the.com/remote
A tiny plastic god you can never find, worshipped from the couch.
means Far away in space, time, or connection — or the handheld device that lets you control something from a comfortable distance.
from From Latin 'remotus,' the past participle of 'removere,' to move back or away — 're-' (back) plus 'movere' (to move), the same root that gives us 'remove' and 'motion.' So a remote place is literally one that has been 'moved away,' and the couch-bound clicker is named for the distance it conquers.
- button graveyard
- Most buttons get pressed maybe three times ever
- couch abyss
- Statistically vanishes into cushions on a cosmic schedule
- infrared age
- Most still beam invisible light, like a 1950s laser
- channel surf
- Coined in 1986 as TV-flipping became a sport
- sticky truth
- Among the germiest objects in any household
tristan da cunha — inhabited island in south atlantic ocean, 2,434 km from nearest continent with ~260 residents
pitcairn islands — british overseas territory in south pacific, 5,000 km from nearest continent with ~50 residents
alert nunavut — northernmost permanently inhabited place on earth at 82.5°n in canadian arctic