Elliott's Quarantine Quintet

Welcome back to Elliott's Quarantine Quintet!     1. Light-year While this unit may first bring to mind Buzz Lightyear from the Toy Story movies, it is a common unit used in space to show things such as the distance between stars. The unit is derived by the distance that light would travel in a year. One light year is approximately 5.8786 x 10^12 miles (that's 5,878,600,000,000 miles) or approximately 3.1039 x 10^16 feet (that's 31,039,000,000,000,000 feet).     2. Parsec Han Solo bragged about making the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs, but, as any Star Wars nerd will all too happily tell you, a parsec is a unit of distance, not time. The unit is derived from something having to do with astronomy and trigonometry that I don't understand (and would need Neil deGrasse Tyson to explain) and is also used when relating astronomical distances. The bottom line is that a parsec is approximately 1.9174 x 10^13 miles that's (19,174,000,000,000 miles), or about 3.3 light-years.     

Welcome back to Elliott's Quarantine Quintet! We are beginning Week 10 of EQQ. A portmanteau is "a word blending the sounds and combining the meanings of two others." Such words come in handy when trying to convey an idea that no one word totally captures. 1. Brunch (breakfast and lunch) When you eat a meal at 11 in the morning, it's not really breakfast, and it's not really lunch. That's where this term comes in handy. Brunch is probably the portmanteau that I (and most people) use most often. 2. Spork (spoon and fork) I'm a bit surprised that this utensil - which combines the uses of two utensils into one - is not more widely used. I am ready to join the movement to mainstream the spork.  3. Bionic (biology and electronic) The use of technology to enhance human bodies is an age-old idea, and, with recent technological improvements, as well as those to come in the near future, I think we will soon see a greatly increased use of bionics. 4. Tween (between

Welcome back to Elliott's Quarantine Quintet! The summer of 1969 is sometimes referred to as "the Summer of Love," which got me thinking about what the summer of 2020 might be referred to one day.     1. The Summer of Isolation With social gatherings either discouraged or forbidden, we are missing out on customary (and much needed) social interactions. For me at least, there has been a strong recurring feeling of loneliness.     2. The Summer of Despair COVID-19 has caused massive amounts of illness and death as well as job losses and other strains on life.     3. The Lost Summer Many summer camps, parks and swimming pools are closed. Large backyard gatherings such as barbecues are strongly discouraged. There will be no baseball for at least the first half of the summer. Basically, the summer of 2020 hasn't had many of the hallmarks of summer.     4. The Summer that Changed Everything While I do believe that a COVD-19 vaccine or at least some sort of medical treatment

Welcome back to Elliott's Quarantine Quintet! I have not had the time to look into the etymology behind the names of the instruments that made this quintet.     1. Glockenspiel This percussion instrument - which is basically a xylophone except with bars made out of metal instead of wood - gains the top ranking in the quintet by a mile. I dare you not to enjoy saying its name.     2. Piccolo I grew up watching Dragon Ball and was quite the fan back in my day. I cannot hear the name of this woodwind instrument - which is essentially a miniature flute - without picturing the green character from Dragon Ball.     3. Tam-tam There's just something cool about words that feature repeating syllables, which is earns this percussion instrument - basically a large gong (who knew there were different types of gongs?) - the third spot on this quintet.     4. Double bassoon I suppose one could play its smaller orchestral woodwind cousin, the bassoon, but it sounds so much cooler to be playin

Welcome back to Elliott's Quarantine Quintet! This is the first post of week nine of EQQ. Most states have several unofficial nicknames, so, to keep things consistent, I am only considering official state nicknames. For the sake of objectivity (in an otherwise completely subjective ranking), I have omitted Texas (the Lone Star State) from this ranking.     1. The First State-Delaware  Delaware gets to claim this unique title due to its being the first of the thirteen colonies to ratify the Constitution. That is certainly a fact of which all Delawarians can take great pride.     2. The Keystone State-Pennsylvania A keystone is the central piece at the top of an arch which holds the whole thing together. In a more metaphorical sense, a keystone is the most important part of something. Pennsylvania claims this nickname due to its significant role in the independence movement (i.e. home to Independence Hall, Constitution Hall, the Liberty Bell, etc.).     3. The Centennial State-Colora

Welcome back to Elliott's Quarantine Quintet! We've made it eight week's, folks. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic (at least in Houston) does not seem to be any weaker than it was when I started. This post is part B to Post #23 from Wednesday about my top 5 names for males of animal species ( https://quarantinequintet.blogspot.com/2020/07/post-23-my-top-5-names-for-males-of.html ).     1. A female chimpanzee is called an empress And I bet they constantly remind all of the other animals of that fact. Also, a male chimpanzee being called an emperor was #2 in Wednesday's quintet.     2. A female chinchilla is called a velvet An appropriate name due to its soft skin.     3. A female wolverine is called an angeline Anything that references an angel is a good name to have.     4. A female dragonfly is called a queen Same as #1, I bet female dragonflies constantly remind the other bugs of this fact.     5. A female fox is called a vixen Something about the word sounds elega