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In Mandarin, ma means horse and hu means tiger; the idiom mamahuhu literally translates, then, as “horse horse tiger tiger.” In one of the fables that explains its origins, a slapdash artist paints a tiger’s head but changes his mind midway and completes the creature with a horse’s body. (Etymologically, it most likely began as a colloquialism borrowed from Manchu culture during the Qing dynasty.)
Forget About Perfection. Embrace ‘Mamahuhu.’
Vanessa Hua
Vladimir Putin really did seem to appear on Earth - or at least in the corridors of power in Russia - fully formed. At each step in his career, he was promoted for no particular reason, or because he seemed so devoid of personality that nobody could imagine him causing trouble. This culminated in his 2000 appointment as Yeltsin’s successor when “The world’s largest landmass, a land of oil, gas, and nuclear arms, had a new leader, and its business and political elites had no idea who he was.”
Dictator Book Club: Putin
astralcodexten.substack.com
USPS introduced self-adhesive stamps in the early 1990s, and by 2010, licking postage stamps was almost nonexistent (and not a moment too soon to guard against SF extortion plots!)
My Ordinary Life: Improvements Since the 1990s
gwern.net
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