#FunWithFacts Archives – THE PAGE TURNS

March 14, 2025March 20, 2025

A Disjointed Post

Rendered by Google AI, this Frankenstein robot drawing is the only creative AI used here

Surgery is the topic of today’s post, namely because I had shoulder arthroplasty last Tuesday. The technique was reverse shoulder replacement and, as you ask, what is that? be assured that I will get there. We have to cover a little anatomy, anthropology, Popular Mechanics, history (of course), and technology along the way.

Fish Gotta Swim, Horses Gotta Run, Humans Gotta Throw Spears

Let’s talk about joints, specifically shoulders, ball-and-socket joints, and the term synovial. I had originally thought that fish had no ball-and-socket joints, and I was going to claim that it was the reptiles, crocodiles crawling out of the water, who began to develop those movable arm and leg joints rather than fins. But it turns out that, even at the beginning, fish had some types of ball-and-socket joints in their jaws, in their vertebrae, and even in their fins.

Synovial=(Greek) put together+egg=the shape of certain joints

The word synovial is important here because it means that within rigid bones, there is a hollow part and a bumpy part that fit together. Even with fish, there were hollow/bumps that fit together in fins and jaws which allowed for more flexibility and rapid movement. When reptiles developed the ability to walk on land and swim in the water, those fins turned into longer bones with multiple places for movable joints.

September 25, 2024September 25, 2024

La Serenissima II: Venetian Troubles, Venetian Dreams

Part One of my tourist musings on Venice addressed its creation story: the refugees building the lagoon, then constructing their legends about St. Mark and his winged lion. Story upon story upon story.

Venice rose in wealth, trading, fighting, and conquering, both infidels and allies. The Crusades increased their wealth, until they mounted a Crusade of their own that turned into atrocity. They covered their deeds with art, religion, and parties, even as the money dried up and their status as a maritime power was eclipsed. Once the facade peeled, they invested in attracting visitors to view their beautiful, decaying things. Even that has now become part of the problem.

September 19, 2024September 23, 2024

La Serenissima I: The Invented City

Santa Maria della Salute in Venice, beautiful among the clouds. All photos by kajmeister unless otherwise indicated.

My bags are unpacked, laundry put away, and the trip is over. Yet there’s one more story I should write, about the last place we visited, Venice. We experienced so much in five days there that it has filled two posts, mostly because Venetian history is convoluted. Those who took up residence ricocheted from one kerfuffle to another, like the tides pinging the sides of the Adriatic. They invented themselves, so the question is, what are we to make of their invention?

The Most Serene, Queen of the Adriatic, the Floating City, The Dominante, the City of Bridges, of Masks, of Canals… Venice has had as many names as there are perhaps islands. It is most serene and tranquil, in the way that a swan is tranquil and graceful above the water while its feet flail madly below.

Venice’s most famous poet, Veronica Franco, was a courtesan; another famous writer, Giacomo Casanova, a rake. Famous traveling son Marco Polo was an exaggerator who did not even write his own story–his travels were written by a romance writer while they both languished in jail. I’ve written of Veronica, of Marco, and even of Venice before, but on the second visit, I noticed more than just the “beautiful decay” that I mentioned before. The masks that are one of its key symbols are revealing of its history. Venice is even masked unto itself, profiting from its self-invention.

But what else could a city be, built by those on the run, who threw trees and dirt in the water to build their fantasies on? Who grew rich transporting thieves? Who invented a patron saint, with a symbol to hawk to the tourists? Who looked both east and west, and, in battling both, lost its own identity? Who, even now, welcomes the visitors that it shuns? Same as it ever was. The most beautiful, the most serene, the most crowded, the most mysterious.