Hobby Horse Design

Google continues to contribute to worldwide knowiness, now letting you search a database of patents, including gorgeous design specs.

This is an improvement on the hobbyhorse that my grandfather, John Bell, patented in 1955.

Interweb, may you live to be a thousand thousand years old.

New Heights of Maturity

I made an illustration for my favorite etymology, using some early concept art David Michael Friend did for the Jim Henson film adaptation of Clemency Pogue.

From the Wikipedia entry for Pumpernickel Bread:

"Philologist Johann Christoph Adelung states about the Germanic origin of the word, in the vernacular, Pumpen was a New High German synonym for being flatulent, a word similar in meaning to the English "fart", and "Nickel" was a form of the name Nicholas, an appellation commonly associated with a goblin or devil (e.g., "Old Nick", a familiar name for Satan). Hence, pumpernickel is described as the "devil's fart.” The American Heritage Dictionary adds "so named from being hard to digest."