just be voracious, but you’d better know your station.”

The stegosaurus rolled her eyes and patiently replied,
“Well, let me put it this way: Our temporal gap is wide.
Your period is closer to the Information Age
Of humans than to mine, so would you kindly disengage?”

A moment passed, and then the T. rex said, “I see your point.
Apologies; I don’t know how I got so out of joint.”
With that, the hunter turned around and ran the other way
To chase and munch on humans from the modern present day.

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The pizza got its famous name just short of Y1K,
But similar creations sure go back a longer way.
From paintings on some tombs of ancient Egypt, it appears
Their flatbreads could be covered up in cheese; that’s very near.
The Persian soldiers serving under Darius the Great
Were feeding on baked flatbreads that were topped with cheese and dates
And served upon their shields around 500 BCE.
(OK, that might be bogus, but it sure sounds good to me.)
Three centuries would pass; then Marcus Cato (not the younger)
Wrote down a cheesy recipe that’s apt to sate your hunger.
Another thousand years and we get flatbread in Provence
With onions, olives, anchovies—did pizza come from France?
We couldn’t trace the earliest for sure. Regardless, I
For one declare that pizza is my favorite kind of pie.

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When people put the kibosh on a plan, they shut it down.
The word can be a verb, but it more often is a noun.
Its earliest known printing was in 1826.
Since then, it’s had a lot of etymologists transfixed.

Some venture that it’s Yiddish, from the Hebrew for “subdue,”
But no one’s found a Yiddish source that they can trace it to.
Some look to Turkish bosh, describing empty, worthless stuff,
As used at times in English. That’s not evident enough.

There also is caidhp bháis, a term from Gaelic that referred
To hoods for executioners or pitch-caps (what a word),
The latter being filled with boiling tar to put on heads,
But Irish didn’t use it as a metaphor we’ve read.

In heraldry, an animal caboched displays no neck,
As if cut off quite neatly (from the French as we’d expect).
One scholar thought a kibosh was a foot-long iron bar
To smooth and soften leather. That idea has not gone far.

The current favored theory is the kurbash, meaning “lash”
In Arabic and Turkish, for a penalizing thrash.
Some immigrants in London taught the British lower classes.
From there, it’s gotten popular with English-speaking masses.

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I’ve wondered why people have claimed that our babes
Are delivered by storks of all things.
Does whiteness mean purity? Polish lore claims
They’ve a dark side as shown by black wings.

The myth’s been heard most in the north part of Europe.
It’s found in North Africa too.
It even turned up in the form of a wood stork
Among pre-Columbian Sioux.

Some trace it to Greek myth, where Hera transformed
A vain mother—but into a crane.
Some look to Egyptian creator god Bennu—
A heron, confused once again.

There also may be some conflation with pelicans,
Once thought to pierce their own breast
To nourish their offspring. (Medieval ideas
Of the natural world weren’t the best.)

The likeliest reason: Storks headed for Africa
Starting when pagans would wed,
The summertime solstice; the birds would return
In nine months. (Get the point? Use your head.)

OK, this behavior is hardly unique.
Many birds have a sim’lar migration.
But storks may stand out for their size among those
Who make nests near a man’s habitation.

When Hans Christian Andersen wrote about storks,
He injected the myth with new life.
Victorians found it convenient for skipping
The details of what could cause strife.

Today, it’s not cool to teach stork myth as fact,
But as fanciful symbol, all right.
A newborn whose back of the head has a birthmark
Is still said to have a stork bite.

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history,
poem

Nicolas Clément, a chemist and physicist,
Coined the word “calorie,” talking of heat.
A few decades later, Pierre Antoine Favre
And Jean Thiébault Silbermann made it less neat.

They all had referred to the energy needed
To heat up some water by one degree C,
But Clément was thinking of one gram of water;
The others, a kilogram (liter). Dear me.

Both meanings are still being used to this day,
Tho they often are given descriptors like “small”
For clarification. Some authors prefer that
In text on the “large” one, we make the C tall.

Be mindful in reading nutritional labels
On products while visiting various nations.
Their “calories” could be the small or the large kind.
If you assume wrongly, you’re in for frustration.

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The ancient Babylonians began the year with spring.
(OK, the first new moon thereof would be the closest thing.)
The Romans followed suit by starting off on March the 1st,
Still early for the equinox, but hey, it could be worse.

