What Does 'CV' Mean in Street Names?

Have you ever run across the abbreviation "Cv" as a part of a street name? For example, a street named Frontier Cv, or Sunhaven Cv, or Glen Breeze Cv, or any other example you can think of. What does that "Cv" mean? Street abbreviations such as "St.," "Rd.," "Blvd.," are easy and well-known, but what about Cv?

When you see Cv as part of a street name, it stands for "Cove." The United States Postal Service recognizes both Cv and "Cvs" (for "Coves") in its official street naming guidelines.

So if you see a Frontier Cv or a Sunhaven Cv, now you know such a street's full name is Frontier Cove or Sunhaven Cove.

But that brings up a follow-up question: What types of streets are named coves? Does the cove designation actually mean anything? Yes, it does.

When a street is designated a cove, or Cv, it is probably a cul-de-sac. It is almost certainly, at minimum, a dead-end street, and probably a cul-de-sac, and a short one at that.

So when you see "Cv" in a street name, know that it stands for "cove," and that street branches off one of the main arteries through the neighborhood and is a short road that leads to a cul-de-sac, or at least a dead-end.

The Game of Potsy, and How Potsie Weber Got His Nickname

Once upon a time, during a episode of the 1970s detective series Kojak (affiliate links used in this post), we heard Telly Salavas, playing Lt. Theo Kojak, respond to another officer's urging to hurry up by saying something along the lines of, "What do you think I'm doing here, playing Potsy?"

And our mind immediately went to another 1970s television series, Happy Days, and the character played by Anson Williams. That character's name was Potsie Weber.

Did I just stumble across the genesis of Potsie Weber's nickname? Was he called "Potsie" because of a game named Potsy?

The answer, it turns out, is no. Which you might have guessed by the different spellings of Potsy and Potsie. But asking that question, and then seeking out the answer, did cause us to learn what the game Potsy is, and to learn why Potsie Weber was called "Potsie." So, thanks Kojak!

The Game Named Potsy

So what is the Potsy game? Basically, it's hopscotch. Just about every kid in America and many other places around the world has played hopscotch at some point. Potsy is what the game is called in New York City.

It is common for the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation to paint hopscotch grids onto park grounds. And that agency's website even includes an explainer on Potsy that states "Potsy is just New Yorker-speak for hopscotch."

The name of the game derives from the name of the object that is tossed into the squares of the hopscotch grid. That object, whatever its form might take, is known as the potsy. From the NYC Parks & Rec website:

"Potsy refers to the object used in the game. Traditionally, potsy is made from three safety pins clipped together, but one can always substitute a rock or a penny or a Parks pager. Now, for those of you that don’t know how to play Potsy, here are the ground rules: Toss potsy into the first box; jump with one foot at a time into every other numbered box until you get to the end (don’t touch the lines); when you get to the end, turn around and come back; on your way back, pick up potsy; throw potsy into the next box and start again."

And the Real Reason Potsie Weber Was Called 'Potsie'

Now let's turn to the Happy Days character of Potsie Weber. And let's be frank: Potsie is a dumb nickname. In the early episodes of Happy Days, it was clear that some of the other characters used "Potsie" more as an insult than as an affectionate nickname — Potsie had just a bit of a loser aura about the character in the early days of Happy Days.

But it was in one of those early season episodes that Potsie once explained how he got his nickname. In the sixth episode of Season 1, another character asked Weber how he got his nickname. And Weber replied:

"They call me Potsie because when I was a young boy I used to like to make things with clay, and one day my mother called me Potsie."

Well, OK then. Young Warren Weber liked to play with clay, and, presumably, was having some fun one day trying to make a clay pot. His mother teasingly called him "Potsie," and that became his nickname for all time.

It would have been better if Potsie had been named after Potsy, wouldn't it?

What Does 'IKEA' Mean?

IKEA is the most-famous furniture brand in the world, and the largest furniture retailer in the world. But do you know what the word "IKEA" means?

IKEA is a company that was born in Sweden, so is IKEA a Swedish word? No. Does IKEA stand for something — are the letters in IKEA initials? Yes, that's the ticket.

