Hessians vs. Yankees
How did the word “mercenary” get a metaphorical sense and a literal one? It started in classical Latin, says the OED, long before English was a twinkle in the Celtic eye. Mercenarius back then could refer straightforwardly to a soldier paid to serve in another country’s army or, in an adjectival form, to someone who was doing something for money when he shouldn’t have (either shouldn’t have been doing the something or shouldn’t have been doing it for money). But etymology is a funny thing....
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I Spy
Find the Russian spy on this page. I am using invisible e-ink to write half of this blog post.
Religious Liberty
The Supreme Court recently voted 5–4 to keep a Christian campus group at Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco from barring non-Christians from their group, homosexuals specifically. I’m decidedly against alarmism, but I believe this is quite a serious matter. This has been a perennial partisan issue on American college campuses. My dad witnessed it at UVA in the late 1970s. It is not difficult to think that permanent victory has just been handed to the liberals, though that is not...
Radio Carbon Dating vs. Radio Carbon Courtship
From an advice column at CNN.com: I have been dating my boyfriend for about three months. We get along great and he would do anything for me. We just have one problem. He doesn't believe in evolution and I very passionately do. We got in a discussion about it, which quickly turned into a huge fight. The advice columnist, “the Frisky,” gave some perceptive advice. Here’s the key excerpt: Evolution and creationism are beliefs that are at the basis for entire life philosophies, values, and...