The English word lentil traces back to the Latin lens, the classical Roman term for the plant. That Latin word may also be the origin of the prominent Roman family name Lentulus, following the same pattern by which the family name Cicero derived from the chickpea and Fabia from the fava bean. The optical lens…
Things I Like: Battle Royale (2000 Film)
The 2000 film Battle Royale was not my first encounter with the story. It originated as a Japanese novel in 1999, and I came across the manga adaptation at the Spartanburg County Library and read through it in my early twenties. I remember watching the film sometime in the early 2010s, most likely renting it…
Fun Facts and Trivia About Blood Tests
A blood test is a laboratory analysis conducted on a sample of blood drawn either from a vein in the arm using a hypodermic needle or collected through a fingerprick. Multiple individual tests targeting specific components, such as glucose or cholesterol, are frequently combined into a single test panel referred to as a blood panel…
Things I Like: Good Fortune (2025 Film)
The other day, my wife and I were hunting for something to watch, and while scrolling through Amazon Prime Video, we stumbled across Good Fortune. Keanu Reeves was front and center, and that alone made it feel like a safe bet. That’s just how lovable he is, both as an actor and as a human…
10 Fun Facts and Trivia For September 2026
The British royal family has placed a voluntary ban on Monopoly within their household. It carries no legal weight, but Prince Andrew made the prohibition public when he revealed that the family had stopped playing because the competitive nature of the game brought out a level of hostility that made it more trouble than it…