"IKEA" is an acronym. The "I" and the "K" are the initials of the company's founder. The "A" comes from the village nearest the family farm where he was born, and the "E" stands for the name of that farm.

The founder of IKEA was Ingvar Kamprad, who was only 17 years old when he started the company in 1943. He was born on his family's farm, which was named Elmtaryd. And Elmtaryd was located close to the village of Agunnaryd in Sweden.

So there you go, IKEA:

Ingvar
Kamprad
Elmtaryd
Agunnaryd

Check IKEA prices on Amazon.com

(Affiliate links used in this post.)

Baby Oil and Iodine for Tanning?

One of the things we enjoy doing to pass the time is watching 1970s detective shows on the various free streaming services. Recently we caught an episode of The Rockford Files in which Rockford is speaking to a man who is tanning by the pool. The man glistens with lotion. "Be careful of the sun," Rockford cautions him. "Oh, I'm using baby oil and iodine so it's OK," the glistening man replies.

Baby oil (affiliate links used in this post) and iodine for tanning? Was (is) that a real thing? And was (is) it safe? The answers are yes, it was (is) a real way of tanning, and no, very much no, it was (is) not safe.

Modern sunscreens didn't begin appearing until the 1970s, and those with very high SPF ratings came even later. Before that, beginning in the 1950s, there were commercial "sun tan lotions" that had virtually no protective qualities.

And before that, some people mixed iodine into baby oil and slathered that on themselves. Some people still do it today. The reason for the baby oil is clear: it concentrates the sun's rays and leads to a faster, darker tan. (That is also why you should never use it: fast, dark tans are dangerous.)

Why people added iodine to the baby oil is harder to pin down. Some sources claim the iodine deepened the penetration of the sun's UV rays into the skin (again: that is a terrible thing you do not want to do!). But what the iodine was probably doing was coloring the skin a bit — adding a bit of a spray-tan, so to speak, on top of the real tan that came from using the baby oil.

Using the iodine is not just a terrible idea from the perspective of skin damage and possible future skin cancer, however. Iodine is a drug, and like all drugs it comes with possible side effects. The more of it you put on your skin, the greater the possibility of having a side effect, and the greater the possibility of that side effect being bad.

So, yes, a baby oil-and-iodine combination really was used for tanning (and some people still do use it). But doing so was and is a terrible, terrible idea. Do not do it!

A tan is nothing more than skin damage, and any amount of tanning is too much. If you must be in the sun for extended periods, protect your skin, don't fry it.

The Inflatoplane: An Inflatable Airplane that Flew

Would you believe there was once an inflatable airplane? It's true. You can see it in the video above — wheel out the packed-away airplane, attach an air hose, inflate it, and take off. It was called the Goodyear Inflatoplane, and it actually flew.

The Inflatoplane was built by Goodyear as an experimental aircraft for the United States military. The company, famous for its blimps (oh, and also its tires) built 12 prototypes between 1956 and 1959, and testing of the inflatable plane continued until the early 1970s. It was then that the military finally lost interest, so no Inflatoplanes were ever actually manufactured for purchase. Still, it's a pretty cool piece of aviation history.

What Does the CVS in CVS Pharmacies Stand For?

CVS Pharmacy is the largest chain of drugstores in the United States, with nearly (at the time of this writing) 10,000 retail locations. But have you ever wondered what the "CVS" stands for? We have, so we looked it up.

The "CVS" in "CVS Pharmacy" stands for "Consumer Value Stores."

In 1963, a holding company called the Melville Corporation (which itself was founded in 1922) opened the first Consumer Value Store in Lowell, Massachusetts. From 1963 through 1969, Consumer Value Stores expanded and were known by that full name.

But after that, the drugstores went by their initials only, CVS. So since 1969, Consumer Value Stores have been called CVS Pharmacy. And they are long since gone from the the holding company that was named the Melville Corporation, too.

