At least I think it was DuckDuckGo. I stopped using it as my search engine and the quirk disappeared. I call it a quirk because I don't know what else to call it. It was very frustrating not being able to access one's own blog.
Be that as it may, your reading assignment for today, class, is this article from the loved/hated (choose one) Wikipedia on Peerage of the United Kingdom.
All of the peerages in the United Kingdom are listed, not alphabetically but by the date of their creation, which makes things a bit confusing if you are trying to look something or someone up.
In all, according to Wikipedia, there are 31 Dukes (although I read somewhere else that there have been 74), 34 Marquesses, 193 Earls and countesses, 112 Viscounts, and 1,187 Barons. I don't know whether that figure represents currently or historically. (Note that I continue to use the Oxford comma. Graham Edwards who lives near the town of Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides Islands of Scotland will be so pleased, but Yorkshire Pudding, who is without peer, couldn't care less.)
If you absolutely refuse to read today's assignment, please stay busy by twiddling your thumbs until next time and try not to disturb the other students.
This is my 84th post of the year, which is 2020 but feels in many ways like the 1984 described by George Orwell. Since 2020 is now 7/12ths complete, my handy-dandy calculator tells me that if I continue on my current pace of blogging -- I can hear some of you saying "God forbid" -- I will have posted 144 posts by the end of the year.
One cannot know whether one will continue on one's current pace. One can only watch and pray.
Whether you pray for or against is entirely up to you.
For.
ReplyDeleteEmma, thanks.
DeleteI used to be a straight A student, but I think I'd fail your class as I just couldn't make myself read the assignment, lol. We've been so busy I haven't kept up, but tonight I thought I'd drop by and read a few of your great writings! So faithful to blog - I admire that. I tend to flit about and do a million things (sometimes halfway) all at the same time. I hope I look as good as your lovely wife when I reach her age! Please wish her Happiest of Birthdays for me! Toodles!
ReplyDeletePam, so good to hear from you. I think I would fail my class too. Thank you for calling my posts "great writings" and thank you for the kind comments about Mrs. RWP. Until next time, its Toodles! indeed.
DeleteI shall (or would if I prayed) pray for you. Which, of course, makes no sense at all but, nonetheless, I'm sure that it conveys to you exactly what it is meant to convey.
ReplyDeleteMany many years ago (in human rather than geological time) I used to do a lot of protocol work so the order of precedence of the principal peerages of the realm was part of my knowledge banks. It has served me well since in doing crosswords but in almost no other way. When I came to live on Lewis I discovered that the only order of precedence in the world I inhabited was that of the Free Church of Scotland and the Town Worthies. Even that has disappeared now.
That having been said (ablative absolute) I still popped over the Princess Wiki to see what she had to say on the subject. I wish that she had been around when I was having to pore through Debrett's Peerage.
Graham, how very interesting to read about your protocol work and having the order of precedence of the prinipal peerages of the realm in your knowledge banks.
DeleteLoved the ablative absolute. My college Latin prof, Mrs. Elizabeth Beaver, was a student of someone who had spoken in Rome at the 2000th anniversary of Ovid's birth, if I remember correctly. Mrs. Beaver taught us classical pronunciation. No "venny, veedy veechy" for us. It was strictly "wenny, weedy, weeky" if you get my drift.
I think Wikipedia is not looked down on as much as it used to be.
My Mum thought all her grammar in Latin. If she wanted to know what part of speech something was she translated into Latin and just looked at the appropriate table heading in her mind.
DeleteMum also used W and not V. As did I at Grammar School (where both seemed acceptable) until the bitter end. I still do. If you have ever read Asterix The Gaul using the W makes a lot os sense of some of the names.
Graham, your Mum is to be commended for wanting to know what part of speech something was. The people I know couldn't care less.
DeleteI would almost bet money that you and your Mum also used a K sound instead of an S sound when encountering a C in Latin. I remember a light bulb coming on in my mind when I understood the connection between Caesar and Kaiser, and also between Caesar and Czar, when his name was pronounced the right way.
You come up with some really out of left field ideas for your posts Robert. I will be neither reading nor thumb twiddling here. Somehow I will manage to slip away unnoticed and call by at a later date for the next post.
ReplyDeleteAlphie
Alphie Soup, left field is my home base. Don't stay away too long.
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