Scribal Terror

Turnips and mangelwurzels and swedes, oh my!

 
According to Answers.com:

In Scotland and Ireland, there is a long tradition of carving lanterns from vegetables, particularly the turnip, mangelwurzel, or swede. . .

Jack o' Lantern [is a]local name for a Will-o'-the-Wisp, mainly in East Anglia and in south-west England; also spelled Jack-a-Lantern and Jacky Lantern, according to the whim of the collectors. T. Quiller Couch found that around Polperro (Cornwall) it was regarded as a pixy, and was invoked in the rhyme:

Jack o' the lantern! Joan the wad,
Who tickled the maid and made her mad!
Light me home, the weather's bad.

Discussion question: Given the opportunity, would you eat a mangelwurzel? Why or why not?

This goat is wearing an olor

Scribal points to Jake for explaining what an olor is -- a device for discouraging the mounting of nanny goats.

PJ O'Rourke on being diagnosed with a highly treatable cancer

I have, of all the inglorious things, a malignant hemorrhoid. What color bracelet does one wear for that? And where does one wear it? -- From "Give Me Liberty and Give Me Death"

The turning cross

A very French invention, described by Roger Kuin

The criminal kiwi vendor

This just in from the Daily Express:

Brussels bureaucrats have stopped a grocer from selling a batch of kiwi fruits – because EU rules say they are a millimetre too small.

Market trader Tim Down must now pay £100 to dump the 5,000 perfectly edible fruits which have failed size and weight standards brought in under European regulations.

Government inspectors also warned Mr Down, 53, from Bristol, that he faces a £5,000 fine if he tries to give them away.

Yoshiwara prostitutes in the 1910s

From Old Photos of Japan:

Prostitutes behind a window in the Yukaku (red light district) of Yoshiwara in Tokyo. Prostitutes from less expensive brothels were seated behind wooden latticed windows called harimise (張り見世). As a result of intense international pressure, putting prostitutes on display in harimise was prohibited in 1916.

Unintended consequences

Ananova reports:

A driver was so upset to see a lorry load of pigs being taken to the slaughterhouse that she crashed - into another pig truck.

The vegetarian animal lover swerved on the motorway - and hit another lorry full of live pigs on its way to the same abattoir.

This old man makes me happy

What's not to love? Via 35mm.

A monument to sprats

 

Dateline Riga . . . Novosti reports . . .

A monument to caned fish was unveiled Thursday in Latvia, one of the world's main producers of sprats, local media have reported.

The sculpture, located at a fish-packing factory in the western Latvian city of Liepaja, portrays a metallic can with the message: "Sprats. Made in 1892" and "Expiry date unlimited."

It was designed by the factory workers and it was paid for by the factory management.

The director of the factory, Igor Krupnik, said: "We have decided to immortalize sprats in their historic motherland."

Apparently this monument is planned in answer to another monument to sprats erected last year in Kaliningrad. The honor of sprat producers everywhere demands it.

The sprat image above is from FishACE.

Scribal points to anyone who can distinguish between a sprat and a sardine.

And in case you're interested, the word sprat comes from Old English sprott via Middle English sprot or spratte.

Feeding the pets of the homeless

You can read about this very appealing and worthwhile charity and donate here.