What Is An Arantius?
2005-03-19 11:53 - General
Arantius is the word that I have used as my online handle for quite a few years. The story goes something like this.
The very first internet account I (my family...) had was with a small local ISP, and before we signed up with them, we learned our email address would be in the form of username@mars.ispname.com. My dad and I, who would be the only people really using the account, thought it would be fun to choose marvin as a username. We were inspired by one of our favorite cartoon characters, Marvin the Martian.
Like small companies tend to do, that small ISP grew, and decided to change all sorts of things about their rates, their service, and so on. We eventually switched ISPs. Our email was no longer "@mars" and the username marvin was unlikely to be available at a larger ISP. Plus it wouldn't make sense anymore. So my father and I brainstormed for a while to choose a username. He, being a veterinary pathologist and having spent many many years in school to get there, had a good source of obscure words at his disposal. He said the word "arantius" and it stuck. It just sounded right, plus it does actually have a bit of a story.
As he explained it to me, arantius referred to the "arantius nodule" which is, for lack of a better term, a little bump on the valve of your heart. More specifically, it is a small nodule at the center of each of the aortic valve cusps
and it was named by Giulio Cesare Aranzi. I've been using it ever since.
