The Dancing Plague of 1518
Vitmor Gomes recently shared on Quora one of the most fascinating Medieval stories I've heard: the dancing plague of 1518. In July 1518, in the town of Strasbourg, Alsace (now France), something unexpected happened. A housewife, called Frau Troffea, came out of her...
The Oxford Comma
I mentioned the Oxford comma recently in a conversation with Stefan. In case you haven't heard of it, here is the definition, courtesy of Grammarly: The Oxford (or serial) comma is the final comma in a list of things. For example: Please bring me a pencil, eraser, and...
The Epicene Pronoun and Singular They
Back in 2016, I had written about the appeal and long history of singular they. I recently found myself referring to this old post on Quora, during an argument with someone who claimed its use was a mistake. "Singular they" is a so-called epicene pronoun: the pronoun...
The “Lunar Ark” Project
Tibi Puiu of ZME Science recently presented a backup plan in case we screw up this planet for good: a "Lunar ark" that would store DNA from millions of species in Moon’s lava tubes. The project, first described in a paper presented by researchers at the University of...
Kids and Poetry
I was reading an interesting post on the Washington Post on why kids need poetry in their lives, and how to spark their interest in it. The author, Jason Basa Nemec, was explaining how he was reading Amanda Gorman's "The Hill We Climb" to his 2-year-old and my...
Unsung Heroines: Susie King Taylor
In honor of Women's Day, I thought I'd share with you the story of Susie King Taylor as told on Quora by Karin Muller. Susie King Taylor Every day at 9 am, Susie King Taylor and her brother would walk the half a mile to the small schoolhouse, their books wrapped in...
Viking Ulfberht Swords
When we think of Vikings, our minds don't normally conjure a picture of a miner. So where did the Vikings (and others) get the iron ore to forge their tools and weapons? As Mats Andersson says on Quora, they literally fished it out of bogs. Bog Iron As Wikipedia...
Surprisingly Progressive Pirates
As a kid, when I thought of pirates I dreamed of absolute freedom with plenty of swashbuckling. When I grew up, I realized that pirates were bloodthirsty savages who deserved to be strung for their unforgivable crimes against countless civilians. So terrible was their...
Plagiarism and Content Marketing
When I got my first SEO copywriting assignment from InSync Media, I expected them to ask me to proofread my copy on Grammarly. However, I was surprised that they also asked me to check my text using an online plagiarism checker. Then I realized how much sense that...
Facebook Appeal Script
Have you been running Facebook ads for your books and found your ad account disabled at some point? If so, then you'll find this Facebook appeal script that InSync Media's SEO guru, Mike Guess, shared with me a godsend. The top 3 strategies that Facebook marketers...
France Is Bacon
I saw this today and just had to share. It's a story that first appeared on Reddit courtesy of a user called Lard_Baron. Or should that be Lard_Bacon? Anyway, the story goes like this... Knowledge Is Power When I was young my father said to me: "Knowledge is Power......
Snowed In
I apologize for disappearing this past week but I had a good reason: snow. Yes, this is Athens; not Canada (or Texas). Specifically, it's our street! And this is our garden: Not only did it snow over a meter, it also resulted in power cuts that lasted well over 5...