Thursday, March 3, 2011

My swimming horse needs a paraffin ski lamp.

That’s what reader Yorkshire Pudding, late of Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, and currently teaching school in Thailand, thinks the title of my last post (aByde SnOik huvEo tpot voXuw) might mean in Latvian.

Pat, a reader in Arkansas, said it reminded her a bit of the code used in Dr. Hudson’s Secret Journal by Lloyd C. Douglas.

Both guesses are imaginative and, as luck would have it, both are 100% wrong.

It can now be revealed -- cue the trumpets for ruffles and flourishes, please -- that aByde SnOik huvEo tpot voXuw is the closest you can come to duplicating the beautiful dips and swirls of the lowercase letters of the Greek alphabet using only your computer’s regular QWERTY keyboard.

Here’s proof:


Didn’t I tell you it would be obvious?

In other news, CCCP refers to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), as an English-letter imitation of the Cyrillic Russian initialism СССР [SSSR], which stands for Союз Советских Социалистических Республик [Soyuz Sovyetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik].

The very sharp-eyed and retentive among you (I do not say anal) will now be able to determine correctly that Soyuz, the name Russians have given to many of their spacecraft, means Union.


No matter how thin you slice it, though, it’s all Greek to me.

I believe that is what is called a mixed metaphor.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot that not be enough trivia for you for one day, keep reading.

Duncan Renaldo was the actor who played the Cisco Kid many moons ago in several western movies and an American television series called, oddly enough, The Cisco Kid. Duncan Renaldo was only his stage name. His real name was (wait for it) Renaldo Duncan. The part of Pancho was played by Leo Carillo, who was seven-eighths carillon.


On a closing note (pardon the pun), if you can listen to all nine minutes and four seconds of this carillon recital without your eyes rolling back in your head, both you and your swimming horse will definitely need a paraffin ski lamp.

Oh, Cisco! Oh, Pancho!

8 comments:

  1. Very interesting video. I confess that I did not watch all 9+ minutes of the performance, but enough to pique my interest in the carillon itself. Google is wonderful, and it took only three clicks to get me to St. Rumbold's Cathedral Carillon, upon which that intricate and physically demanding music was played. Here's what I found at Wikipedia:

    "Of the original carillon's set of 49 bells, which are still in working order, each has its own name. Some of the most notable are Salvator, which weighs 8884 kg; Jehsus [sic?], which was built in 1460; and the Liberation, which was the newest addition in 1947. Thirty-nine steps above this instrument, there is a second complete carillon on which concerts are played during the summer months. The total weight of both these carillons is over 80 tonnes and there are 98 bells in all."

    Fascinating!

    May your swimming horse never need a paraffin ski lamp, Dr. Hudson.

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  2. P.S. I loved your clever comment about Leo Carillo being 7/8 carillon! I've watched many an episode of The Cisco Kid.

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  3. I love that horse.
    And I also watched the Cisco Kid .

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  4. do you know i used to drink a 'mixed metepor" isn't it like a margaretta with a lemon twist in it{ isn't that also called a mixed drinK???<><><>

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  5. also i think that wne two liquoours are shaken together you also get a mixed drink

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  6. and when a mete and a phour are mixed topgether it becomes a very tasty thing indeed<><><><><><><>BURMA SHAVE{THREE COMMENTS IN A ROW}

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  7. BUT THEY WERE ALL USELESS COMENTS

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  8. Pat, glad to be of service in the carillon department.

    Lady's Life, I don't know, there's something about that horse's eyes that scares me.

    Putz, thank you for doing your part, such as it was, toward boosting my overall comments count.

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