Your guide to the Greek alphabet starting with Omicron | #86

Obsessed with Wordle? Here's the backstory ➡️

Hello,

One of the side-effects of Covid is that we’ve been forced to learn the Greek alphabet. A morbid joke that’s gone viral (hah!) suggests that we’ll soon run out of letters to name the dynamic disease. Quite a morose way to kickstart the year's first issue, but art is a reflection of life and right now it seems like life has taken a U-turn to 2020.

This week’s newsletter will cover Omicron and other Greek nomenclatures of the Covid virus.

Things we learnt this week 🤓

1. The variants of concern were named Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta. Others that emerged, which were variants of interest, were named Lambda and Mu. Epsilon, Zeta, Iota, Eta and Kappa were used for variants that did not meet those thresholds. The 15th letter of the Greek alphabet is ‘Omicron’ and translates to ‘little O’. (micro → little, and mega → great. Geddit?) Have you wondered why ‘O-mega’ was not chosen? Maybe WHO is saving that for the last, probably world ending variant, the big O!  Ah, speculations, speculations…

2. WHO skipped to Omicron and dodged a possible controversy by excluding ‘Nu’ and ‘Xi’. The rationale behind the decision was that ‘Nu’ might be confused with ‘new’, and ‘Xi’, a very common Chinese name might offend almost half the world. Speculations also suggest that it might have had something to do with not wanting to offend President Xi Jinping. We’ll refrain from making a bad pun here lest we’re banned in China.

3. Ever since the world’s been grappling with the pandemic and its various sinister forms, irrationality stemming from misinformation and ignorance have targeted certain races, brands, people and personalities. The latest being Omarion the artist who took to the internet to clarify that he wasn’t the variant Omicron. This had big “I’m not a cat” energy

   

4. And next on ‘Keeping up with Covid: Season 3’ is the IHU variant emerging from the South of France. Brought to you by the internet, we have below a meme that aptly represents our collective emotion!

PC: @DesiMemesTweets

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IWTK Recommendations 💌

1. The backstory to the word game that’s filling up your Twitter feed with colorful squares

   India Wants To Know - Panel Quiz Show @IWTKQuiz

   This is Josh Wardle. He and his partner loved playing word games. He created a game just for them to play and named it Wordle. Alas, no more privacy as more than 300,000 people have played it in the last week.

   

2. Happy Birthday Mr. Holmes. Here’s some Fun Facts about the world’s favorite detective that you probably didn’t know.

   India Wants To Know - Panel Quiz Show @IWTKQuiz

   Though the only direct reference to his age comes from “His Last Bow,” when Holmes, alias the Irish-American Altamont, is described as ‘a tall, gaunt man of sixty', Sherlockians have reserved 6th Jan for the mastermind's birthday. Wishing #SherlockHolmes a Happy 168th Birthday.

   

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   Merch Alert 🎁

   With lots of love, laughter, and puns we’ve created an all new, exclusive, limited-edition merchandise and words fail to express how stoked we are. If you’ve known us for a while, you know trivia is our staple and we love a good pun seasoned with some Bollywood and pop culture references. Our new bundle of joy consists of 

   1. A calendar that celebrates inspiring Indian women with commissioned illustrations.

   2. A sticker pack with 8 pun-tastic references that will have you chuckling for days.

   3. A mask that even Amitabh Bachchan would want.

   4. A mug that consoles you every time you pick it up.

   5. A diary perfect for brain farts and to-do-lists alike.

   

We’re shipping all over India and accepting orders till January 10th or till stocks last. So, hurry and grab your bundle now, at just Rs. 1,800!

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❤️ IWTK