To boldly go…
The Quest…
Man’s calling…
To boldly go…
As simple as opening the door to a strange room.
As complicated as unlocking the key to a new science.
The urge impels us all to take that first step into unchartered terrain.
Some would rather give others the initial chance.
But there comes a point when human nature drives us to follow those pioneers into a new land of innovation and invention.
That’s when we undertake The Quest.
The Quest.
To discover the undiscovered.
To explore the unexplored.
To know the unknown.
* * * * *
I wanted to write something special, something personal, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of mankind’s greatest voyage of exploration since Columbus… so far. It didn’t take me long to realize I had already written it and it had already appeared in The Sentinel. This Commentary originally appeared as “The Thrill of Beyond” in the July 20, 1989 issue of The Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel to mark the 20th anniversary of America’s lunar landing. Here it is in its entirety. (Click the link in the title to see the original in text form.)
Continue Reading “To the Moon and Back: A Personal Retrospective”
Where Does The Term ‘Fallen Flags’ Come From?
You say you have never heard of the term?
Vexillology, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, means “the study of flags.” It comes from the Latin word vexillum, which translates to drape or flag. Vexillum itself derives from the Latin velum, meaning “sail.” At some point in the 1950s, someone attached “ology” to vexillum and—voilà!—vexillology.
It’s not clear where and when the word was first used. A 1968 UPI article that ran in several papers, quotes Nathaniel Abelson, then head of the United Nations’ library map department. Abelson claimed the UN’s terminology unit invented the term, but Continue Reading “Where Does The Term ‘Fallen Flags’ Come From?”