Word With a Past
Word With a Past: Juggernaut
The Hindu god Krishna is worshiped in the form of Jagannatha (Lord of the World) in a famous 12th c temple in Puri, in the Indian state of Orissa. The most important of the annual festivals associated with the Jagannatha temple is the Chariot Festival. The god’s image is placed in a highly decorated wagon…
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Public toilets, heads of state and –teddy bears?
A few people have weighed in with answers to my question on a previous post outside the comments box. Some of them were too good not to share. In addition to vespesianos and London bobbies, here are some more eponymous tributes to heads of state, statesmen, and mere politicians: 1. The Teddy bear, named after…
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Word with a Past: Assassin
The original Assassins were members of a revolutionary Shiite splinter group founded in eleventh century Persia by Hassan Sabbah. Like many schismatic religious groups, the Assassins believed that Muslims, including mainstream Shiites, had taken a wrong turn. Islam needed to go back to its foundations. As far as other Muslims were concerned, Sabbah’s beliefs were…
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