Mazda: I drive a 1990 Mazda Miata, whose reliability and near-perfect 50/50 weight distribution between the front and rear axles give me hope that it will “see me through,” to borrow a phrase from my late father-in-law. Why “Mazda?” In 1931, cork manufacture Toyo Kogyo was looking for a new company name to celebrate the launch of its first vehicle, a tricycle truck. According to its website, “Mazda comes from Ahura Mazda, the god of harmony, intelligence and wisdom from the earliest civilization in West Asia.” Ahura Mazda, literally “Lord Wisdom,” is the creator deity in the ancient Iranian religion Zoroastrianism.
Subaru: While we’re on the topic of autos, “Subaru” is the Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster also known as the “Seven Sisters.” Why only six stars in the Subaru logo? Because the star Merope is now dimmer than when the Greeks were mythologizing constellations in the night sky. Perhaps, goes the story, Merope is hiding herself because of the shame of having a mortal husband, Sisyphus.
Phaistos Disc: Considered by some as the earliest example of ancient moveable type printing, the Phaistos Disc is a six-inch diameter baked clay tablet dated to around 1600 BC. Since being found more than 100 years ago in the ruins of Hagia Triada, a Minoan palace on the island of Crete, its 45 different pictograms (for a total of 241 signs) have attracted both serious and kooky explanations. Board game? Epic story? Math theorem? Star chart? Message to the gods? Nothing like it has been found, before or since.
The One-Percent: According to Oxfam, the richest 1 percent of the world’s population produces as much carbon pollution as the 5 billion poorest people on earth.
Oh Crap: No, “crap” didn’t originate with Thomas Crapper, since he was 10 when the word first appears in the Oxford English Dictionary. True, Crapper’s company later sold bathroom fixtures, but the flush toilet dates back to John Harrington (1561-1612), godson of Queen Elizabeth I, whose design (complete with fish in the cistern) looks quite modern, and whereby “unsaverie places may be made sweet.”
All Blacks: Casino gamblers will know the significance of Aug. 18, 1913, when black came up on a roulette wheel 25 consecutive times in the Casino de Monte Carlo. The run attracted a huge crowd, and punters were torn. Would black keep coming up (bet the farm on black), or will the streak end (bet my diamond necklace on red)? But there’s no magic going on here, since that little ball has no memory.
Wallet Paradox: Posed here over 15 years ago, I’m still asked about it. Alice and Bart are having a coffee and, on a whim, they decide to bet on the contents of their wallets: Whoever has the least cash receives the contents of the other’s wallet. Each reasons: “I have a 50/50 chance of gaining more than I lose, so the odds are in my favor!” How can the odds favor both of them?
Barry Evans (he/him, barryevans9@yahoo.com) is still unable to give a concise and convincing answer to the paradox.
This article appears in ‘A Big Heart’.