A fish that has 19 different names

Mackerel was originally an old French word, "maquerel" and when the Normans conquered the British in 1066, they brought maquerel into the English language.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) in 1989 listed 19 different mackerel spellings down through English-speaking history. When you consider that most people were illiterate at the time, there were no dictionaries, and no notion of "correct" spellings, it would have been highly unusual for only one spelling to predominate.

In any case, 19 is a lot different names to call a fish. Here's the complete list:

mackerel, macquerel, mackarell, makrall, macrill, mackril,macril, makarell, mackreel, makreill, maycril, maquerel, maccarel,mackrel, makrell, macrell, makral, mackerell, macrel, mackaral, makerell, macquerell, mackrell, makrel, makerelle, makerel, macrelle, makyrelle, makcaral, mackarel, mackeril

References:
Mackril! Or Is It Macrell? NPR.

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Kingfisher close-up - Deadly 60 - BBC video

BBC Worldwide: Steve Backshall and his team are gobsmacked as to just how close they can get to a kingfisher as they sail down a river at night.

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Endangered Seahorses - BBC video

BBC Worldwide: Philippe Cousteau and the team come face-to-face with one of the Indian Ocean's most mysterious creatures, the Seahorse. As the team race against time to identify one of the ocean's most cryptic animals, they make a remarkable discovery.

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Random Photo of the Week: Balltown, Iowa

Several years ago I found my favorite urinal-wall art of all time: a little pen-drawn map of Iowa, its full squat shape for all to see, with the simple block lettering: 'IOWA.' Next to it someone had scrawled, with an arrow, 'Idiots Out Walking Around.' Wish I had taken a photo.

I did take a photo outside Dubuque, Iowa, of a portrait of Iowa's overlooked Mississippi River valley landscape at Balltown, a high up village with a legendary chicken shack. Apparently this painting was made, in exchange for a meal or two, by 'traveling gypsies' half a century ago -- then lost under wallpaper. It was rediscovered shortly before my visit in 2001, while updating Lonely Planet's USA guide.

Interview on 76-Second Travel Show

Video blogger and Nova Scotian Cailin O'Neil of Travel Yourself was kind enough to ask me questions about the '76-Second Travel Show.' I talk about why I went '76,' where and how I got the travel bug, and share some traditionally bad advice on how to make videos yourself. Fun!

Here's the full interview.

Random Photo of the Week: Enter Nebraska

For many people, Nebraska is one of those states in the way. Between cities and mountains, here and there. But when I first drove into Nebraska, it meant something. Growing up in Oklahoma, Nebraska was a fierce yet respected football rival. So crossing the Kansas-Nebraska line for the first time, I leaned forward in my car set -- itching to note, survey, savor all the differences that come from something as artificial as a random state boundary not based on geography.

Attention soon turned to something else: the massive midnight cloud moving in from the west.

I grew up in tornado alley, but the only time I've been scared was that drive into Nebraska. As hail started to fall sideways across the deserted highway, I kept moving forward. Should I stop out here? A radio DJ was yelling, 'This is not a test. We under a severe tornado warning. Get someplace safe.' I finally reached a small town, and pulled behind a small dental office and waited for the storm to pass wondering if Okies were really welcome or not.

On the Radio: San Francisco's KGO

Saturday morning I spoke about Quebec City and the best places to go in the USA in 2011 on the super travel show on Radio KGO in San Francisco. If you're interested, my fun begins at the 27:30 mark.

Feature: '72 Moskvitch Roadtrip in Bulgaria

We all have dreams. I lived one of mine, buying and driving an old Soviet baby-blue car up/down the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. I wrote about it for the January edition of Lonely Planet magazine (here's the link to the story).

I'll post more photos soon.

Curling in Quebec City

Quebec City's famed Winter Carnival is underway, but I began my visit recently not at its ice sculptures, tube slides, skating rinks or 'caribou' (hot wine) stands. Instead I went straight from my hotel to the 98th Bonspiel, a curling championship held at the Jacques Cartier Curling Club. There I'd meet Serge -- wearing a tassled hat and red sweater filled with commemorative pins from past Bonspiels -- who bought me beer and chocolate, then explained some of the game.

'It's a SOCIAL event,' he said with a deep Quebecois French accent. 'If you wait, maybe you can try.'

Curling's a game that's sometimes seen with a smirk. Apparently Scottish in origin, it's only been a part of the Olympics since 1998 and is getting a bit more serious looks since last year's coverage from Vancouver's Olympics.

I'd never seen it in person. Teams were playing side by side on four 'sheets,' or lanes. They were from around Canada, and also the US and Switzerland: mostly gray haired guys, some with wool sweaters with curling themes stretched taut over front guts.

Ted, an English speaker with inoffensive bad breath from Montreal, noticed me struggling to comprehend and helped explain the strategy. 'People think it's a mistake when the first stone stops short of the house' -- or ringed target area. 'That's what you want to do: guard your house.'

I pretended to understand. On sheet one, the team with the red stones overshot the house on their first try. Ted shook his head, then turned away. He already knew they were going to lose the match. And, soon enough, they did.

Before long, Bonspiel 2011 was wrapping up, and I did get to try. Serge introduced me to Marcel, a solid Quebecois man speaking zero English and wearing a look like he might enjoy seeing a Yank fall on their face. We walked onto the coarse ice, and Marcel demonstrated twice, flawlessly, how to lean onto the ice, push off, and gently send the stone down the sheet. Usually you wear a special shoe, and a soul to glide on the ice, coarser than a skating rink. I'd be wearing my own.

I didn't fall, nor did I glide, or make much of an impact with my attempts. But back by the bar, the fellow curlers appreciated my willingness to join the club. One goateed curler from Regina, Saskatchewan -- whom I earlier had spotted high-fiving a teammate and bragging 'the last rock of mine was dead perfect, eh?' -- shared the secret: 'Years of practice, and years of after-parties. Mostly this is just social. We play to win, sure but we're friends on the ice.'

I want more friends on the ice too.

By the way, you can just show up and probably get lessons. But you may have to buy your own chocolate and beer.

Random Photo(s) of the Week: Green Bay Forever

If you grow up in Oklahoma, you have to fight the urge to like the Dallas Cowboys. It happened for me, early, on a Sunday after an Oklahoma loss to Texas the day before, when I saw gloating Texas fans at a Cowboys game, playing up the TV cameras and pointing to their Longhorn gear. And I've hated the Cowboys ever since.

Who to like in the NFL then? Easy, the Green Bay Packers. A throw-back team, unabashedly wearing green-and-yellow, not owned but run by a wayward Wisconsin town of 100,000. It's practically the anti-NFL team. Plus they have a history of beating Dallas.

The last time Green Bay won a Super Bowl, I woke early -- like 3am -- to get to a Saigon sports bar playing the game live. The owner didn't understand how to throw a Super Bowl Party well, and had a cover band from the Philippines onhand to play 'Hotel California' DURING the game. Angst of bleary-eyed ex-pats encourage the band to stick with a halftime performance.

Ten years ago I visited Green Bay with friends Chip Dalby and Tom Caw. We saw Brett Favre play, Brett Favre Drive, ate brauts, threw some pre-game balls, and watched Favre failed to rally the Pack against the Chicago Bears.

Doesn't matter. Packers are the anti-Cowboys. And more.