Saturday, December 31, 2022

 I missed this when it dropped, but there's an examination of St Brides done by the Assume Nothing podcast. I've not far in, but so far it is relatively unsensationalized.

Their own summary:

Ireland, 1984. St Brides School for young ladies opens its doors in the quiet fishing village of Burtonport, county Donegal -- but all is not as it seems.

The mistress and 'girls' appear to believe that they live not only in a different century, but in an entirely different world.

They are The Silver Sisterhood...

Most of the St Brides games may be found on Internet Archive. If you like that sort of thing, they are the sort of thing that you will like. 

Happy New Year! 

Thursday, December 01, 2022

As do so many, I have occasionally wondered about the idiom tace is Latin for a candle. Here is the phrase's history, though its logic is no clearer than before. At least I now know how it's traditionally pronounced: /ˈteɪsiː/ (generally with a Monty Python accent, I trust). 

Related and perhaps even stranger:

The usual explanation of brandy is Latin for a goose is that it must be read as What is the Latin for goose? (The answer is) brandy, with a pun on the word answer: the homophonous Latin noun anser means goose, and brandy was drunk as a digestive after the eating of goose, in the same way as an answer follows a question. A variant, brandy is Latin for fish, first appeared with the following explanation in London Labour and the London Poor (London, 1851), by Henry Mayhew (1812-87), English social researcher, journalist, playwright and advocate of reform:
We are told that the thirst and uneasy feeling at the stomach, frequently experienced after the use of the richer species of fish, have led to the employment of spirit to this kind of food. Hence, says Dr. Pereira, the vulgar proverb, “Brandy is Latin for Fish.”

Via Languagehat, of course.