Morning Stories

Mind you, it was not an answer — Google delivered a collection of possible sources that might have one. Might. I was astounded. And thought: This is the end of ignorance.

Those are two separate word parts, aren't they? Uni and Versity struck a deal — and in doing so, made quite a contribution to education. Oh wonder of wonders, this concept too comes straight out of the old Latins' kitchen. “Universitas” stood for “totality” or “community.” Oha — academics are accessible to the totality of citizens? Well, how marvellous.

If a single word can set the entire arsenal of emotions spinning, then those few letters must be carrying an enormous payload of associations. When spring announces not only itself but is heralded by the writing and rhyming guild, many things begin to sprout anew.

When someone does business with the sick, something is wrong with the system. The association forced itself on me when I took the German word “Krankenkasse” — health insurance, literally “sick cash” — a little too literally to heart. Then I turned westward and noticed “Health Care” in Canada. Which translates, roughly, as “help for the ill.”

A sentence heard often and understood rarely has burned itself into memory. Precisely because it was blown into the air — the hot air — so many times. What could the underlying motivation have been, to push those four words plus exclamation mark into a small boy's ears?

Every human shares this fate — and yet the whole world congratulates us for it every year. An essay about humanity's most universal black out.

Why is Canada renaming the Americano to Canadiano? CanaChris tells the story behind the viral coffee rebrand — from WWII history to 2025 politics.