Alas, they had no designated months beyond December.
I bet the days until that March were tricky to remember.
Then Numa, second king of Rome, appended two months more.
They formed the end at first, so why do those now come before?

It seems the lunar calendar was still a slipping mess,
And Julius Caesar found a solar version a success.
As long as he was changing things, he sought a new beginning,
And Janus, God of doorways, made an easy underpinning,

So January thus became the first month of the year.
It also lined up well with folks’ political careers,
For consuls entered office on that very starting day.
(You’d think they saw it coming from a country mile away.)

But when Rome fell, some countries chose another day to start.
The Feast of the Annunciation spoke to Christian hearts,
So many parts of Europe went for March the 25th.
They thought it bad to pick a day that’s based in pagan myth.

Pope Gregory saw fit to change the calendar again.
The Protestants and Orthodox resisted him, but then
They found his system practical. And that, my friends, is why
Most nations have the January starting date apply.

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Medieval friar John Duns Scotus (yes, he was a Scot)
Was highly influential in the realm of Catholic thought
And even for the secular philosophers of old,
Tho of his life outside his work, quite little has been told.

One doctrine he set forth: the univocity of being.
It means that words applied to God and men must be agreeing
In definition; thus, if we describe a man as “good,”
It means he has a property Jehovah also would.

Disciples of Duns Scotus called what makes a thing distinct
“Haecceity” (like “thisness”). In some lexicons, it’s linked
To “quiddity” or “essence,” but it’s really the reverse
Of common traits to which the essence properly refers.

I won’t go into each Duns Scotus tenet in my rhymes.
My point is how his reputation suffered with the times.
Within the next few centuries, the English Reformation
Was bent against Franciscans, so he faced excoriation.

Some called the Scotists “dunses,” which at first implied pedantic,
Sophistic traits, but then it underwent a change semantic.
A “dunce” was just a fool, and conic hats the Scotists wore
Became a form of punishment a failing student bore.

But Catholic Europeans still acclaimed Duns Scotus’ work,
And by the 1960s, few would see him as a jerk.
For my part, I’m unsure he got a lot of concepts right,
But he’s too smart to have his name be treated as a slight.

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Thanksgiving days go back at least to Hebrew folk of yore.
The Puritans had many, taking cues from scripture lore.
The first known civic one began in 1623,
Two years beyond a feast that would go down in history.

The feast was said to last three days at some point in the fall,
Most likely circa Michaelmas, which isn’t close at all
To modern-day tradition’s late November; nonetheless,
That’s not the biggest issue with the myth as I assess.

It’s true that Plymouth colonists had gathered lots of food
With help from local Indians the Pilgrims would include,
But natives weren’t invited till they came prepared for war,
When celebrators’ gunshots were too noisy to ignore.

The Wampanoag sachem Ousamequin sought a pact
Against the Narragansett if they ever should attack.
Not every Wampanoag wanted Pilgrims on their side
In light of some enslavement, but the groups were still allied.

The prior winter wiped out half the Pilgrim population.
The sachem thus appealed to the survivors’ desperation.
He called upon Tisquantum, known as Squanto, who would teach
Techniques for catching eels and growing corn in English speech.

But how’d he know the language well? The answer lies in pain:
An English crew abducted him and sold him off to Spain.
He then escaped to England. By the time he got back home,
His people, the Patuxet, had succumbed to plagues unknown.

Indeed, the Plymouth colony was built upon their ground,
The signs of a Patuxet village nowhere to be found.
Tisquantum, too, would catch disease and die a few years hence.
(I hope you will forgive me for a poem this intense.)

Another thing to note is that by colonists’ accounts,
A bunch of different animals were served in great amounts.
The turkey wasn’t prominent, and nobody had pie
(For lack of wheat and butter, just in case you wondered why).

And finally, although the feasters probably said grace,
No mention of “thanksgiving” can be found in any trace
Of words by those who’d been there; it was more about relief
From famine and the other factors causing so much grief.

George Washington declared the first U.S. Thanksgiving Day,
But whether he had Plymouth’s feast in mind, I couldn’t say.
The myth grew more important in the 19th century.
Today, it’s not so honored, but it still appeals to me.

