What Are King Tides?

You may be hearing the term "king tides" recently on the news, connected to weather conditions.

What are "king tides?" A king tide is a non-scientific term for the highest predicted high tide of the year at a coastal location. 

What Causes King Tides?
Celestial alignment plays a role. These tides happen when the orbits and alignments of the Earth, Moon, and Sun combine to create maximum gravitational pull. They occur when the Moon is closest to Earth (called perigee) during a New or Full Moon.

Depending on the region, they often happen a few times a year during specific seasons, such as fall and winter. 

One common effect is called "sunny day flooding." The weather is fine, but these tides can push seawater over seawalls and up through storm drains onto streets even on clear, cloudless days with no storms. They also cause very low tides at alternate times of the day, which can expose marine life, sandbars, or shallow channels.

King tides are called "king" because they represent the highest, most dominant natural high tides of the year. Just as a king sits at the top of a hierarchy, these tides tower above normal daily and monthly high tides, creating the largest tidal range (highest highs and lowest lows). 

NOAA's National Ocean Service would refer to them as perigean spring tides. Besides when the Moon is at perigee, they often occur during specific times of the year when the Earth is also closest to the Sun (perihelion) or when weather and warm water expansion add extra height.

The Why of Buttoning a Shirt

On this site, I try to explain some deep topics, but I also hit a few lighter ones. 

If you have ever put on a shirt that was designed for someone of the opposite gender, you may have noticed that the buttons are on the “wrong” side. Men’s shirts button left over right, with buttons running down the right side and buttonholes on the left. Women’s shirts do the opposite, buttoning right over left. 

In the time before buttons, garments were laced together or fastened with brooches or clasps. Buttoned closures for garments only became prevalent in the 13th century with the advent of the reinforced buttonhole. 

The two opposing button configurations for men and women have existed for centuries. But why? 

Historians don’t know for sure, but some of the most common explanations involve military considerations. Medieval breastplates were formed of two separate and overlapping plates, and so that an enemy’s lance point would not slip between the plates, they were pieced together with the left plate overlapping the right. Why? Because it was standard fighting practice that the left side, protected by the shield, was turned toward the enemy.

Right-handedness accounts for about 90% of humans, and so swords were typically worn on the left side, so they could be drawn with the dominant right hand. Men’s shirts and jackets buttoning left over right would avoid catching the pommel of a sword in the opening, when drawing it right-handed.”

So, why didn't that just become the standard for women too? 

One plausible explanation is that those early buttons were often made from expensive materials such as gold, silver, and ivory, and were an indicator of status and wealth. Wealthy women with complex clothes often didn’t dress themselves and relied on the help of maids. 

I read some other explanations that seem less likely, such as breastfeeding. Due to right-hand dominance, women tend to hold their infants in their left arm to keep their right arm relatively free. So, the theory posits, a shirt with the buttons on the left makes it easier for mothers to unbutton using their right hand, while providing slightly easier access. 

Summer Vacation with Ancient Romans

Did you ever think about what the ancients did on summer vacations? I don't mean your grandparents. I'm talking about wealthy Romans who were fleeing the city heat for health resorts in Greece, taking mental photos of the Egyptian pyramids and partying on the Gulf of Naples.

The Gulf of Naples was the place to be. The ancient 1% built villas by the sea and up in the hills. As the poet Horace put it: "No bay in the world can rival the beautiful Baiae." There were excursion boats, and evenings might end with lavish oyster dinners.

More economical spots were Tibur (Tivoli today) Antium (now Anzio), and Baiae itself. You can't visit that last one now because it sank to the bottom of the sea. They weren't tanning, but the thing to do was to soak in the thermal baths. Ancient hot tubs. 

One of the more modest Roman couples enjoys a thermal beside the bay

The philosopher Seneca thought that all this was the absolute peak of Roman decadence.  "Why must I look at drunks staggering along the coast and endure the noise of parties blaring from sailboats?"

Some wore Roman "spa flip-flops" made of glass and filled with perfume for pampered feet.

If you really wanted to get away, Egypt was a big destination. The Pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx, the Lighthouse of Alexandria would all be on your guidebook list. 

Not into hedonism or sightseeing but interested in some history? 

Other travelers did the history-nerd tour: walking in Homer’s footsteps through Troy, or visiting famous battlefields like Marathon, where the Greeks beat the Persians in 490 BC. Try Naples or to Athens. Greece’s more ancient temples were popular. Look, here is where the Oracle of Delphi was, and over there is Mount Olympus, home of the gods. 

Did they actually have guidebooks? Greek author Pausanias (110-180 AD) essentially wrote one of the first-ever travel guidebooks, covering the sights of his homeland.

How about souvenirs? No t-shirts, but miniature pyramids, silver statues, little clay jars painted with the Lighthouse of Alexandria are at the gift shop.

Walden Enters the World

On August 9, 1854, Henry David Thoreau published Walden; or, Life in the Woods. 

His friend Ralph Waldo Emerson said he saw a “tremble of great expectation” in Thoreau just before publication day. 

Though the book is a classic now and Thoreau is established in American literature, things weren't so auspicious then. Thoreau’s previous book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849), a travelogue that he wrote with his brother, John Thoreau, sold fewer than 300 copies. On the day he got his 706 unsold copies back from the publisher, he wrote in his diary: “I have now a library of nearly nine hundred volumes, over seven hundred of which I wrote myself ...” 

Walden didn’t do much better. It took five years to sell off the first edition of 2,000 copies, and Thoreau did not live to see a second edition. He managed to arrange a nationwide lecture tour, but only one city made an offer, and so Thoreau kept his lectures to the Concord area. 

Since then, millions of copies of Walden in many editions have been sold.

Thoreau was deeply influenced by the transcendentalist movement, which emphasized individualism, self-reliance, and a close relationship with nature. He also became involved in the abolitionist movement and was a strong advocate for civil disobedience as a means of protesting unjust laws.

Thoreau’s health began to decline in the 1850s, and he died on May 6, 1862, at the age of 44, of tuberculosis. Despite his relatively short life, Thoreau’s influence has been enormous, and he is considered one of the most important figures in American literature and philosophy.