The Half Newsletter

I have such a busy week, I don’t have time to write more than half a newsletter. But that gives me a half-assed idea: I have half-a-mind to write about things that are only half. And the more I think about it, the more that idea seems not half bad.

So here’s what I found in my half-hearted search:

Half a house in Toronto

At 54½ Saint Patrick Street in Toronto, you’ll find this half house. According to Atlas Obscura, it was built some time in the 1890s but:

...a particularly sharky land holdings company began buying up property throughout the neighborhood in the middle of the 20th century. Eventually, the owners of the row houses caved, but not as a unit. Each half of the row houses' wholes were torn down at an excruciatingly slow pace… until 54½ remained the only one left.

...In a miraculous feat performed with clumsy and powerful machinery, a demolition crew managed to tear down 54 1/2's neighbor to the north with such precision as to not disturb any of the original facade on the building that was to remain.

Half a Formula 1 Race Car

In 2013, the Sauber Motorsport team cut an F1 car in half to show what’s inside.

They made a video about how they did it and what you can see.

Half-and-Half

It’s half cream and half milk. But I just found out there’s such a thing as fat-free half and half, which makes no sense to me. It doesn’t even look appetizing in the picture on the carton. Like, is that some sort of curdling happening in that coffee mug?

Damien Hirst’s “Mother and Child” (1993)

In this art piece, Hirst has split a cow and her calf in half, each one preserved for display in a separate glass case. Well, two separate glass cases, really.

Sometimes art is gross.

The Broloppet Half Marathon

The world’s largest half marathon had over 90,000 participants and 79,719 finishers. It began and ended at the Øresund Bridge on the Øresund Strait between Denmark and Sweden. It was originally held in 2000 and repeated in 2010 and 2025.

The Half Nelson Wrestling Hold

A nelson hold is a grappling move used in wrestling to control your opponent. Apparently you don’t capitalize nelson. It’s not a proper noun. Wikipedia has some theories about where the name came from, but in the spirit of this newsletter, I only half-read it.

There are variations on the nelson hold including the full nelson, quarter nelson, three-quarter nelson, and of course the half nelson.

Here’s a vintage image of a half nelson from the 1913 book Lessons in Wrestling & Physical Culture:

Half Sour Pickles

I don’t know why pickled cucumbers specifically got the honor of being just called pickles, but I do love them. And the more sour the better. But if you just want yours kinda medium-sour, then you want a Half Sour pickle. The level of sour-ness is determined by how long the pickle is fermented, not the ingredients.

Half the Battle

At the end of each episode of the cartoon G.I. Joe, there was a little animated skit with a useful message delivered from one of the good guys to little kids who were about to do something dumb. Some lessons include “Running away isn’t the answer” or “It’s better to tell the truth” or “Put reflectors on your bikes” or “How to stop a nosebleed.”

Luckily, someone has made a compilation of all 35 segments. Now you know. And knowing is half the battle!

Half Notes

Whoa, here’s something that feels like I should have known already but I’m just finding out now. These are musical notes as I learned them:

But I just found out that in British English, those have completely different names. The whole note is called a semibreve, the quarter note is called a crotchet, the eighth note is called a quaver (that one actually sounds familiar) and a half note is called a minim.

Okay that’s really all I have time for, this being just a half-newsletter and all. I was initially optimistic that I could finish everything I needed to do this week and still write a full newsletter, but I guess I was looking at the glass as half-full when it was really more like half-empty.

My solution to write a half newsletter was just kinda half-baked, and I will admit that freely rather than give you some sort of half-truth.

Okay, okay. Enough of this. At this point I’m clearly trying to be too clever by half.

I feel like this edition of the newsletter hasn’t really earned the part where I mention that you can support it by subscribing or giving a donation, but I’m going to mention it anyway just so I tell you that if you want, you and a friend could go halfsies.

And that’s it for a half a newsletter. Thanks for reading, as always.

David