Everyday History

Picture this. You’re in the middle of a tense movie scene. The commander gives an order over the radio and there’s a brief pause, then a voice responds: “Roger that.” It's not “Okay.” It's not “Understood.” Not even “Got it.” Just… Roger that. It sounds really cool. But here’s the real question: Why “Roger”? Who is Roger? And why is everyone listening to him? This actually started with the alphabet. To understand this, we need to go back to a time before emojis, before texting - when communication had to be clear and fast, with no mistake. During early radio communication, especially in the military, there were big problems like static noise and misheard words. Imagine a soldier talking to another soldier with a walkie talkie and then was disruption. The other soldier trying to receive the information would think: “Did he say ‘B’ or ‘D’?” “Was that ‘M’ or ‘N’?” In life threatening situations, one wrong letter could mean the difference between success and disaster. S...

I'm sure you must have watched movies where the pilot suddenly grabs the radio and starts to shout, “Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!” and everything instantly feels 10 times more intense. It sound fun to say or hear but take note that it’s not just Hollywood drama. That single word carries real weight, and it could mean the difference between life and death. “Mayday” is actually an international distress call used by pilots and sailors when they are in serious, or immediate danger. Serious danger like an engine failure, fire onboard, or losing control of the aircraft. So it’s basically aviation’s way of saying, “This is an emergency. We need help right now.”  If you notice, it is never said once, but 3 times: “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday.” Why? Because radio communication can be messy. Signals cut in and out, voices overlap, and sometimes words get lost. So, repeating it ensures that whoever is listening cannot mistake it for anything else. In the 1920s, as air travel started growin...

You must have gone to the hospital yesterday to get a prescription for someone or for yourself, and then you tried reading the doctor's prescription and wondered if it was written in English or some secret agent code. I've been there before so you're not alone. For a very long time, terrible handwriting has been one of the biggest thing known about doctors. Patients in the hospital joke about it and even comedians make fun of it. But you see pharmacists, they somehow seem to read and understand it without breaking a sweat or squinting their eyes like we do. So the real question here is, do doctors actually have bad handwriting, or is there a reason why their handwriting are that way? Well, I did my research about it, and what I found has little to nothing to do with poor handwriting. For years, everything was written by hand.  In the 18th and 19th centuries, physicians/doctors recorded every patient's symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, and prescriptions using w...