Even children at play know that when you're in a life-threatening emergency — maybe you need to be rescued from an island filled with human-eating crabs that's also surrounded by lava — the way you let the world know you're in trouble is to wave your arms and signal distress by repeatedly shouting three simple letters: SOS.
You can write them on the beach, send them via Morse code or, if you have a pen, write them on your hand and flash them at passersby. We all know that sending out an SOS signal is the best chance you've got at being rescued.
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So, what does SOS mean? An SOS message must mean something important, right?
Nope. The letters SOS stand for nothing. Not "Save Our Ship," not "Save Our Souls" — it wasn't even originally designed to stand for letters of the English alphabet. Yet, it's the standard distress signal most people know.
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