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To those who haven’t read it, here’s a detail not well known:
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, old Victor worked alone.
He had no lab assistant till the first recorded play,
Presumption, which I doubt is still performed a lot today.
The bumbling servant there was Fritz, who later would appear
Within the film of ’31. To add to viewers’ fear,
He had advanced kyphosis like the dude at Notre Dame.
Dwight Frye, who also worked that year as Renfield (he’s the bomb),
Became a different henchman in the sequel with the bride.
The next two films, however, let Lugosi come in stride
As Ygor, whose deformity resulted when the town
Had hanged him but messed up at it (why was he still around?).
This Ygor was a blacksmith, not a toady in the least.
Indeed, he took control of the reanimated beast.
The later House of Frankenstein had Daniel take the form,
So Universal Studios made hunchbacked aides the norm.
The first assistant Igor, tho, was Warner Bros.’ doing
In House of Wax, a Frankenstein-free film for 3D viewing.
It wasn’t till Young Frankenstein that hunchback Igor came,
And he pronounced it “eye-gore,” so it wasn’t quite the same
As that which has been used in countless parodies to date.
Who knew that a composite’s role in lore could be so great?

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I’d learned from more than one source that potato chips began
With not-so-good intentions by an irritable man.
A customer complained his fries were soggy, bland, and thick.
The chef had really tried; the comments cut him to the quick.
He chopped potatoes thinly, fried them crisp, and poured on salt,
Assuming that the customer would nonetheless find fault.
Because the chef of legend worked in Saratoga Springs,
The label “Saratoga chips” was added to these things.
Alas, a little research shows the story isn’t true.
Potato chips came long before, and locals surely knew.
The origin’s as boring as most other recipes.
If you would tell the false one, clarify it’s fiction, please.

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In 1947, Charles Schulz launched a cartoon
That first appeared within the Minneapolis Tribune
For just two days, then moved to the St. Paul Pioneer Press—
The women’s section, not the comics; why, I couldn’t guess.
That bothered Schulz, along with when he couldn’t get a raise.
He quit in 1950, but his work would still get praise.
No longer just one panel and a nameless random cast,
The strip retooled would let him be a household name at last.
United Feature Syndicate agreed to take it on,
But not without a name change, for while Little Folks was gone,
Tack Knight still held the trademark and found Li’l Folks too close,
And Al Capp’s Li’l Abner might have added to their woes.
We don’t know who chose Peanuts, but the reasoning was clear:
It traced to Howdy Doody’s popularity that year.
The children were called “peanuts” for the peanut gallery
In which they sat, so readers could connect them easily
To other kids on paper. This would leave Schulz quite annoyed,
Explaining why his TV specials always would avoid
The word within their titles; they instead said “Charlie Brown”
Or “Snoopy,” but the comic’s ugly title stuck around.

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history,
poem

I understood the rationale for soldiers firing guns
To signify an honor, but the number 21
Defied my intuition, so I looked it up. You see,
The British royal navy in the 16th century
Had warships signal peacefulness with shots the other way
To empty out their cannons. “We can’t hit you now,” they’d say.
The ships used seven cannons, but the forts upon the shore
Had lots of space for powder; they replied with 14 more.
Today the number varies, based in part upon the nation
As well as the saluted person’s proper rank or station.
America reserves the 21 for heads of state.
But if you’re given any, I would say the honor’s great.

Tags:

history,
poem

The tap code, or knock code, goes letter by letter
To tap out a message. In some ways, it’s better
Than Morse code: It’s easy to learn on the spot,
And using percussion is usually not
A good way to note when a signal is long
Or short, so the listener might get it wrong.

The tap code involves a Polybius square,
A five-by-five grid with all letters in there,
Except for the K, which the C can replace.
(Alas, that means “fake” would be turned into “face.”
If I were designing, I’d take out the Q.
I’m sure that would spell less confusion; don’t you?)

You first tap the number of times for the row
And then tap the one for the column to show
Which letter you mean. For example, the C
Is signaled by one tap, a pause, and then three.

