On Fri, 08 Jul 2011 10:06:25 +0000, Duncan wrote:
> Beartooth posted on Mon, 04 Jul 2011 21:06:07 +0000 as excerpted:
[....]
>> What will the effect be on how Pan works, who adopts or emulates it, or
>> whatever? (If Pan Triumphant will emulate the horseshoe nail by making
>> the whole Evil Empire of Redmond fall into a cybernetic abyss,
>> Excelsior! say I.)
>
> You might not be the most tech-headed guy in the world, but you
> definitely know how to come up with impressive quotes! =:^)
Thank you, Sir!
> (For those who may not know his background, and correct me if I'm wrong
> Beartooth, I don't think I'm revealing anything too private and believe
> I got it right... you're retired from working at the Library of Congress
> for quite some years. Some of us may be more technical, indeed, but you
> very likely have most or all of us beat by "many podes"[1] in terms of
> well-rounded well-read-ness.)
Fifteen at LC, after having taught Germanic languages &
literatures for twenty in various universities of the Midwest (and taken
a degree in higher mathematics before that) -- all of which would
doubtless be only too easy to google. IOW, I've been a bookworm's
bookworm for sixty-odd years -- as well as a hoarder of good words and
good lines.
[....]
> [1] "many podes": See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pous
>
> Podes is plural of pous. Pous is an ancient unit of length similar to a
> US foot, used by the Greeks. (Related terms, podiatrist, quadriped and
> pedal, all relating to feet.) There were 600 "podes" in a "stadion", the
> plural of which is "stadia", from which comes our word stadium. Thus,
> the analogy was to an ancient Greek foot-race. FWIW, I was originally
> going to use the term "stadia" in place of miles, but decided I better
> wiki it first, especially after the spellchecker flagged it. When I
> did, then followed thru with its reference to podes, I ultimately
> decided "podes" and with it the implication of a foot-race which he won
> by quite a distance, was far closer to what I wanted. I quite expect he
> got the implied reference without all this explanation, tho I certainly
> wouldn't have, nor would I have even had a clue what "podes" were,
> before looking all this up, at least. I learned something new today,
> and now, I expect, have many of you, likely other than Bear, of course,
> for whom I expect the reference was very possibly almost natural! =:^)
Well, I might've guessed most of it in time -- thanks to that
ancient doctoral minor in philology (historical linguistics, in effect,
without a very large theoretical component) -- but I was very glad of the
footnote, nodding approval as I did going through it. I wouldn't've known
the singular of 'podes' for example. Speaking of which, does 'antipodes'
have a Greek singular? I've never formally studied Greek, alas!
Amd now it's my turn to chew on the substance for a day or
three ...
--
Beartooth Staffwright, Double Retiree,
Linux Duffer, Curmudgeon On Line,
Historian of Tongues from Way Back
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