Things you were shockingly old when you learned

johnny, ivan, ian

... Jock.

Skipping all the baby-name stuff to second the recommendation of Michael Veal's Fela biography. It's a fantastic book. His book on dub - Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae - is also excellent.

Clover, the band that played on Elvis Costello's My Aim Is True and later mutated into Huey Lewis & the News, was founded by Alex Call, the guy who wrote "867-5309/Jenny" (and Pat Benatar's "Little Too Late").

― Bougy! Bougie! Bougé! (Eliza D.),Wednesday, April 15, 2020 12:28 AM (fourteen hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I didn't know any of this

also of course Elizabeth - Eliza, Liz, Lizzy, Ellie, Nellie, Nell, Betty, Beth, Lisbeth, Elspeth

I have a memory of a family where there were four children who had extremely weird names that could be abbreviated neatly-- Molly's full name was Molybdenum, Eve's full name was Yvohcna (Anchovy spelled backwards). I can't remember that family's last name or the other two children's names, wish I did

WTF? Were the parents on acid or something?

Who wasn't, in those days?

On the great real names thread I posted a girl named Anesthesia. Saw it in that high school photo thing on fb.

fuck it that is a great name

Named after the famous Princess Anesthesia Romanov?

i presume its when you procreate to numb the pain

lady with the real name Merrill Nisker had some advice on the topic iirc

huh? right. what? uhh.

Speaking of short names, I've always wanted to know why there are a few names with legitimate abbreviations, like Wm. or Geo.

I think I've seen Eliz. somewhere, so I'm guessing the names are all monarchs, who don't have time to sign their entire name.

Anybody know if this is true?

Was there ever a King Robt. ?

The Wikipedia entry for Cockayne Hatley seems to lie right on the seam between fact and fiction.

Many historical records utilise standard abbreviations of given names in order to save time and paper.

No period on Wm/Robt - it's only if the abbreviation ends on a different letter than the original word.

Ah, I see that's covered by the link, sorry.

The Wikipedia entry for Cockayne Hatley seems to lie right on the seam between fact and fiction.

I assume whoever captioned the photo of "the far end of the village" lives at what they consider to be the near end of the village.

Re: Wm, etc., contraction vs abbreviation, innit.
Seeing a full stop / period after "Dr", "Rd", "Mt" etc. is like nails on a chalkboard for me. Fuck "American usage", a period signifies that the word is cut off.

(xp)

No buses serve the village. The nearest railway stations are Biggleswade and Sandy.

DO YOU SEE?

Biggleswade is also an adjective there, hope that helps.

I have JUST learnt that Romy Schneider MIGHT be Adolf Hitler's daughter !
Apparently it was more or less known since the mid 70s...

No way, she was far too good looking!

Well, I love her, but with that in mind, when you look at some of her pictures...
To be more precise about that, I have just learnt that she has declared in the 70s that her mother was in love with AH and had an affair with him (circa the time of her birth)... and then they moved to a house right next to his eagle's nest (her mother also had affairs with other Nazi leaders... a nice woman apparently !).

So she has spent a lot of time at AH's nest during her childhood...

Having done a bit of googling, she does resemble her mother - those wide set eyes - and her father (the real one, not Hitler) was extremely good looking, so, on no scientific basis whatsoever, I'm dismissing the Hitler theory.

I cycle through Cockayne Hatley quite often - it has a very interesting church with some lovely Flemish misericords! Interesting fact: not only did Margaret Henley indirectly invent Wendy, her dad, William Henley was Stevenson's model for LONG JOHN SILVER.

WTF!!!!!

It doesn't seem impossible imo... But of course, we'll never know and that's for the best !
https://images.app.goo.gl/wb9RsCRm4v5ST2dw9

Needs a moustache to be sure.

interested easy-to-miss note on the never-not-interesting treasure island: long john silver's wife -- who doesn't appear in person -- is black

(also his plan when he gets back the england with the treasure is BECOME AN MP lol)

Not a Tory MP I assume, if his wife is black he'd never get past the selection committee.

They'd never go for it at the Cockayne Hatley Conservative Association.

but what if he had money

also everyone was a whig then

Being a venture capitalist with considerable financial interests in the Spanish Main might swing them, it's true.

Steven Pinker is Canadian.

(also his plan when he gets back the england with the treasure is BECOME AN MP lol)

This is very Barry Lyndon

mark s., if you don't mind some trashy TV, you should check out Black Sails, which is a fairly entertaining take on Treasure Island.

Also a fairly entertaing song by Harry Nilsson.

Further muddying the Wendy waters, it occurs to me there is actually a hamlet called Wendy, not far from Cockayne Hatley, part of a parish properly called Shingay cum Wendy. The church in Wendy is less grand but quite cute.

put this stuff directly into my veins

Cockayne Hatley and Shingay cum Wendy, the ultimate drag power couple.

Steven Pinker is Canadian.

Related, the Rona chain of hardware stores is also Canadian and, thus, the ilx thread about rona moving in is in fact about the coronavirus and not about ilxors who have caught the bug of doing home renovations during their time in isolation.

If you inject whole villages into your arms aren't they going to come with a large number of impurities. Wouldn't think that very healthy like.
& might indicate your habit was getting out of hand, like.

wait does heroin kill coronavirus

I dunno ask tracer.
Didn't Burroughs say something about it killing the common cold?