From Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia: In geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral. It has four straight sides of equal length and four equal angles. Squares are special cases of rectangles, which have four equal angles, and of rhombuses, which have four equal sides. As with all rectangles, a square’s angles are right angles (90 degrees, or π/2 radians), making adjacent sides perpendicular. The area of a square is the side length multiplied by itself, and so in algebra, multiplying a number by itself is called squaring.
TMI, if you ask me.
There’s also the square where multitudes convene, largely in cities all over the world. The most famous in the US is Times Square, which, on New Year’s Eve, is quite the scene.
As an indie-pubbed author, I sold piles of my books, accepting cash, checks, and credit cards via Square. It was portable and free: a plastic white shape with a slot to swipe the credit card and means to connect to WiFi. It was convenient and a boon to small business.
Square is frequently used in phrases, such as “It’s hip to be square”, a line in a Huey Lewis and The News hit in the ’80s.
Conversely, it was not cool to be square in the ’50s. It was decidedly derogatory – a person who was rigid and unadventurous. A person who wasn’t likely to be my friend, though I was only in elementary school and wasn’t picky then.
Another phrase that’s been bandied about: “You can’t put a square peg in a round hole” – I know what that means, for I’ve spent a lifetime being that square peg.
I recently heard a new one: “Square the circle.” This idiom means to accomplish what appears to be impossible, especially in satisfying conflicting requirements.
Politicians, adept at strategic blather and derogatory remarks. annoy my husband and me so much that we’ve elected to not watch the news, opting for late-night satire instead. We mourn the loss of Stephen Colbert, the noble man who kept us informed with kindness during COVID, when other commentators masked up and fled for the hills.
Stephen Colbert squared the circle and achieved fame, but got fired for his refusal to be a square peg pushed into a round hole. He blurted truth to power with the sharp point of satire.
I’m not a square – I am a star. So is Stephen Colbert.
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