The Helicone: Science or Art? Plenty of Both

What is the Helicone? You wouldn't be wrong if you called it an art piece, although a mobile one, one meant to be handled. And you wouldn't be wrong if you called the Helicone a toy, although a science toy, one meant to be pondered, one meant to excite wonder.

Whatever you call it, the Helicone is cool and beautiful. The Helicone, which you can buy on Amazon.com,comes looking like this:

But when you take it out of the box, set it on its base and spin it, the Helicone takes one of two forms:

On the left is a helix, on the right is a cone. The "helicone." Spin it and it transforms from one shape into the other.

The Helicone is made by a company called playableART - which calls it an "interactive kinetic sculpture" - and was designed by John Edmark. How does it work? Here's the best explanation I could find: "Through the use of internal stops, each arm is constrained to rotate a maximum of 68.75° (1/2 the Golden Angle) relative to its neighboring layer." Here's some more company text:

Inspired by nature, based on the Fibonacci Numbers and the Golden Angle, helicone not only represents beautiful botanical structures but also provides stunning transformations before your very eyes. Watch it magically transform between a helix and a pine cone with a simple, quick twist.

To really appreciate the beauty of the Helicone, you have to see it in action:

And here's one more video:

You want one now, don't you? I sure do. You can find it, and similar things, on Amazon.

Pro Golfer Jumps Into Lake to Escape Attacking Hornets

Pablo Larrazabal is a Spanish golfer who plays on the European Tour, where he's won three times and was Rookie of the Year in 2008. He's pretty good. Which means that he usually handles golf course hazards without much problem.

But Larrazabal never encountered a hazard like the one he ran into on Friday during the second round of the Maybank Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur: a swarm of hornets. The hornets were moving across the golf course when they flew right into Larrazabal (or did Larrazabal walk right into the hornets? Larrazabal and the hornets disagree on that point).

As the announcer in the video below says, it looks funny at first as Larrazabal starts gyrating wildly to try to get the hornets off him. But in fact, he was stung 20 or more times and had to jump into a golf course lake to get away from them! The hornets didn't bother anyone else.

And in the end, apart from the discomfort of the stings and his wet clothes, Larrazabal doesn't seem to have been bothered either. He birdied the hole on which the incident happened and went on to shoot 4-under par 68.

A Brief Tour of the Accents of Britain and Ireland

There's a lot of information packed into this 90-second video. It's a tour of the accents of the British Isles by a dialect coach named Andrew Jack:

(Via Kottke.org)

Meteorite Falls Past Skydiver, Who Catches it on Camera

For the first time ever, a meteorite that is no longer glowing has been captured on camera during its fall. And it was captured on camera by a skydiver in a wingsuit, as the meteorize dropped past him in the sky.

Here is an 8-minute news story about the incident, in Norwegian but with English subtitles (the meteorites first appears around the 1:50 mark):

In an English-language story on the Norwegian news site NRK.com, the experts weigh in:

Although Helstrup is still not completely convinced that it was indeed a meteorite that flew past him, the experts are in no doubt.

"It can't be anything else. The shape is typical of meteorites – a fresh fracture surface on one side, while the other side is rounded," said geologist Hans Amundsen.

He explained that the meteorite had been part of a larger stone that had exploded perhaps 20 kilometres above Helstrup.

Amundsen thinks he can make out coloured patches in the stone, and believes that in that case it may be a breccia – a common type of meteorite rock.

(HT: kottke.org)

UPDATE: Turns out this wasn't a meteorite, but just a plain ol' rock. It was apparently caught up in the skydiver's parachute, and fell out when the chute opened.

Turning Cassette Tape Into Art

At one time, not too long ago, there were millions and millions of miles of magnetic tape sold each year in the form of casette tapes or reel-to-reel tapes. But then the music industry - whose product was responsible for most of those casette tapes - moved on to more advanced modes of delivering its product.

Magnetic tape is largely a forgotten medium for most consumers. But not Japanese artist Ei Wada. He uses magnetic tape to create kinetic sculptures and moveable feasts of art. Such as the scenery in this video:

Staff ORE, on YouTube, explains:

"Electronicos" is what the "electronics" that human civilization once created morphed into, casting away the manual, and draping itself in a smell of new culture instead.

