Category: Uncategorized

toast-potent:

captainsnoop:

i’ll never understand why we don’t call countries the names they actually call themselves 

like, i know this is a weeaboo-sounding example, but let’s start with Japan. They call themselves Nippon or Nihon depending on… i guess, the speaker’s accent??? or their level of formality while speaking??? I dunno. But we still called them Zipangu for like a few hundred years. And now we call them Japan. 

All because Marco Polo asked someone in China about that island over there and they said “oh that’s Cipangu” and Marco Polo was like “Oh, Zipangu, cool.” And then he went back to Italy and said “Y’ALL THERE’S THIS DOPE-ASS ISLAND CALLED ZIPANGU” and people back in Italy were like “An island called Giappone? Dope.” 

And this pattern of people mishearing people kept repeating until we got to “Japan.” 

And we still call them Japan even though we know better. Because fuck you, Marco Polo asked the wrong person 500 years ago and misheard them and we’re sticking to that, I guess. 

that was literally just the world’s worst game of telephone

darknesshadows:

“On the morning after the battle Alexander, accompanied by his alter ego Hephaestion, went to visit Darius’ womenfolk himself. Both men wore plain Macedonian tunics; Hephaestion was the taller and more handsome of the two. The queen mother, Sisygambis, naturally enough mistook him for Alexander, and threw herself at his feet in supplication. When her error was pointed out to her by an attendant, she was covered with confusion, but nevertheless gamely ‘made a new start and did obeisance to Alexander’. The king brushed aside her apologies, saying: ‘Never mind, Mother; you didn’t make a mistake. He is Alexander too.’”

Peter Green – Alexander of Macedon, pp. 236-237

draco-mouthboy:

Harry: So this is Starbucks. It’s a lot like that one new coffee shop in Hogsmeade, but muggle. It’s sort of confusing, so if you want I can-

Draco: Hello, yes, I’d like a venti coffee frappuccino with one shot each of hazelnut, vanilla, and sugar free cinnamon dolce. Whipped cream, extra sugar, with honey foam nutmeg, heavy vanilla, and hazelnut and molasses drizzle. Oh- and can you make it with almond milk? Thanks.

Harry: