Polka
Semiotics and Semaphores: A History of the Polka-Dot
The Polka-Dot was inspired by the musical notation used by composers of polkas to create a staccato effect which mimicked the newly invented telegraph.
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Holiday
Half-Baked Reinterpretations
Several half-baked ideas.
Indigo
Science, Commerce, and Why Indigo is not a Color.
Indigo is a pigment, not a color.
Sermons
Stardust and Hope
An exploration into the phrase "salt of the earth" in Matthew 5:13.
Blue
50 Shades of Blue
Venus, the Renaissance, salty language, and the color blue.
yellow
An Ephemeral Color
Why is "amarilla", the Spanish word for yellow so different from all other words for yellow?
math
An Etymology of Pie
Featuring shapes, colors, pastries, mathematicians, birds, and priests.
Tulips
Oh, Sušana!
A (hopefully) final newsletter about tulips.
Tulips
Tulips: the first 3000ish years
Tulips have a much longer and more illustrious history than we previously thought.
Tulips
Tulipmania was not irrational.
In February 1637, the Dutch futures market had a reset on all outstanding contracts for tulips. The prices had reportedly been growing an unprecedented rate, and there was risk of systemic collapse of defaulted contracts.
Tulips
King Midas - The Tulip's Forgotten Namesake
King Midas voted for Pan, and Apollo became so enraged, he turned Midas' ears into donkeys' ears. Midas was embarrassed and tried to hide up the ears by wearing some sort of head covering, which likely resembled the tulip in a closed state.
Tulips
Panic! in the Garden
This month on Colorphilia, each week, we will be focusing on a different aspect of tulips. This week, I share the likely original meaning of the flower, and how the etymology became so tortured, convoluted, and misunderstood.