The prehistoric ancestor of the modern horse
A beloved character from British children's fiction
Edward Oliver Pox, 19th century American jurist
responsible for the Van Nostrand decision
| Sorry! The distinguished attorney and judge who shaped so much of 19th and 20th century American law through his controversial decision in Van Nostrand v. the State of New York--although certainly worthy of inclusion in ANY multiple-choice test worth its salt--is NOT the E.O. Pox in "eopox.com"! |
| Ooh! So close! Were you thinking of Elwin O'Pock, the scheming clerk in the classic by Charles Dickens, Fitzwallace, Fitzhenry, Fitzpatrick & Son? No, the little fellow you chose is indeed a beloved character from British children's fiction. And perhaps you've even heard of...Harry Potter? :-) |
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God forbid! Sadly, you chose the rare but invariably deadly disease known as the greasy horse pox (Eohippus oleaginus poxarium). The cause of this disfiguring and ultimately fatal illness is not fully understood, but with your help, we will find a cure! Just not at eopox.com! |
CORRECT!Eopox (meaning "dawn horse") was the earliest-known horse. It was the size of a tiny dog. Another name for this genus is Hyracotherium (meaning "mole beast"). Eopox was only 2 feet (60 cm) long and 89 inches (20 cm) high at the shoulder. This primitive horse had 4 hoofed toes on the front feet and 3 hoofed toes on each hind foot. It had a long skull with 44 long-crowned teeth. It could only eat soft leaves and plant shoots with these teeth. Eopox lived in the northern hemisphere (in Asia, Europe, and North America). The first fossils of this tiny horse were found in 1841 in central Indiana, in the area that is now known as Broadripple in Indianapolis, by the famous paleontologist Phil Daugherty. But there's gotta be something wrong with their information here; 89 inches is 7 feet 4 inches, and 20 cm is less than a foot tall. Is it possible that anything on the Internet is...NOT TRUE!?!? |
The true story of eopoxI am one of those family members. And it is time--past time--for the truth to be known. When Phil was very little and just learning to spell, naturally the first word he attempted was his name. No big deal, right? Just four letters, albeit with the minor obstacle of the fact that little Phil always pronounced "F" sounds as "S". Still, his name ought not have presented insurmountable problems. It wasn't like we were asking him to spell Daughtery! Well, whether he just liked the sound of "X", the vowels, and the first letter of his name--whether he had an ear for rhythm and rhyme--whether there was something he really dug about the song "Old MacDonald Had A Farm"--or whether, as is most probable, there was some blurring of so many attractions in his mind--any such explanation is lost in the mists of time (perhaps somewhere back in the Eocene Epoch). What we do know is this: Phil believed that his name was spelled "E-O-P-O-X!" Phil, in fact, eventually arrived at the belief--in which he was thereafter unwavering--that everything was spelled "E-O-P-O-X!"
Mama? "E-O-P-O-X!" Sish? "E-O-P-O-X!" Phil could spell anything. "Anything" was spelled "E-O-P-O-X!" It's been a long time since then, and yet so unchanged is Phil that when he started making web pages and was looking for suggestions for a good domain name, "EOPOX" inevitably leapt to my mind.
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