In the evening hours, the magnetic material starts falling down as it rotates and plays music, drawing shapes and patterns with time.

"Look, the 20th century is tumbling down! Down like a waterfall..."

Hey, you don't have to understand modern art (I certainly don't claim to) to appreciate finding beauty in unlikely places.

(H/T: Gizmodo)

Watch Woman's Reaction When She Hears for the First Time After 40 Years of Deafness

The woman in this video is named Joanne Milne and she's 40 years old. She's also been deaf since birth due to a condition called Ushers Syndrome.

But Milne was recently fitted with cochlear implants. Afterward, the implants were turned on for the first time. And for the first time in her life, Milne could hear.

We dare you not to get emotional as you watch Milne's emotional reaction:

It Takes Great Mittens to Play Badminton

Badminton - at least played at the top levels - is primarily an Asian sport. It's too bad the rest of the world doesn't get to see more of it at its top levels. On the other hand, the top levels of professional badminton are corrupt ... but I digress.

What does it take to play badminton at the top level? Speed, agility, quick thinking. And great hands, and even better hand-eye coordination.

Just check out this crazy rally, in which the red side's repeated smashes are somehow returned by the yellow side:

It's kind of like ping pong played by giants.

Colombian Official Turns Down Ambassadorship to Brazil; Why? It's Too Hot There for His Dog

Angelino Garzon is the vice president of Colombia. But he's decided not to run for re-election on the ticket with President Juan Manuel Santos in elections on May 25. So what will the Veep do next? Well, one thing he won't be doing is moving to Brasilia, Brazil and serving as Colombia's ambassador to its major trading partner.

It's too hot there for his dog.

Pointing to a photo of his long-haired German shepherd, Garzon explained to the magazine Semana, "I have turned down the ambassador job because the dog you see on that picture is very hairy and the hot climate of Brasilia could harm its health."

According to the BBC, "Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin has issued an apology to Brazil, a major trading partner. She described the incident as 'very embarrassing'."

Hey, the man loves his dog more than he loves the idea of being ambassdor to Brazil.

Many people are only familiar with the short-haired German shepherd, but long-haired German shepherds are, indeed, very hairy, thick-coated dogs. Here's a video of a long-haired German shepherd hanging out with his cat buddy (and these two are getting long much better than the Colombian and Brazilian diplomatic staffs probably are today):

(Originally seen on The Dodo, via BBC)

Man Crushes 155 Walnuts ... With His Head

The Guinness Book of World Records makes people do very strange things. Like this guy in Pakistan:

He's crushing walnuts with his head. Why? Why not! There's a world record for that, and records are made to be broken. So during the Punjab Youth Festival, this hardheaded dude worked his way down an assembly line of walnuts. He wound up crushing 155 of them in just one minute. And yes, that's a new record. He wound up dazed and bloody, but sometimes that's the price you pay for setting world records!

Performance Artists Live On Human Hamster Wheel, Must Coordinate Movements

Performance artists are weird. These two are named Ward Shelley and Alex Schweder, and they have decided to live on a human hamster wheel. Here's how the New York Daily News described the project on YouTube:

Artists Ward Shelley and Alex Schweder live in a giant 20 foot diameter human hamster wheel in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, as part of their 10 day performance art piece 'In Orbit' to examine the relationship between roommates, space, and reliance on partners.

Here's the key thing about the wheel: It has working apartment conveniences - bathroom, kitchen, bed - in duplicate. One of the artists "lives" on the outer surface of the wheel; the other lives on the inner surface of the wheel. Each surface has its own "living quarters."

But when one of the artists needs to, say, relieve himself, they both have to walk the wheel in tandem in order to bring the toilet to the one who needs it.

What's the point of this display? Schweder, the one living on the inner surface (and so the one who is always at the bottom of the wheel), says in the video:

"One of the things that we're thinking about while we're in here is how buildings, apartments, construct relationships. ... They make relationships just by the nature of their layout, right? And in this particular layout, I'm living with someone but I don't have a common space with him where we can have a conversation, but that doesn't mean that we are not, sort of, collaborating because every time I want to move he has to move."

