Things I have learnt or remembered today, in the honest plying of my trade:
1. Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born in Ottery St. Mary in Devonshire. Ottery, I tell you. How he managed to spend the rest of his life in bouts of intermittent misery I can't begin to fathom.
2. Wikipedia (bless its vaguely disreputable but otherwise excellent socks) has a page on the etymology of countries' names, and it turns out that the Isle of Man* is named for Manannán mac Lir, the Brythonic and Gaelic equivalent to the god Poseidon. Way to intimidate the opposition in the America's Cup, no? Or the 100m fly at the Olympic Games?
3. English doesn't just have the word "zoomorphism" (ascription of animal characteristics to a non-animal); it's also got "theriomorphism", ascription of the characteristics of a wild beast to a non-wild-beast. I guess this is the difference between calling your colleague a pussy-cat and a tiger. Not that you should do either. There's no call for metaphor in the modern workplace.
* Isle of Man: (a) not actually a country, (b) birthplace of one of my numerous great grandparents, or something (I don't always pay attention), and (c) associated by reputation with those cats without the tails, who are no relation to my great grandparent, despite what you might infer from this Beatrice impostor.
5 comments:
So cheerful and otterly sweet! Tragically today I'd be writing "reasons why I loathe my job immoderately".
But what else is a meta for?
Good pt., Timty.
Mitz, das ist nicht so gut. Wish it weren't so.
Hmmph!Harrumph! Typical Saesneg mythological illiteracy!
Manannán mac Lir isn't the same as Manawydan fab Llŷr. Manannán was clearly *Irish*, while Manawydan was *Brythonic*. Different god.
And don't get me started on the Poseidon nonsense. :P
Man was named after the Irish one, obviously.
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