K Is For. . .Everything

The letter "k" prominently appears in the annals of science, economics and entertainment fields, as well as in many other disciplines.

The eleventh letter in the English alphabet, “K,” may not be the most popular one, but perhaps it should be. Sure, children learn their “A-B-C’s,” and we characterize an entire range of something as including “everything from A to Z” and the letter “X” is a personal favorite of looming trillionaire Elon Musk, who has named virtually every company he has owned, “X,” as well as all thirty-eight of his children - it’s as if he didn’t even stop to consider alternatives such as “Doge,” or “Nikola” (you know, the first name of the guy who inspired the name of his automobile business, Tesla) or “Liam,” which has owned the top baby name spot in the United States for nine years in a row (I know boxer and grill salesman George Foreman named all of his children George, so naming conventions can vary widely among families), but “K” goes about its business quietly and professionally, and has staked quite a claim for its legacy.

The letter K also appears in the Greek alphabet, representing “Kappa”; Kappa is the tenth letter in the Greek alphabet, besting its English counterpart.

A recent well-publicized appearance by our friend “K” has been in discussions regarding economic theory: the so-called “K-shaped recovery,” which reflects improved economic performance for the wealthier segments of society, while the poorer segments experience lesser growth, further widening the wealth inequality gap - not as helpful to a nation’s economic outlook as say, “V-,” “U-,” “W-” or “L-”shaped recoveries. Who knew the practice of economics involved such an alphabet soup of alternatives? I’m relieved that our elementary education system is not using the “K-shaped recovery” graphic reflected below to teach kids how to read and write the letter “k”; that would create some pretty indecipherable writing samples. And, I shudder to think what lessons the “V-,” “U-,” “W-” and “L-”shaped recovery graphs would impart to our children. Best to keep our kids far away from discussions regarding economic theory.

You said something about science, no? Why, yes I did. Perhaps you’ve heard about a little thing called the periodic table of elements? Well, the element labeled with the atomic number 19, potassium, is also known by the letter K. As you know, “potassium is a silvery white metal that is soft enough to easily cut with a knife,” according to Wikipedia. The letter K also signifies the kelvin, the base unit of temperature measurement contained in the Kelvin scale. In order to provide context, the baseline of the Kelvin scale (i.e. 0 degrees Kelvin) equals 273.15 degrees below zero on the Celsius scale, or 459.67 degrees below zero on the Fahrenheit scale, but is equivalent to 0 degrees on the Rankine scale, a scale I bet you didn’t even know exists. You can see why it’s so difficult for us to decide if we need to wear a coat when we go outside.

Hollywood has also firmly embraced the letter K in its offerings, including a character named Agent K (or, simply “K”) in the Men in Black film series; Tommy Lee Jones played this character in classic, deadpan style. “K-Pop” is a popular music genre, which originated in the 1990’s, developed by South Korean musicians influenced by American dance music, hip-hop, R&B and rock music elements. I’m not really the target demographic for this type of music, but apparently it has some appeal to the teenybopper crowd. I’m more familiar with the offerings provided by K-Tel, who hawked schlocky compilation record albums on television back in the 1970’s. On the other end of the music spectrum, Mozart’s body of work was appended by the letter K, utilizing the Kolche catalogue system; as an example, Mozart’s “Eine kleine Nachtmusik” (“A Little Night Music”) is denoted by K.525 - perhaps that system makes it easier to make requests of the wedding reception band.

In literature, examples.com suggests, “. . .alliteration with ‘K’ is a linguistic art that brings a unique rhythm and musicality to language,” and it goes on to provide an example of such alliteration: “Karl the kangaroo kept kicking the kite in the park.” I get it, that sentence contains a lot of “K’s.” But, couldn’t you accomplish a similar result with, say, “T”: “Tiny Tim tiptoed through the tulips.” or “L”: “Lively lanterns light the lonesome lakeside lane.” or even “X” (which Elon would enjoy): “Xander’s xylophone produced xenophobes’ xenial xenogenesis.”? (Ed. note: these additional examples were also supplied by examples.com - we know what a xylophone is, but have no earthly idea what those other “X” words mean.)

The letter K also has meaning in computing (paired with the letter “B,” kilobyte is abbreviated kB, or KB); and in distance, in which K is paired with the letter “M” to reflect a kilometer; money (thousands is sometimes denoted by a “K” - “M” upstages it, however, representing millions, and billions is sometimes shorthanded to “B” - K is also the abbreviation for the Russian kopeck - there are roughly 10,000 kopecks to a dollar right now, so. . .screw it, I’m not mathing here; and in gemstones (a karat, represented by “K” indicates the proportion of gold in an alloy, out of 24 total - i.e. 24K gold is pure gold; and in retailing (Kmart had a good run, although there’s not much left these days - apparently, only three retail stores remain: in St. Thomas, Guam and Kendale Lakes, Florida - that’s where you have to go to take advantage of the “blue light special”); and in the cereal aisle (Kellogg’s Special K is positioned as a healthy-ish cereal); and in the vitamin business (Vitamin K is marketed as a dietary supplement - an unsavory cousin is kratom, also known as K, which is an herbal medication, notable for its lack of proven benefits for any disorder); and in a deck of cards, in which the king of each suit brandishes a “K” on its face (in addition to swords). . .

Baseball also deploys the K, using it as shorthand for strikeouts, useful when keeping a scorecard of a game, and for truncating newspaper headlines in order to fit the space available: “Ryan K’s 16” is a pithier headline than “Astros star pitcher Nolan Ryan records sixteen strikeouts in last night’s baseball game against the Giants.” And, for those of you keeping score at home, in order to keep the record straight, a backwards K is recorded when the umpire calls “Strike three!” without the batter swinging his bat (i.e. “a called third strike”); don’t ask me why, it just is.

Geography also boasts the presence of K, in the form of the mountain named K2, located in Pakistan and China, and which is second only to Mount Everest in elevation. The name K2 is derived from its setting in the Karakoram mountain range; it was the second mountain surveyed. Is there a K1, you might ask, as I did? There is indeed, but it adopted the name of Masherbrum a long time ago; K2 never received a new name - it’s akin to county officials never bothering to name a road, which will forever be known as County Road #6 - that’s just lazy, man! I understand that the risk is you end up with a worse name than Masherbrum, but, make an effort!

Members of the U.S. military during World War II would recognize the mostly unpalatable K-ration, a package containing three boxed meals to feed a soldier for one day. And, years later, “K cars” (and also Lee Iacocca, I suppose) were credited with staving off bankruptcy for the Chrysler auto company in the 1980’s. Man, those were some ugly cars though!

This exposition does not intend to drill down on the many fascinating words which begin with the letter K, except to note the Australia-centric trinity that is: kangaroo, koala and kookaburra.

So you see, the letter K has a long and storied history in many disparate fields, And it appears as if that contribution to society will endure: texting conventions include the use of “K” to signify agreement with or acknowledgment of an incoming message - thank goodness we were able to truncate the “O” from the “OK” response - that will save valuable keystroking time for all of us.

If your email address includes the letter "K" (or if it doesn't) simply type your email address below to subscribe - it's free, man!  Unless you choose to join Rule of Three in its extremely modest (and, needlessly complicated) effort to make a difference, by supporting the nonprofit organization of your choice (Note: After completing your subscription, please email us at: ruleofthreebs@gmail.com, indicating the name of the organization to which you wish to contribute, and a website address for them).