Interesting Facts for the Interested

Fact the First: Since I have started my summer reading program, I have encountered the word "autochthonous" 3 times. This would not be so shocking, except for the fact that before this week, I have run into the word autochthonous a grand total of one time. Ever. And that was in Ancient Greek class, when we were talking about English words of Greek origin. (For those of you who know Ancient Greek or were involved in this discussion, you might be less than surprised to know that the words "heterochthonous" and "allochthonous" also exist- and yes, they mean what you think they mean.) Maybe when writers are writing about Greece, they feel the need to use a word of Greek origin, instead of the more common, but Latinate, word "indigenous"? Maybe they just like cool words? (I like cool words.) Maybe they think that the letter combination "chth" looks really cool on paper? (It does. It really, really does.) This is a mystery.

Fact the Second: The yo-yo, it seems, originated in Ancient Greece about 3,000 years ago, making it one of the oldest toys.

Fact the Third: Another very old item still around today is, in fact, hummus. This appears to have had its origins in the ancient Near East, though we don't seem to know much about this. I made hummus this morning, and it is very good. I am proud of my homemade hummus, especially since I really only vaguely followed the recipe. (Where by "vaguely" I mean "not at all".) My feeling is, the Ancient Greeks didn't have recipes, so why should I?