Biggles. I was first introduced to the name as a throwaway line in Jethro Tull’s Thick As a Brick album… a lifetime ago. But I let it go without researching who Biggles was or why a British boy might have needed him last Saturday (as the line goes). Until I saw the name come up again in the context of the great WW2 documentary series “The World At War”, and finally looked it up. Cool word, for sure.
Alexander Graham Bell answered the phone saying, “Ahoy hoy.”
Thomas Edison promoted “hello” as a short word that was easily heard over crappy phone lines, to signal a successful connection. The alternative was, ironically, a bell.
The largest cable in the rigging was the Main Brace, which ran from above the maintop to just below the foretop.
Splice the main brace, however, was a euphemism for issuing an extra ration of rum. If your main brace actually separated, your ship was likely doomed, and there would be no time for splicing.
@BellaB I like Humidex, which I understand is only used in Canada. It sounds so much more meteorlogical and adult than the childlike “feels-like temperature” which is used down here. That really grinds on me whenever I hear it.
Mandarin. @Espiritus_Corvus I have him for my Western Literature course. I haven’t studied him at school though. I just read his work because each class’ group is supposed to pick up a work from the textbook for a play. O. Henry is a good writer, so good that his work is a pain in the ass to dissect and it loses it wonder once you overanalyze it. I prefer to appreciate the work for what it is, not dissect it like a frog.
I chose The Moon and Sixpence btw. I identify more with the main character.
@Mimishu1995 It’s a sweet story. O. Henry liked irony and there is a strong strain of sentimental sweetness to all his stories. Sentimentalism isn’t real popular today, but as a newspaper hack working the police desk in the rough world of NYC at the turn of the 20th century, sentimentality and sweetness was missing in his life. And evidently everybody else’s, from the way his fans bought up his books. So don’t be surprised if you need a shot of insulin to get through some of his stuff.
I see you as more of a Steinbeck person. Steinbeck in the 30’s, ripping away at Depression-era American prejudice and injustice, and the effects it had on regular people—and he told his stories in a nice way with interludes of real sweetness, some of it quite inspired. The Californian political machine called him a Communist simply because he always took the side of the underdog. But I think all he really wanted was a more fair Capitalist system. He just hated unnecessary cruelty.