Rather a bad poem, but the kind of bad poem I like better than many good poems: Sea Change by John Masefield

"Goneys an' gullies an' all o' the birds o' the sea
They ain't no birds, not really", said Billy the Dane.
"Not mollies, nor gullies, nor goneys at all", said he,
"But simply the spirits of mariners livin' again."

"Them birds goin' fishin' is nothin' but the souls o' the drowned,
Souls o' the drowned, an' the kicked as are never no more
An' that there haughty old albatross cruisin' around,
Belike he's Admiral Nelson or Admiral Noah."

"An' merry's the life they are living. They settle and dip,
They fishes, they never stands watches, they waggle their wings;
When a ship comes by, they fly to look at the ship
To see how the nowaday mariners manages things."

"When freezing aloft in a snorter I tell you I wish -
(Though maybe it ain't like a Christian) - I wish I could be
A haughty old copper-bound albatross dipping for fish
And coming the proud over all o' the birds o' the sea."

"The idea that there might be arboreal voles is not that radical – after all, tree-climbing and tree-dwelling are all over the place within muroid rodents – but what’s especially odd about Arborimus is that it’s only the females that live in trees; males (while capable of climbing) live in subterranean burrows or in piles of vegetation. In order to meet up with females (who might be 30 m up in the trees), the males do of course climb, and they also build nests in trees during the mating season (this lasts from February to September). Nevertheless, it seems that we have a fundamental difference here in how males and females partition the habitat. Is this reflected in their morphology? I don’t know, and I don’t know if anyone else knows..."

-Darren Naish waxing astonished re. obscure, freaky voles (The tree voles under discussion live in Oregon and California, which I didn't know before today.)

I don't necessarily trust the source of this alleged Chinese folklore, but se non è vero, è ben trovato. A legendary batrachian appeased by booze and opera: 

The Frog General (青蛙將軍) is one of southern Fujian’s most charming folk deities, a fallen Tang dynasty general said to have returned as a spirit in frog form. He favors high places on temple walls and answers summons made with clean vessels and strong liquor, his beloved offering. After drinking, his cheeks glow red, and his taste for opera awakens.... When the Frog General selects a show, fortune blooms. Wherever he leaps, blessings follow.

Hence, with some corroboration here. 

This may in fact have happened to me ten days ago. I'm still sore. 

In Japanese folklore kama itachi is a yokai that in English translates as sickle weasel. They look like weasels with spiky fur and long razor sharp claws and appear riding on dust whirlwinds, sometimes barking like dogs. They move so fast that they become basically invisible. Kama itachi travel in groups of three to hunt. The first weasel knocks the victim to the ground, the second uses their sharp claws to slice out chunks of their flesh, and the third applies a healing remedy that mostly hides the damage. This all happens so quickly that the victim believes they simply tripped, fell and scratched themselves and they remain completely unaware that their flesh has been dinner for a kama itachi.

Certainly can't disprove it.... Via Curious Ordinary on BlueSky

“Jane? Why, she was a little old maid ’oo’d written ’alf a dozen books about a ’undred years ago. ’Twasn’t as if there was anythin’ to ’em, either. I know. I had to read ’em. They weren’t adventurous, nor smutty, nor what you’d call even interestin’—all about girls o’ seventeen (they begun young then, I tell you), not certain ’oom they’d like to marry; an’ their dances an’ card-parties an’ picnics, and their young blokes goin’ off to London on ’orseback for ’air-cuts an’ shaves...

"... it’s a very select Society, an’ you’ve got to be a Janeite in your ’eart, or you won’t have any success... You take it from me, Brethren, there’s no one to touch Jane when you’re in a tight place. Gawd bless ’er, whoever she was."

IYKYK (rather the whole point)

Happy 250th, Jane! 

 

 Recommended podcast episode: Medieval eels, plus maps and history, but mostly eels. 

 Enheduanna's Song to Innana translated into Scots. Sample:

Draigon-lik      ye’ve pushionit the merse,
Yir thunnery rair      wedes aa the flooirs awa,
Fleet wattir      hurlygushin fae the muntain,
Foremaist Muin-Dochter,      Queen o Heivin an Erd.
Ootpoorin fluffed flames      doon aa ower the laund,
Graced wi the Heich God’s airts,       baist-muntit Leddy,
Ye gie deliverances      as the Heich God bids;
Ye awn grand rites –      and wha can ken whit’s yours?

An English version if your Scots isn't quite up to snuff. 

 "A samurai looks on as a giant frog runs over the menials"

Found while scouring Wikimedia Commons. Colour woodcut by Kuniyoshi, 1847/1848. 

 Upupa dicit, rana coaxat: The first children's picture book?

 The 23,000 year chronology for those footprints at White Sands seems to be holding up to confirmation.

This paper reports on an independent study of the chronology of a previously unrecognized stratigraphic record of paleolake Otero that is directly traceable into the track-bearing alluvium. The stratigraphic data along with 26 additional radiocarbon dates on palustrine mud determined by two labs independent of the original investigations document an aggrading lake/wetland/stream record that includes the tracks and spans >23.6 thousand years to ~17.0 thousand calibrated years before present, providing another line of evidence further supporting the validity of an LGM age for the tracks. 

 Magpie hunts a baby rattlesnake:

 Cuttlefish pass marshmallow test

To examine whether cuttlefish could delay gratification for a better reward, researchers (Schnell et al. 2021) offered them an Asian shore crab (a less preferred food) immediately, or a grass shrimp (a more preferred food) if they were able to wait. The food was offered in two chambers with sliding doors. Before the test, cuttlefish were trained to recognize symbols on the doors that indicated if it would open immediately (a circle) or with a delay (a triangle). Most of the cuttlefish waited 50 to 130 seconds to get the more desirable grass shrimp, comparable to time delays shown by chimpanzees and crows.

Meanwhile in Taos: prosecutorial misconduct centering around witchcraft, in the aftermath of a decapitation. Head went in the Rio of course. Hard to pullquote this one, just read it.

 The Yarn of the Nancy Bell by Sir W.S. Gilbert

 TIL - Apparently, Northwest native languages picked up their words for house cat from kitty-calling sounds:
Nimiipuutimt (Nez Perce): picpic ('c' goes 'ts')
Lushootseed (Snoqualmie): pišpiš
Chinook Wawa: puss'-puss

Contrast Shoshone languages, which seem to have simply grabbed the English: kedi, kiidi, kaattu

If you like this sort of thing, here's Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? in Nimiipuutimt.

 If you want to know what's being studied and learned at Göbekli Tepe (and don't we all?) without the pseudoscience and claptrap, Tepe Telegrams seems to be the place.

 New Euripides fragments! I'm unable, however, to find their actual text, translated or un-.

 I thought I'd posted this, but apparently not: Incomprehensible idioms in Maltese.

“Libbislu ċoff u daħħlu wejter!” Literal translation: “Tie a bow on him and employ him as a waiter.” What it means: “The object/human you are speaking about is useless.”

“Mela żobb, Sur Kappillan!” Literal translation: “Therefore penis, Mr Parish Priest!” What it means: “You bet!”

I haven't made my deep dive yet, but this looks like a promising series: Philosophising in... For instance, Philosophising in Sakha (that's Yakut to old-schoolers). Or you could try the posts on Syriac, Amharic, Cuneiform and more.

 Via Languagehat (of course, because is anyone else even attempting to put anything interesting on the internet anymore?)

 3d model comparison: Aurochs cranium versus modern cow. Hiking with these in the landscape would be... exciting.

HT: Searun at Querencia