"The trust issue, for me, is the challenge," says Shelley, who is the one living on top (the outer wheel). "It's a combination of my disability up here, my lack of power, and my need for him, and they are hand-in-hand."

Amazing Rice Straw Art 'Paintings' Available on Etsy

What is "rice straw art"? It's an ancient Indian art form that relies on rice straw, the dried leaves of the rice plant, to create evocative works of art without the use of any paints, dyes or other coloring agents. Using only rice straw, a backing paper and a razor, rice straw artists can create works such as this portrait of JFK:

The artist of the pieces pictured above and below is Indian-born Rajan Koshy, who now lives in Galveston, Texas. Koshy estimates he is one of only 100 practicing rice straw artists left. He used to have a free museum in Galveston dedicated to the art, but now offers his work on Etsy at etsy.com/shop/museumshop.

Remember when looking at Koshy's pieces that nothing but rice straw is used. The shading is achieved through meticulous selection of natural coloration differences in the straw itself. Koshy's Esty pages include this background on rice straw art:

Rice straw art is an ancient art form which developed before our existing knowledge of color application became known. This leaf art form consists of using the natural colors of the rice plant to form a straw collage of unsurpassed beauty. No color, paint or dye is added to the natural color of the rice straw (dried leaves of the rice plant). This unique art is on the list of endangered art and only very few artists around the world practice this unique, ancient leaf art.

He also gives the shorthand version of the creation process: "The leaf is opened up, flattened by a primitive tool, apply glue on one side (Gum Arabic as glue, which is sap from a tree, everything used in this art is natural, eco friendly art), applied in place and cut with a double edged razor blade."

Koshy's rice straw art includes depictions of buildings, ships, famous people, animals and religious iconography. Hey, if you've always wanted a potrait of Willie Nelson to hang on your wall, here's Willie made of straw:

Some of Koshy's portraits depice historical figures - presidents, founders, entertainers. Some of them are odd choices - want a picture of Oprah? How about Geraldo? — but, hey, whatever floats your boat.

Koshy also does pieces on assignment. How about a portrait of your dogs that will be with you much longer than they will? Here you go:

Here is a 3-minute video that describes rice straw art and demonstrates the process from start to finish:

If you want to see more examples of rice straw art, check out Koshy's Etsy page.

Defy Your Eyes With These Circles Made of Squares

Here's a fun illusion. What do you see here:

If you're like most people, what you see is a spiral, a series of interlocking circles. But there's no spiral there. It's actually just four concentric circles - a small circle in the middle, three progressively larger circles as you move outward. The circles are perfectly round and do not touch. Look again - wait, it's a spiral! No, it's not. Take your cursor and trace over each circle. You'll see they don't touch.

Illusions are fun! (Not to mention being evidence of how easy it is to fool our brains.)

Watch Breathtaking Timelapse Through Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park is one of the wonders of the North American continent. And it's a place known for inspiring great art, such as the black and white photographs of Ansel Adams.

The two images here are taken from the video below, a compilation of timelapse shots captured by Colin Delehanty and Sheldon Neill. The video, around five minutes in length, was shared by the duo on Vimeo.

Neill and Delehanty hiked 200 miles through the park, over a 10-month period, to capture the images. "We spent a combined 45 days in the park capturing the images in this video," they write. You can view much more from their trip at projectyose.com.

'January in Japan': Lovingly Shot Tour of Country and Culture

Videographer Scott Gold shot this clip, called January in Japan. He posted it to Vimeo with the very simple description: "Wife and I went to Japan in January, it's a beautiful place and a beautiful culture." Not much more need be said, as you'll discover watching this beatifully shot video.

We arrive in Japan at sunrise, and we are taken around the country. We visit fish markets, sumo matches and hot springs, ride on a bullet train, and, of course, pay a visit to the famous snow monkeys. We see many other scenes, both city scenes and country scenes. Very well done, and by someone who clearly loves Japan and its culture.