Word of the Day
Ouroboros (n., OR-oh-BORE-ohhs)
The tail-devouring snake, symbolizing everything from the birth of mankind to a childlike state to unity to something not realizing that it's eating itself. This last interpretation is most terrifying.
Gif of the Day
AnimalsDogsCorgi!Merry-go-roundHop to itPerfectly looping gifs
Link of the Day
Alma Mater Blotter
Two-part story here. On MetaFilter, someone posted the 1911 Spokane High School Yearbook, which was hilarious. Each graduate had a description, occupation, ambition, and song. Most are interesting or amusing, some are terrifying, and others feel oddly modern:
Albert Edward Abbot
Description: Decidedly weak.
Occupation: Smoking stogies.
Hugh Brown
Description: Crazy.
Occupation: Breathing.
Ambition: To be a bartender.
Phyllis B Johnson
Ambition: To murder the faculty.
The second part of the story is that intrepid MeFites started sleuthing and discovered what happened to a lot of the people in the yearbook. The results were fascinating: some people fulfilled their ambitions, some were involved in historically significant events, and others did something totally different:
George Albert Pynn became a dentist in Spokane, but not before becoming a basketball star and swim coach at the University of Minnesota.
This was a turn of events of sorts for Pynn, who in 1907, several years before this yearbook was published, was expelled for participating in an egg-throwing assault on the principal.
This principal turned out to be a magnet for controversy, and he was removed from office in 1907 or 1908. You can read more about all the stories that swirled around Principal Cloyd by searching the Google Newspaper archives: principal cloyd site:news.google.com/newspapers. (And maybe Chronicling America -- I didn't search for him there.)
HistoryHigh SchoolsBad ambitionsWhere are they now?Spokane, WAThings you only say on the way out