A Bit Of Greek And Latin For You

How Does The Sunday Begin at BOOJUM! Mansion?
     Oh I thought you'd never ask.
     First order of business, check Blogger for final traffic figures, scan Facebook for opportunites to smarm, check Twitter, see what's been added to G-mail.
     Then for the quotidian ablution, and off to the kitchen for a big pot of tea, a small glass of fruit juice and toast & jam.  Then it's time to put some serious reading in - finished "One To Count Cadence" and "The Third Reich At War".

For once, minus a cat intent on sitting on my book

     Both books equally interesting and equally grim, in their own different way.  "OTCC" is by Jim Crumley, whose books seem to be mostly out of print here in the UK; the version I have is an American import, rather pricey at £11 a go, so maybe I need to check out Abebooks*.

Anthrax
     This is the Greek bit of the bit.
      What does it mean? Conrad is prettttty certain most of you have heard of the word "anthrax" in connection with the disease agent Bacillus Anthracis.
     Actually it means "coal".  You may - or may not - have heard of "Anthracite", one of the most pure and energetic varieties of coal, one which burns without smoke and with a clear blue flame.
     Rather more repulsively, the disease is named after the big black sores it creates on those suffering from it - hence "coal".

Anthrax is horrid.  Have a picture of a man playing a Theremin instead

Torpedo
     This is the Latin bit of the bit
     Conrad wondered, when the word "torpor" popped into his head, if it and the word "torpedo" had a common root, and - guess what! - they do.  Not really obvious, but it's there.
     "Torpor" is a state into which certain animals fall, daily or seasonal; you would be more familiar with the term "hibernation" than torpor, but it's the same thing and the word itself means "numb".
     How do you get to

<excuse me, I'm uploading yesterday's CDs into I-tunes, so there are going to be pauses>

     - an underwater missile from "numb"?  Well, the torpedo was named after the fish, one of those species that generate electricity to either stun prey or alarm predators, and one is expected to feel numb after being shocked by a torpedo.

Erm.  Not quite  the streamlined cylindrical fish I expected

     Hence the torpedo, underwater missile variety, although the phrase about feeling numb also applies.
    
     Here An Aside
     "Why is the torpedo so deadly, Conrad?" exclaim you the audience.  "Tell us! Tell us!"
     Because it is designed to hit warships below the waterline, where the target is in
     immediate danger of sinking, and a torpedo is small enough to be mounted on small,
     fast, manouvreable craft that thus present a big threat to major warships.  Thus the
     old dreadnought battleships of pre- and World War One vintage had a big bulge of
     armour at the waterline known as the "torpedo bulge".  To combat the menace of
     torpedo-boats, a small class of warship known as the "torpedo boat destroyer" came
     into service, soon shortened to "destroyer".  Also -
     <Mister Hand intervenes to move things along in the interests of brevity?

Deserate for entertainment, U-Boat crews came up with the torpedo-see saw ...

The Intermediate Notebook Has Turned Up Again, Hurrah!
     Here it is in the rightful order of things:

     I had put it aside in the kitchen, interleaved amongst the trays, making it hard to spot.
     I know, I know, it's only a notebook, but Conrad is of that generation who needed a piece of paper and a fountain pen** to express anything.

Forerunner Foray


There you go

     Conrad rather doubts any of you misanthropes are aware of the works of Andre Norton, so he will fill you in:  she was an American science-fiction writer (yes <gasp> a woman) who came on to the scene in the Fifties and departed in 2005, writing prolifically for all that time.  Conrad read a lot of her stuff whilst at primary and secondary school, including the above title, and none of it since.  So it will be interesting to see how this particular novel stands up after a gap of forty years.


Finally
     Yes, Conrad is exploiting Edna again, but Wonder Wifey did it first, so that makes it okay.

Generate blog traffic, Edna, or no doggy treats for you***!

*  As if Conrad needs an excuse to check out books on Abebooks
**  And not ever, ever EVER a biro.  Biro's are wicked and evil.  Not only that - they are - Hungarian!  Yes really.  Invented by Ladislas Biro.
***  A hollow threat - Anna would box my ears were this ever carried out