Pavel, my old boss at Anagram, asked me something that I found interesting the last day of my working for him. He said, "Do you know where the term O.K. comes from?"
To which I said, "Of course, its from...its...ummmm..."
And I realized that I had no idea where the hell it came from.
The answer, that he provided me, which makes a lot of sense, and I would have no reason not to believe him otherwise, was this:
During World War 2, British RAF pilots coming back from strafing and bombing runs would have to radio to their command posts their number of downed planes. When it was a good run, and no planes had been hit, they radioed in 0 killed. Which was soon shortened to O.K. And then somewhere along the line it became a staple of the English language.
I'm not sure why this is so important, but it has stuck in my head for a long time now. Sometimes, the things that seem so meaningless and pass in every day conversation, have an important story behind them.
It reminds me when I was riding on a bus from Prague, on my first trip to Prague, heading back to Budapest, and my future room mate Ryan is staring at the lines of telephone poles whizzing by, and in one of his rare sober moments that semester, wonders out loud, "How do cell phones make calls? How do they really work?"
Sometimes it is those questions that seem so easy to answer, that really make you think about the world around you and what everything really means. When those answers allude us, do we stop and take the time to really think? Or does our 10 second attention span doom us to not question the obvious?
To which I said, "Of course, its from...its...ummmm..."
And I realized that I had no idea where the hell it came from.
The answer, that he provided me, which makes a lot of sense, and I would have no reason not to believe him otherwise, was this:
During World War 2, British RAF pilots coming back from strafing and bombing runs would have to radio to their command posts their number of downed planes. When it was a good run, and no planes had been hit, they radioed in 0 killed. Which was soon shortened to O.K. And then somewhere along the line it became a staple of the English language.
I'm not sure why this is so important, but it has stuck in my head for a long time now. Sometimes, the things that seem so meaningless and pass in every day conversation, have an important story behind them.
It reminds me when I was riding on a bus from Prague, on my first trip to Prague, heading back to Budapest, and my future room mate Ryan is staring at the lines of telephone poles whizzing by, and in one of his rare sober moments that semester, wonders out loud, "How do cell phones make calls? How do they really work?"
Sometimes it is those questions that seem so easy to answer, that really make you think about the world around you and what everything really means. When those answers allude us, do we stop and take the time to really think? Or does our 10 second attention span doom us to not question the obvious?
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