My sources don’t say how far back the code goes.
It’s likely a secret that nobody knows.
But nihilist Russians imprisoned by czars
Reportedly used a grid different from ours.
The Anglosphere used it in World War II.
The Vietnam War’s when it really came through,
As four POWs held in Hanoi
Discovered the tap code was best to employ
To keep up morale and the chain of command.
If next to each other while talking was banned,
They’d tap someone’s thigh or could sneeze, sniff, or cough,
Until the guards noticed and cut them all off
With more isolation and thicker cell walls.
They still found a few ways when walking the halls.

The tap code turns up in some video games,
Books, films, and TV shows (I won’t say their names).
If I’m ever locked up or silenced by force,
I’ll favor the tap code. Apologies, Morse.

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In olden days, the strongest swears available pertained
To taking Yahweh’s name in vain, but then religion waned.
As people got more privacy, they felt a lot more shame
For designated private parts and functions of the same,
Which thus became the basis of a second kind of curse.
Today, the most offensive words are demographic slurs.
Perhaps there’ll be a fourth wave, but it’s hard to think of how
The people of the future will take more offense than now.

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Las Sergas de Esplandián
Dates back at least to 1510.
This Amadís de Gaula sequel
Seemingly was more than equal
In its popularity,
At least in Spain from what I see.
Chivalric romance then was big.
Today, we hardly give a fig,
Except that Don Quixote named
A bunch of titles to be shamed,
Including this. Regardless, now
The novel’s left its mark as how
A certain place name came to be:
Hernán Cortés had yet to see
But heard of an alleged isle
(A flub that stayed a little while)
Approximately where the book
Had mentioned one, and thus he took
The cue to call the land the same,
Explaining California’s name.

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An anecdote claims that the British in India
Offered a bounty on snakes,
Especially venomous cobras in Delhi—
A program that proved a mistake.

Some entrepreneurs did the math and discovered
The bounty would cover the costs
Of raising and breeding the snakes on a farm.
The whole goal of reduction was lost.

The government learned of the swindle and either
Reduced or rescinded the pay.
The breeders released all their snakes in the wild,
So the problem got worse by the day.

We don’t know the details; the tale might be false,
But the moral is plainly correct:
Beware of incentives beyond your intent,
Lest they lead to “the cobra effect.”

Tags:

history,
poem

In the mid-19th century, lobsters were eaten
By paupers and people in jail.
The rich preferred animals raised on the land,
Which would make for a pricier sale.

This started to change in the late 1800s.
Chefs learned to keep lobsters alive
Until it was time they were cooked, so the meat
Remained fresh and the flavor would thrive.

Increasing demand led to rapid decline
In the number of lobsters to find.
Both factors made lobsters a luxury meal
With extravagant prices assigned.

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In German lore, a kobold is a mostly household sprite.
It’s apt to do domestic chores for those who treat it right,
But if it feels insulted, it will soon resort to pranks
Or worse, so folks would often leave it milk to give it thanks.

This kobold is invisible until it takes a form.
A little human figure with a sharp red cap’s the norm,
But sometimes it’s an animal, especially a cat,
Explaining why the feline race is mischievous like that.

Some kobolds make a shop, a ship, or underground their home.
The last type is conflated with an older term for “gnome.”
Our cobalt gets its name from kobolds spoiling silver mines.
(And “nickel” meant a goblin, as derived along such lines.)

The English-speaking world adopted “kobold” rather late,
In print in 1830. Its reception wasn’t great,
Until the rise of RPGs, which call for lots of foes
From fantasy, including ones not everybody knows.

To make them more distinctive from a bunch of other races,
The games made kobolds canine-like, not least within their faces.
The later D&D type’s more a lizard or a dragon.
If you see one of those, it’s on the D&D bandwagon.

Indeed, the modern reptile’s gotten popular these days.
At least among the nerds like me, it almost is a craze.
The kobold may be wicked, but it’s made to look so cute,
In contrast to the ogre, goblin, orc, and other brutes.

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Stephen Gilberg

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Folly of the Faithful Canine

Do you hear a different drummer?

Entries tagged with history

Navigation

The Easter Hare

I Didn't Know

T. rex Time Warp

Pizza History

Kibosh

Stork Myth

It Burns

New Year's Reason

John Duns Scotus

The Myth of the First Thanksgiving

Igor

The Potato Chip Hoax

Good Grief

21-Gun Salutes

Tap Into This

Swearing

The Legend of California

The Cobra Effect

Lobsters

Kobolds

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April 2026

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