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News & ArtsTuesday, December 6, 2011
Books / Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz A Book About a Thousand Things
Posted by Brendan Kiley on Tue, Dec 6, 2011 at 4:10 PM
I found this book sometime in hazy past. (At a used bookstore? In a cardboard box on the sidewalk?) It's called A Book About a Thousand Things, it's by George Stimpson, and it was published in 1946. The book is like an early 20th-century Wikipedia, 550 pages of questions without any apparent organizing principle: "Why do some shoes squeak?" And: "Is the art of hardening copper lost?" And: "What is the function of lucky stones in fish?"
Let's begin with a boring one, shall we?
Why is "controller" sometimes spelled "comptroller"?
The spelling comptroller was introduced about 1500 and arose from a mistaken derivation of the word from compte, an obsolete form of count suggested by the French compte. Count was derived indirectly from Late Latin computum, from computare, "to calculate." The Shorter Oxford Dictionary says of count that it was "refashioned in the fourteenth century, after Latin, as compte." Since a controller's business was to examine and verify accounts it was supposed that the word should be spelled comptroller, and this spelling was affected particularly by official scribes. The erroneous form now survives only in certain official usage; as, Comptroller General of the United States, Comptroller of the Currency, and Comptroller of the Post Office Department. Controller is the correct spelling for ordinary purposes. In both cases the word is pronounced the same—kon-trole-er. Literally a controller is one who controls. Control comes from French controler, which in turn is derived from Latin contra, against or counter, and rotulus, roll. The present French form of controller is controleur, not comptroleur, as often supposed.
Thanks, Book About a Thousand Things! Bonus question about snake hearts after the jump!
Where is a snake's heart located?
The heart of a snake is located well forward in the body. As a general rule, it lies about one-fifth of the distance from the head to the end of the tail. The reptile's stomach is also located in the fore part of the body. It is long, narrow, and distensible. Owing to the heavy flow of saliva, digestion begins immediately and takes place rapidly.
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As a general rule, the traditional spellings are "Comte" as the title of nobility, and "compte" as a "counter"; although, given the vagaries of spelling that existed at the time both came into common usage, the two words were frequently interchanged.
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Trivia on Slog = snake<3
Does the US still have the same Comptrollers? *too lazy to google*
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Please stop making fun of Herman Cain and Michelle Bachmann for saying random nonsense. You're no different.
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