A Name In The Brain, Again

Because I Don't Wish To Repeat Myself -

Which might bore you a tad, I did a check on one of those names that pop up in the old cerebellum from time to time, this one being "Waunchope".  This pr

LOOK OUT! FLYING SQUIRREL ATTACK!

     <hastily ducks for cover>

     Have they gone?  As I was saying, this probably means something in Anglo-Saxon yet I cannot find a definition.  One to ponder on, possibly; they tend to come in two varieties, either the description of a place or a personal occupation.

     I posted an item about this in November last year, stating that the only thing extant with it as a name was an electrical company down South.

And these

     This time, however, a blog that seemed to be done by a wargamer came up a few times, from "Khaki Drill" no less.  Art?

http://khakidrab.blogspot.com/ is the link to Mr. Drab's home page, lest he become wrathful that I have poached one of his pictures.  Here we see one of the Jacobite armies that invaded England when the Scots ran out of things to do, or got bored of fighting each other, and Mr. Drab states that their commanders were Saint Ruhe, Dundee and <drum roll and trumpets> Waunchope!
     I know it's small earth-tremor in Hampton Parva sort of news, just don't sneer so.

     Then there was "Tocopherol", which has featured in these pages Lo! three times already, once because it's one of the ingredients in a packet of "Fizzy Snakes", a very dubious gelatin-based variety of sweet THAT I CAN NO LONGER EAT <seethes quietly>, an odd kind of ingredient as it's also used in cosmetics, so perhaps it renders your insides more beautiful as you satisfy your sweet tooth?

     Right, I think that's enough words of wibbledom, Motley, let's break out the baseball bats and pumpkins!

If You Dislike TANK -

 - then why are you here?

     Conrad's inquisitive nature was piqued earlier this evening when I came across a photograph being reTweeted from the Tank Museum.  Art?

     Despite Conrad's long interest in TANK, he had never heard of this vehicle, and can only assume that very few were made - hang on a sec, let me just check - nope, no details but there is a spirited conversation on Bovvie's Facebook page about it.  Quiver in fear, Sinister hordes, because even a barrel glowing white-hot from the number of shells fired from it will not stop us*!

The English Language Develops Over Time

This is something I have noticed, and commented upon, thanks to my current interest in the seventeenth century.  Doctor Johnson had not produced his Dictionary, so there was no overall consensus about how to spell words and one could pretty much make things up without anyone being able to challenge you  ("Scrivel" and "Gloasting" a case in point).

Conrad bursting with merriment at his invented language.

     Time stands still for no man, nor women either, and as we move the clock forward several centuries, we find none other than Pelham Grenville Wodehouse using language long obsolete and having it issue from the lips of Bertie Wooster.   Thus I perform the useful service of explicating what he means.

Bertie: accurately, if a little cruelly, described by Jeeves as "amiable but mentally negligible."

"Mulct": to cheat or defraud, or to impose a fine.  From Old French via the Latin "Multa", for "A fine".  Bertie is nearly mulcted by Soapy Sid and his sister on the Rivieira (gasps of horror!) over some purloined pearls.

"Snooter": To harass or intimidate a person (usually Bertie).  Aunts Agatha and Dahlia are frequently guilty of this pernicious behaviour.

Aunt Agatha a-snootering

"Gyves": Conrad has actually read of these, in Henry Treece's "Viking Trilogy", where they seem to be a kind of manacle.  Art?

You'll not jive in these gyves.

     Of course - obviously! - the gyves that Bertie was lamenting were of the social type, not the real thing.  One would not shackle a sprig of the upper classes with such base irons**.


Punk In The Trunk

We have mentioned Cyberpunk recently, and to Your Humble Scribe's surprise, there are any number of other literary genres and sub-genres that can trace their roots back to CP.  One of the more popular is "Steampunk", which generally adopts a Victorian timeframe and adds in anachronistic technology, couched in contemporary terms.  Art?

Most famous of them all

     The novel above posits a computer revolution in the 1820's, which has completely transformed the world by the date the story is set, 1855, and all because Charles Babbage managed to construct his Difference Engine and got it to work.  The work is too long to go into detail here; suffice to say it's well worth reading as it established the conventions for Steampunk for the next 30 years.  

     Another version you might be familiar with is "The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen" and I stress the comic book rather than the film, which made Darling Daughter cry at the end.  Art?

     Given the less-than-stellar success of TLOEG at the box office, Your Humble Scribe can't see TDE ever getting a big-screen adaptation, which is a pity.

Steampunk camera circa 1837

     Or, if you like, you can consider the works of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells in some part to be proto-steampunk before it was invented, which creates an infinite recursive loop that we will now break out of.

Real World Says Hello

If you are attentive and retentive, then you recall Your Humble Scribe recently coming across a Youtube channel titled "Doctor Hope's Sick Notes", which is done by a genuine doctor, the Hope of the title, whose appeal lies partly in his childish and unrestrained glee in whatever subject matter he is dealing with.  Art?

Could Conrad resist?

     No he could not!  The good doctor is looking at Season One, so there shouldn't be any spoilers in anything I post of his analyses - if there are, then it's your fault for not watching it in the first place***.  Art?

     This is where the unfortunate Robyn catches the train - the A-Train, in this case, as he slams into her at several hundred miles per hour and leaves Hughie - er - "holding hands" as Doctor Hope puts it with horrid irony.  He, and you if your eyes are sharp enough, can see a mandible in the red mush, and some spinal column and even a bit of large bowel.  This, he fears, is poetic licence, as the victim's limbs and head would most likely have been severed by the impact and hurled about the place, which is possibly even more unpleasant that what we see here.

     There's more to come on this subject, don't you worry!

However, for the moment we are ever so done.

*  Nor will your squadrons of Flying Squirrels, either.

**  Unless you were one of those fiendish Bolshies.

***  HANG YOUR HEAD IN SHAME!