## Q&A: How Many Holes Are Covered By SpongeBob’s Square Pants?

In the SpongeBob SquarePants episode “All That Glitters”, SpongeBob can be seen without his square pants. He has 12 holes on his front, 9 holes on his back, 5 holes on the top, 4 holes on the bottom, 5 holes on his right side, and 5 holes on his left side. That is a total… Read More »

## EB Garamond v1.000

Sometimes when I work on photos, web pages, graphic designs, and so on I need to know what characters are available to me in a given font. A list of characters is embedded in the font in the cmap table. The cmap table maps the character codes to the corresponding glyphs. EB Garamond v1.000 is… Read More »

## An Oxford Comma Walks Into a Bar…

• An Oxford comma walks into a bar where it spends the evening watching the television getting drunk and smoking cigars. • A dangling participle walks into a bar. Enjoying a cocktail and chatting with the bartender, the evening passes pleasantly. • A bar was walked into by the passive voice. • An oxymoron walked… Read More »

## Q&A: What is a “malaphor”?

A malaphor is an idiom blend: an error in which two similar figures of speech are merged, producing an often nonsensical result. Malaphor comes from the blending of the words malapropism and‎ metaphor. It was coined by Lawrence Harrison in an August 6, 1976 Washington Post opinion piece titled “Searching for Malaphors”. Malaphors are also known as Dundrearyisms, named… Read More »

## A Mathematical Limerick

A mathematical limerick is truly a thing of beauty. $$\displaystyle{\frac{12 + 144 + 20 + 3\times\sqrt{4}}{7}} + 5\times11 = 9^{2} + 0$$ A dozen, a gross, and a score Plus three times the square root of four Divided by seven Plus five times eleven Is nine squared and not a bit more.

## Major General William Rufus Shafter Has a Bacon number of 7 (Updated to 4)

Original Post Major General William Rufus Shafter (October 16, 1835–November 12, 1906), commander of the 5th Army Corps in 1898, has a Bacon number of 7! 7. William Rufus Shafter was in Surrender of General Toral (1898) with Joseph Wheeler. 6. Joseph Wheeler was in General Wheeler and Secretary of War Alger at Camp Wikoff… Read More »

## Origin of the Angel atop the Christmas Tree

Not a lot of people know this. When four of Santa’s elves got sick, the trainee elves did not produce toys as fast as the regular ones, and Santa began to feel the pre-Christmas pressure. Then, Mrs. Claus told Santa her Mother was coming to visit, which stressed Santa even more.. He went to harness… Read More »

## Celebration of the Winter Solstice Holiday

From us (the “wishors”) to you (hereinafter called the “wishee”): Please accept without obligation, explicit or implicit, our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, politically correct, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion or secular practice of your choice,… Read More »

## Quote: “Heaven Helps Those Who Help Themselves”

Discussing the origin of the phrase “Heaven helps those who help themselves”, I made the claim that it did not originate in the Bible/Quran, but in the UFO song “Lights Out”. So, to prove my claim, I whipped out the Strangers in the Night CD (because it was easier to get to than the Lights… Read More »