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MUNDANE MYSTERIES: How Did The Term “Box Office” Originate?

On the heels of this year’s Oscars ceremony, where so many “box office blockbusters” were honored, have you ever wondered where the term “box office” originated? You couldn’t be blamed for thinking it sprouted from the box-like nature of many old-fashioned box offices, which were enclosed, detached booths situated just outside theaters…but you’d still be wrong.

The actual “box office” beginnings most likely involved a different type of box: the balcony compartments along the edges of a theater, where rich patrons were able enjoy performances from a privileged vantage point without having to mingle too much with the commoners. When the phrase “box office” started appearing in newspapers during the mid-1700s, it specifically referred to the place where people could purchase box seats.

It didn’t take long for theaters to start offering regular tickets at box offices, too. Before that, you usually had to purchase them from some designated person or business in town or at the theater’s stage door. And that practice didn’t die out as soon as box offices began to catch on.

There are other theories behind how the phrase “box office” originated. The word “box” has been used to describe a money box or collection box since the 14th century, and, according to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the term “box office” could have originally referred to that kind of box. It’s also been suggested that “box office” dates back to the Elizabethan era, when balcony seating was starkly separate from the “pit,” the general admission section where low-paying theatergoers watched the show. But without any written evidence of the term “box office” from before the Georgian era, it seems most plausible that it was coined in reference to those box seats. From there, it was only a short leap to using the phrase as a metonym for overall ticket sales, a practice that first gained popularity in the early 1900s.

Got a Mundane Mystery you’d like solved? Send me an email:  [email protected].

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MUNDANE MYSTERIES: What Are Leap Days & Why Do We Have Them?

At some point in elementary school, you most likely learned that there are 365 days in a year, since that’s how long it takes for Earth to complete one full rotation around the sun. What you might not have learned, though, is that a year isn’t exactly 365 days…it’s actually more like 365.2421 days.

So, to ensure our calendar year begins correctly as Earth begins a new revolution around the sun, about an extra quarter of a day each year has to be accounted for, or 1 day every 4 years. Way back in the day, the Egyptians had already been doing that for a while before Europeans finally caught on in 46 BCE, when astronomer Sosigenes aided Roman emperor Julius Caesar in devising what we now know as the Julian calendar, with its 365 days, grouped into 12 months, and an additional “leap day” (February 29th) every four years.

But .25 isn’t 0.242 (obviously), and trying to round that 0.242 up each year created its own problem, since it didn’t quite add up to a full day every four years. And that little discrepancy meant that, after 128 years, the calendar year ended up starting a day before the Earth had made its full rotation around the sun. And by the 14th century, the calendar year was starting a whole 10 days before Earth had completed its orbit!

So, in 1582 Pope Gregory XIII decided he was going to nip this in the bud by encouraging everybody to just skip a leap day every so often. And while that sounds flippant on the surface, it’s actually Pope Gregory XIII’s Gregorian calendar that we still use today. And it omits the leap day during years evenly divisible by 100 but not by 400. For instance, the year 2000 included a leap day because it’s divisible by both 100 & 400. Meanwhile, the year 2100 will not include a leap day, since, while it is evenly divisible by 100, it’s not also divisible by 400.

Truth be told, though, Pope Gregory XIII’s correction to Julius Caesar’s over-correction was, itself, still a bit of an under-correction. So, our leap day protocol is most likely going to have to be readdressed…in about 10,000 years.

Got a Mundane Mystery you’d like solved? Send me an email:  [email protected].

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MUNDANE MYSTERIES: What’s The Correct Way To Pronounce “February”?

Now that the 2nd month of the year is almost over, let’s address a common issue:  just how is the month we’re in supposed to be pronounced?

Here in the US, the most common pronunciation of the word is “FEB-yoo-air-ee.” Both The Merriam-Webster Dictionary & The American Heritage Dictionary consider the common pronunciation correct, along with the less common, more traditional standard “FEB-roo-air-ee.” (which seems to irritate fans of the common pronunciation). But the loss of the first “r” in February didn’t just happen recently thanks to lazy Millenials or Gen-Z-ers. No, people have been avoiding that first “r” in February for, at least, the last 150 years…maybe even longer.

Thanks to certain conditions dealing with word stress & the other sounds in a word, we human beings just don’t seem to like having two r’s so close to each other in a word. And there’s a name for that linguistic situation, where we drop one sound because another of the same sound is too close to it: it’s called “dissimilation”, and it affects lots of languages, not just English. Some other words where people tend to drop one of the r’s: surprise, governor, berserk, paraphernalia, caterpillar, southerner, prerogative (along with plenty more). And while not everybody drops the r’s in those words, not many folks seem to get too riled up when they hear someone else do it.

There are, however, a few cases of “r” dissimilation that get people very riled up, namely in the words library & February. Library attracts attention thanks to its association with commonly disparaged dialects. February only seems to attract attention when someone asks what the proper pronunciation should be.

Things are a tad different over in the UK, where, certain British accents have the pronunciation of February including all the r’s but shortening the word’s syllables from four to three, so that it’s pronounced “FEB-ruhr-ree.” Meanwhile, down under in Australia, they go yet another route by using something close to our American “FEB-yoo-air-ee” pronunciation, but they shorten it to just three syllables (FEB-yuh-ree).

But whether you’re annoyed by people who don’t drop the first “r”, or you’re tired of being ridiculed because you pronounce the word as it’s written, you can take heart…because, however you pronounce it, the shortest month is, thankfully, almost over for another year.

Got a Mundane Mystery you’d like solved? Send me an email:  [email protected].

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Andy Webb, a 27-year Radio entertainer & content creator, is WFRE’s Program Director & host of “The Free Country Free Ride” weekday afternoons from 3pm-7pm.

From his very first job in 1995 in his hometown of Meridian, MS, Radio has been the only occupation Andy’s ever known; from the age of reel-to-reel tape to today’s digital audio, he worked his way up through late-night air shifts all the way up to morning drive. Andy’s been featured across many different formats, including Country, Classic Rock, Adult Contemporary, Hot AC, Southern Gospel, and even Urban AC.

As testament to his talents & commitment to fun-yet-informative Radio, Andy was awarded the Mississippi Association of Broadcasters’ “Radio Personality of the Year” award 4-out-of-5 years, from 2006 to 2011. And he’s been named one of the “Best Program Directors in Country Radio” by Radio Ink magazine in both 2022 & 2023.

Andy attended The University of Southern Mississippi on an Opera Performance scholarship, but he always followed the path Radio set before him, a path which has taken him from his hometown to Hattiesburg, MS, to Charleston, SC, and now Frederick, MD.

Andy is devoted to his wife, Emma (WFRE’s Midday host), and daughter, Isabel, and loves spending his infrequent free time golfing, wood-working, motorcycle riding, and horseback riding.

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