Herman

Okay, Today We Have A Theme

This used to be a lot more common in the early days of BOOJUM! and we've not had one for ages.  Not only that, I've no idea how many words I can generate on this theme, so it may come to an inauspicious end; you know Conrad, always trying to wing it.  So!  Let the scrivel begin.

     

Oy!  Later for you.

Actually I'll let Art's rank incompetence stand, because it's far more appealing than 

"HERMANEUTICS": This is what started the whole thing off, and is another of those words that pop up in my mind for no good reason.  Of course - obviously!- I had to look it up.  Well, it's real.  My Collins Concise defines it as: "The science of interpretation, especially as it refers to Scripture" and it has a second meaning when applied to philosophy, "Discussion of the purpose of life".

Close enough, I suppose

     Perhaps we should have led with that picture.  Next!

"ARMINIUS": I already know what you're thinking and BE PATIENT! Okay, this chap was a Germanic tribal leader who served in the Roman army, learned Latin (the poor swine!) and who nursed a burning hatred of Roman invaders. The Romans were seeking to expand their empire east of the Rhine and Arminius pretended to be a faithful adviser to the Roman governor, Varus.  He negotiated an alliance with various other Germanic tribes (very difficult to manage as they all hated each other) and then lied about a rebellion that had broken out.  Varus led three legions and scads of auxiliaries into a giant ambush that annihilated all 20,000 of them.  It was one of, if not the, worst disasters Rome ever suffered.  Art!

Roman tourists meet the locals

     The Romans, unusually for them, accepted that going east of the Rhine was, indeed, a bridge too far (that - that sounds familiar, don't you think?) and kept on the western side.  Okay, let me explain that "ARMINIUS" is the Latinised version of "HERMAN".

"HERMAN'S HERMITS": A blast from the distant past, you may say.  This hot beat combo hailed from Manchester, which rather surprised Your Humble Scribe, as I'd heard their name but always thought they hailed from The City Of Sin (London, if we're being formal).  They made it big in South Canada from 1964 to 1968 and were then big in their home country (This Sceptred Isle in BOOJUM! parlance) from 1968 to 1971.  "I'm Into Something Good" is the only one of their hits I'm going to name*.  Art!

They also made films, something you can blame The Beatles for starting

"HERMAN MUNSTER":  Now for you.  This character, from the South Canadian sitcom "The Munsters", was made up to resemble the Universal version of Frankenstein's monster, and since Universal held the rights to that look, and Boris Karloff's daughter still does, one wonders how they got away with it.  Art!

Not a face made for smiling

     Actor Fred Gwynne was cast in the part because he's a great tall lad anyway, made taller still by the prosthetic skull attachment and block-soled boots.  Art!

With puny humans for scale

     Herman is enormous, enormously strong, very naive and very good-natured, these latter two qualities definitely not poached from the Universal model. 

"HERMANN GOERING": Conrad is going to avoid the cliche years of Ol' Fatty's tenure during the Second Unpleasantness and instead refer to his career in the First Unpleasantness, when he was slim enough to fit into a fighter plane.

     Like nearly all pilots of that event, he began in the infantry and 'transferred' himself, on his own initiative, into the air force, which is not what nearly all other pilots of that even did.  He moved from bombers to fighters and achieved a total of at least 17 and possibly 22 kills, making him a much-decorated ace.  Art!

     He ended up - and you're probably waaay ahead of me here - as OC of the "Flying Circus" which was formally known as Jagdgeschwader 1, formerly led by Richthofen and nothing AT ALL do do with a certain British comedy program.  I know, I know, I was reaching a little with this one as there are two "N"s in his first  name.  Yes, well how many famous Hermans are there to write about?

Here he is looking very severe.  And thin.

"HERMAN MELVILLE": A proper single-N Herman for you.  In case you missed it, he was a South Canadian who wrote novels in the nineteenth century, which were not well-liked at the time.  He had to get a proper job in order to survive, which is an unfortunately common occurrence for authors.  Of course, once he was dead people suddenly discovered how great he was, which must have been a comfort to his starving widow and orphans, hmmm?

Hermie, probably worrying about the rent

     ANYWAY his best-known work, which is nowadays regarded as a classic, is of course - obviously! - "Moby Dick".  Conrad started reading an edition from the library many years ago, in the days when I conscientiously picked one 'improving' novel amongst the usual clutter of military history and sci-fi, and this was the first book I gave up on.  Just not for me.  It's rare for me to pick up a novel I don't like; however, since MB I no longer feel the challenge to finish them.  In the bin they go!  Art!

NO SNIGGERING AT THE BACK!

     He wrote other novels, too, which I'm not going to list here*.  Next!

Conrad Is A Tad Unsure About This -

I did cast around for other notable Hermans and I bet you can guess ahead of time which one came up at the top of Google, can't you?  Art!

Pee-Wee Herman, lest you be unaware

     I mean, yes, he's famous (and possibly infamous, for reasons too seedy to go into here and still stay SFW) and he is a 'Herman' but it's a surname, not a first name.  O well, we like to ring the changes here.  It stays.

Finally -

It took a bit of digging but we have hit the Compositional Ton whilst remaining faithfully on the topic of Herman.  Doubtless once I have posted this I shall discover scads of intriguing and interesting characters called "Herman".  Too late now.

*  Because I'm fickle like that.