...are not the names of the Andrews Sisters. They were Patty, Maxene, and LaVerne. If you want to go down that particular rabbit trail, the McGuire Sisters were Chris, Dottie, and Phyllis; the Gabor Sisters were Magda, Zsa Zsa, and Eva; and the tennis-playing Williams Sisters are Serena and Venus.
Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland were also sisters, but they didn't get along very well. The original Ann Landers and the original Dear Abby, advice columnists at rival newspapers, were also sisters named Esther and Pauline. They called each other "Eppie" and "Po-Po".
Enough, already.
Back to the topic at hand, I awoke today with those three words in the title on my mind. I have no idea why. They are all terms found in the King James Version of the Bible, the translation of which from Greek and Hebrew manuscripts was accomplished in the year 1611. English has changed a bit since then.
In various modern translations (I could tell you which ones specifically, but I assume you don't really care), unicorn has become wild ox, wild goat, buffalo, and rhinoceros; behemoth has become hippopotamus, and leviathan has become (take your pick) sea monster or crocodile. On a personal note, I had always assumed leviathan was a whale, but no one who is anyone important agrees with me.
Moving right along, my mother used to say when faced with skepticism, "Vas you dere, Charlie?" which I have learned can be traced to a vaudeville comedian and early radio performer named Jack Pearl, who used it with his Baron Munchausen character, whom he introduced in The Ziegfeld Follies Of The Air radio program in 1932. The rest is history
Actually, everthing is history, unless it is mathematics. You and I will be history someday too. I doubt very much that we will be mathematics.
Speaking of history, here are the names of the winners of the top five categories (best director, best actor, best actress, best supporting actor, best supporting actress, not necessarily in that order) at last night's 91st Academy Awards presentations in Los Angeles, which I didn't watch:
Alfonso Cuaron
Olivia Colman
Rami Malek
Regina King
Mahershala Ali
I never heard of any of them. In my mind, they are already history.
While the rest of you pursue world peace and personal happiness and cheaper prices for food, clothing, and gasoline/petrol, I content myself with getting to the bottom of truly useless information.
As ever, I remain (I hope),
rhymeswithplague
This was interesting. A few topics were mentioned. I actually went to the same high school as Eppie and Po. I am a lot younger of course but we even had the same homeroom teacher.
ReplyDeleteEmma, I had forgotten that you went to high school in Sioux City. Talk about six degrees of separation!
DeleteWell, Robert, still turning over rocks and rooting out the miscellany of the world I see. Yes, I am still here. Actually posted today for the first time in 3 years. Glad to see you have kept the Blog light burning for us all
ReplyDeleteSo good to hear from you, Reamus! I don't think of myself as a rock turner over or a rooter of miscellany, though I can understand how you would think that. No, it is more akin to what I said in the post, "I awoke today with those three words in the title on my mind. I have no idea why." Glad to see your return to Blogworld after not three years but almost four-and-a-half years save for that one lone post about 18 months ago in tribute to your friend. Welcome back! I will continue this in your comments section.
DeleteIt took you a while to get around to the academy awards. Since I'm not interested in academy awards I appreciated your trivia.
ReplyDeleteRed, appreciations for any reason are much appreciated in these quarters.
DeleteI saw Mahershala Ali in Green Book just last Friday and enjoyed it greatly.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know unicorns were biblical but I was aware of the behemoths and leviathans.
Do you have a list of obscure topics you pick from for each post?
kylie, I never said that others hadn't heard of them (obviously they have), I just said that I hadn't. I hadn't heard of some of the movies either, but that's just an indication of how out of touch I am. A comedian named Irwin Corey used to call himself The World's Foremost Authority. I am definitely not that, just a fellow with opinions and curiosity. As my mother used to say, fools rush in where angels fear to tread. I hope she wasn't referring to me.
DeleteA search at biblegateway.com reveals that the word unicorn or unicorns appears nine times in the KJV Old Testament, from Numbers to Isaiah.
I do not have a list of obscure topics. I just go with the flow. See my reply to Reamus above. But thank you for asking.
I love this. Seriously. This is exactly how my brain works (or doesn't?) each and every day! I've never heard of any of those people at the awards - but I don't watch tv and even if I did, it would be just entertainment. I don't find them to be as significant or important as they'd apparently like to think they are. Time will tell as the years go by whether they made a long-lasting impression or not. Just so you know, my mother and her siblings were: Romaine, Morton, Harlan, John, Gloria, Douglas, Geraldine and Allegra. Important trivia in my life :-) On another note, I wonder if Mahershala Ali's parents got his name from the bible.....
ReplyDeletePam, I must file away your relatives' names for possible further use (just kidding). More on Mahershala Ali in the next post.
DeleteRomaine as in lettuce, Morton as in salt...
I like the fluid way in which your mind works Bob. It seems to be becoming more fluid with the advancing years. I am unable to name the fluid. It might be holy water or something else.
ReplyDeleteNeil, I can't decide whether your comment is a compliment or a putdown. The jury is still out.
DeletePut down? No Bob. I have too much respect for you my friend.
DeleteDid I reply to this? If so why is it still in an open tab of my browser? I've come to the conclusion that I read your posts and am so perplexed/bemused/fascinated/dumbfounded* that I start thinking too hard and get distracted. In this case it started with Leviathon. I'd always assumed it was a sea monster but I assume that's just inherited knowledge from my childhood. I think it originated in the Hebrew Bible and, as far as I'm aware, none of the lands occupied by the Jewish nation had crocodiles. I have heard of Olivia Colman.
ReplyDelete* delete as applicable
Graham, I always hope to bring mental stimulation to my readers, but I didn't count on perplexed, bemused. fascinated, or dumbfounded being possibilities.
Delete