Today’s word of the day, courtesy of the Dictionary Project, is conundrum, a noun which means “a riddle, with an answer that is a pun or play on words” or “a perplexing or difficult question or problem” (https://www.dictionaryproject.org/). If you are familiar with the famous quotation by Winston Churchill describing the Soviet Union in 1939, you probably know that the word conundrum is not in it, but it could have been (“A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma”).

What’s even more interesting about this word is its history. It entered the language in the “1590s, an abusive term for a person, perhaps meaning ‘a pedant;’ c. 1600, ‘a whim;’ 1640s, ‘pun or word-play,’ a word of unknown origin, said in 17c. to be Oxford University slang. Perhaps the sort of ponderous mock-Latin word that was once the height of humor in learned circles; Skeat suggests Latin conandrum ‘a thing to be attempted’ as the source. Also spelled quonundrum. From 1745 as ‘a riddle in which some odd resemblance is proposed between things quite unlike, the answer often involving a pun.’ (An example from 1745: ‘Why is a Sash-Window like a Woman in Labour? because ’tis full of Panes’)” (https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=conundrum).

Let’s break this down. In the 16^th and 17^th centuries, scholars, who always wrote, taught, and spoke in Latin, went so far as to make up Latin words and phrases. The most famous mock Latin phrase is probably illigitimi non carborundum, which means “don’t let the illegitimate ones get you down.” This is also called Dog Latin, and it can be a bit silly. For instance, the nonsensical Latin phrase semper ubi sub ubi would transliterate as always where under where, but when you say it out loud in English, it seems to mean something else.

On this date in 2007, J. K. Rowling finished the seventh of the Harry Potter novels, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. We probably all know, more or less, the story of Rowling and Harry Potter, how she was a single mother, struggling financially, when she published the first of the Harry Potter novels in 1997. And how she became one of the wealthiest people in the world because of the popularity of the novels and then the movies. We may even know that she is British.

What we may not know is that she did a lot of her writing in Edinburgh, Scotland. In the early days of her time in Edinburgh, where she had moved after separating from her husband in Portugal and where her sister lived, she wrote in cafes. In particular, she wrote in Nicolson’s Café on Nicolson Street, and at the Elephant Café on George IV Bridge.

In 2006, she was struggling to finish the last novel. She said, “there came a day where the window cleaner came, the kids were at home, the dogs were barking and I could not work and this light bulb went on over my head and I thought, I can throw money at this problem. I can now solve this problem. […] I thought I can go to a quiet place so I came to this hotel because it’s a beautiful hotel, […] and I ended up finishing the last of the Harry Potter books in this hotel” (https://www.therowlinglibrary.com/2016/06/01/the-balmoral-hotel-where-j-k-rowling-finished-harry-potter-and-the-deathly-hallows/).

The hotel she worked in is the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh. The Balmoral has turned the suite where she stayed during those six months or so into the J. K. Rowling Suite. You can stay there, if you have enough money. And I have been to Edinburgh, and you can see the cafes (though the Elephant has, apparently, suffered damage from a fire in 2021) and the Balmoral.

Edinburgh is actually a very interesting city, so I recommend visiting it if you have the opportunity. When I visited with two of my kids, we went on a couple of walking ghost tours and learned quite a few interesting things.

And while I’m sharing about my trip to Edinburgh, I want to give a shout out to a friend, Charlie Long. I met Charlie on a previous trip to the UK. We met at a restaurant in Oxford and chatted for about 20 minutes. Charlie is a former Royal Marine and a really nice guy. When my kids and I were planning our trip to Edinburgh, we were scheduled to fly into London City Airport. I contacted Charlie through FaceBook and asked him the best way to get from the airport to Edinburgh, where we had an AirBnB reserved. Charlie said he’d pick us up and the airport and drive us; he had the day off, yes, but it was like a six-hour drive. I really appreciate what he did for us, but Charlie is a bit of a puzzle.

As I said, do visit Edinburgh, though you probably should fly into Heathrow and take the train from instead of calling on the Royal Marines.

The image today is of the J. K. Rowlling Suite at the Balmoral Hotel. The desk is where she finished The Deathly Hallows (https://www.therowlinglibrary.com/2016/06/01/the-balmoral-hotel-where-j-k-rowling-finished-harry-potter-and-the-deathly-hallows/).