MORE ASSORTED MUSINGS

In one of his songs, Joaquín Sabina says he is "inútil como el semen de los ahorcados", as useless as the semen of hanged men. Yet there is the belief that mandrakes, those sentient humanoid tubers, grow from the semen of hanged men... Is that so useless, then?

Speaking of mandrakes, my second favourite passage in Genesis (after the Joseph story) is the "mandrake arms race" between Rachel and Leah: the beautiful, childless younger sister and the homely, extremely fertile older sister. When Leah's eldest son Reuben finds some mandrakes... Leah is not loved by her husband Jacob, who cheats on her and prefers her sister-in-law, whom he loves (the marriage to Leah was of convenience) in spite of Rachel's infertility. Till Leah bribes Raye to nearly quit Jake and Jake back into bed with the cunning use of mandrakes, which Raye LOVED (mandrakes to her were like panna cotta to me), and which allegedly were an aphrodisiac and fertility raiser. Turned out Rachel needed those mandrakes to have children, but to nearly no avail... The arms race escalates until Leah has her ten boys and dies, Jacob remarries Rachel and Joseph is their first child. Of course, the whole mandrake ruse had given as a result most of the ten older stepbros, and the stage is set for the Joseph story proper.

Speaking of Rachel, Joseph's mum had another heroic moment in escaping her parents' home to join her sister and darling brother-in-law for love's sake. So Raye's clan has got these household gods (lares, or whatever they might be), little figurines of fertility gods... She steals them from her dad Laban to bring them with her for good luck. Eventually, Laban catches up with Jacob, Leah, and a Rachel who travels with them, in their camp. And Laban is furious because the household gods of the estate have somehow vanished. So Raye picks the best hideout for the little figures: she sits on them! When dad inquires, she gives this clever excuse for why she can't stand up: "Sorry, I've got the period!" Laban fell for it hook, line, and sinker.

Speaking of uselessness, nipples on a breastplate are far more useless than the semen of hanged men.

Speaking once more of Sabina, his lyrics are so baroque and full of allusions that I warmly recommend them.

WIKIPEDIA: CURIOUS ARTICLES

http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Kuriosaartiklar

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Unusual_articles

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Art%C3%ADculos_peculiares

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Kuriosit%C3%A4tenkabinett

ASSORTED, LIKE, SNIPPETS

If Daughter of Smoke and Bone had a villain, it would have to be Thiago. Let's make a brief checklist of his villainous traits, shall we?

• Name that sounds like "Iago", that other great villain? Check.

So I have started to attend these conferences on literary translation this weekend at the Uni. The title of the event? El ojo de Polisemo (The Eye of Polysemus). Have you readers understood the pun?

Septones non carborundum!

Loras Tyrell is behind bars. At least in the series. All we can do is hope for his dad and nan to pay the ransom, or for Loras himself to break prison. For we want to see him STORM DRAGONSTONE!

JUDITH and HOLOFERNES

Conviction took her as she approached the wretch; he lay swooned from drink and debauchery. She gripped him by the hair as she brought his own weapon down upon his neck. Halfway did it stop and and he lay there breathing quietly from the cleft in his throat.
“Beast of land with tough neck as if of knotted wood!” she lamented.
Again a blow rained down sending the head of Holofernes rolling from the bed and across the carpeted floor of his tent.
“Glory! Glory! Glory!” crooned the scaled cherubs “do not settle as of yet, dear lady, bid your maid do retrieve the head and place it in a ration sack.” This she did, following the urges of the divine voices, and she rolled his body off the bed, and rent the canopy from its posts.

R.O.U.S. Rodents of Unusual Size, can only be captured with a Mega Neko. If you have got a Mega Neko, watch out for Canis Major.

Oberyn Martell was based upon Íñigo Montoya, but pushed up to eleven and beyond.
"Hello. My name is Oberyn Nymeros Martell. You killed my sister and her children. Prepare to die."

Moreover, The Princess Bride can teach lots of valuable lessons to Aspergers and their caregivers.


A certain lyric explains that a mere ranker can't wed a colonel's daughter:

When a lad first joins the army,
This is what he learns for starters:
Never court your colonel's daughter,
Or he'll have your guts for garters!
That's how it is and how it was
And how it always shall be.