Twelve-Mile Circle

As a wee lad I grew up south of Downingtown, Pennsylvania, an old mill town situated along the banks of the East Branch of the Brandywine Creek. Drop a little stick in the Brandywine and it would float downstream until it joins the Christina River in Wilmington, Delaware and thereafter shortly into the Delaware River.

Delaware has tax-free shopping and movie theatres I frequented in my youth. First laptop purchase for university? Delaware. Furniture for moving out to Chicago? Delaware. In other words, when I posted my most recent map of where I have been, the three counties of Delaware were some of the earliest counties filled in.

Delaware—for better or worse—is seared into my mind. If you look at the state border, you will see the northern border is circular. Look at all other state borders and that circle is kind of weird. Most other borders are straight(ish) lines, mountain ridges, rivers, or bays. The reason is the border between Pennsylvania and Delaware was, essentially, taking out a protractor and drawing a circle twelve miles distant from New Castle, Delaware, the original capital.

Anyway, I have not thought about that in quite some time. But thankfully, xkcd did.

As many of you know, I love geography and so I am aware of many of these places. Lake Manicouagan is one of those places that has an island in it, which has a lake on that island, in which there is another lake. There might even be another island/lake combination, but I could be mistaken.

Happy Friday, everyone.

Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.

Sports and Games

Well that was a week. Let’s try to stay on the lighter side this Friday. Several weeks ago I was debating with several people about the difference between a game and a sport. I decided that the best way to try and capture our conversation was with a Venn diagram.

So in the interest of furthering that conversation, I’ve digitised that sketch and am presenting it here for everyone else to see and, if they want, comment upon.

No war games here.

Hopefully this weekend and next week are a bit calmer.

Credit for the piece is mine.

Be Ambitious

Well it’s Friday. Congratulations on making it to the weekend. I often spend my weekends working on personal projects, because I have goals and things I’m trying to do. In other words, I have ambitions. That’s why this piece from Indexed was so funny. One cannot go wrong with a Venn diagram.

Credit for the piece goes to Jessica Hagy.

White Van with Tinted Windows

Where is my mind? On the dark side of the humour scale. Because when I saw this latest Venn diagram from Indexed, my mind leapt somewhere else entirely.

Do kids even read books anymore?

At the end of the day, don’t talk to strangers, kids.

Credit for the piece goes to Jessica Hagy.

Be Kind to Retail and Service Industry Folks

For many years I worked in retail and food service, and for a subset of those years I worked the Christmas shopping season. Black Fridays were indeed awful. And so this graphic that I alluded to last week from Indexed felt appropriate to share. I have no idea how busy in-person retail work will be this year as we begin to near the light at the end of this Covid tunnel, but just keep those in retail and other service industries in mind.

I’ll just add Black Friday in November sucks.

Credit for the piece goes to Jessica Hagy.

Out of Office

One of the pieces I flagged a month or so ago around the time of my trip to the Berkshires was this one by Indexed. There was a time in my life when I would receive notifications for e-mail, particularly work e-mail, on my mobile. As a manager, I tend to think that’s…not great. There becomes no separation between work and personal life and for many, if not most, people that separation is critical to maintaining a healthy balance of both.

Consequently on my trip I barely even checked my personal e-mail, because I wanted to disconnect nearly entirely from that part of my life. And so this graphic made a lot of sense. Even if I was far from being “off the grid” I was very much “off the clock”.

I don’t think I could ever be off the grid, though…

And for my American friends, it’s time to go off the clock as the Thanksgiving holiday begins for many of us this afternoon or evening. But just remember that many will still be working and serving. More on that next week.

Credit for the piece goes to Jessica Hagy.

Come At Me, Bro

I did not create this, but rather I saw it on a friend’s social media feed. But I didn’t take a screenshot instead I sketched it my sketchbook. So if anybody knows who actually created this I’d like to get the credit correctly attributed.

Anyway, it was just a Venn diagram that made me laugh. And after yesterday’s Covid data update, I feel like we need to at least try to end the week on a laugh.

The recreation is mine. The content is not.

Oh the Degrees You’ll Earn

This one from Indexed made me literally laugh out loud. Probably because I, like many of you, know all three types she describes. And after a week, we can probably all use a laugh before starting the weekend.

Astronomy > Astrology

Credit for the piece goes to Jessica Hagy.