Wondrous Words Wednesday 11/1/12

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a fabulous weekly meme hosted by Bermuda Onion, where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our weekly reading.  

I recently read Eleanor H. Porter's classic work Pollyanna. As with any older book there were some interesting words that made be ponder as well as a lovely story. 

1.Basque (noun)

But there weren't any black things in the last missionary barrel, only a lady's velvet basque which Deacon Carr's wife said wasn't suitable for me at all; besides, it had white spots- worn, you know- on both elbows, and some other places. 

In Victorian fashion, basque refers to a closely fitted bodice or jacket extending past the waistline over the hips (wiki)

How I imagine Pollyanna's basque
nothing like the modern ones

2. Gimcrack (Noun)

When he comes back he writes books- queer, odd books, they say about some gimcrack he's found in them heathen countries. 

A cheap and showy object of little or no use; a gewgaw. (And isn't gewgaw a fabulous word?)


No mention of how this may relate to Gimcrack, the racecourse.

3. Scylla and Charybdis

They were always fight- I mean Father had- that is, I mean, we had more trouble keeping peace between them then we did with the rest of the Aiders,' corrected Pollyanna, a little breathless from her efforts to steer between the Scylla of her father's past commands in regard to speaking of church quarrels, and the Charybdis of her aunt's present commands in regard to speaking of her father. 


Between Scylla and Charybdis, is an idiom deriving from Greek mythology (wiki), which is used as we would use between a rock and a hard place.  They formed either side of a strait. Scylla being a six-headed monster, and Charybdis a whirlpool. I always wonder how often child readers would get Greek mythology references.

4. Pharisees (Noun)

"But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgement, mercy and faith: these ought to have done, and not to leave the other undone."

i) A member of an ancient Jewish sect that emphasized strict interpretation and observance of the Mosaic law in both its oral and written form. 

ii) A hypocritically self-righteous person. The free dictionary. 

5. Jigger (noun)

'Oh, she ain't handsome, of course: but I will own up she doesn't look like the same woman, what with the ribbons and lace jiggers Miss Pollyanna makes her wear 'round her neck.'


While I found lots of meanings for jiggers I couldn't find this meaning. I haven't been stumped before! We used to use jigger when I was a kid playing pool, for the thing you used to rest the cue on. 

Swallow

My fascination with Junior Non Fiction continues. Of course, I'm quite interested in birds so that helps too. We have swallows in Australia, but the Barn Swallow that is the star of this book, sadly doesn't live here. Although Barn Swallows born in Russia and China may spend their winter enjoying the warmth of far-Northern tropical Australia.

I wondered about the cover photo when I borrowed this book from the library, but didn't think all that much of it- til I read the book. Barn Swallows are really quite extraordinary creatures. They only weigh about 20 grams, yet can travel hundreds of kilometres in a day! They eat insects which they mainly catch whilst in flight- the distinctive forked shape of their tail helps them turn or brake in flight to catch delicious flies.

The female swallow lays up to six eggs at a time. Whilst incubating them she turns them gently with her beak to help them mature properly. While feeding their incessantly hungry chicks the parents will make up to 400 trips to and from the nest each and every day. Little wonder they need to go to Africa for a break!

Pity the poor swallows born in Alaska or Scandinavia!

In the Northern autumn the swallows will feed and build up reserves for their long flight south. We're told they can fly up to 965 kilometres in a day, and eat up to 6,000 insects in a day to prepare for their journey. Which seems near impossible. Their migratory journey can take 3 months to complete! It's extraordinary to think of a 20 gram bird flying for months to get to Africa, to spend a few months, and then to journey back, and then do it every year of their life. Which is why the cover shot is amazing when you understand it- these amazing little birds even drink on the fly.

Of course you can't think about European or African swallows for too long before thinking about coconuts.

An Illustrated Year

Generally I try to avoid reading challenges for bloggers. My own TBR, and my 1001 Children's book quest is usually more than enough fodder for my reading fire. Last year I tried two, I was successful with one and did several posts for the Foodies Reading Challenge, but abjectly failed with the other (much to my shame, I mean I love Oscar Wilde).

I was immediately hooked when I saw An Illustrated Year was being hosted by An Abundance of Books. Such a no-brainer for me,  I love reading kids books, and I love reading picture books. Last year I didn't get to read all that many, so hopefully this challenge will help keep me on track. I'll go for Level 3 - 24 picture books. I have at least 6 sitting on my shelf ready to go right now after all.

The Details

• Timeline: January 1, 2012- December 31, 2012
• Select your level:

                     Level 1 - Read 12 picture books

                     Level 2 - Read 16 picture books

                     Level 3 - Read 24 picture books

• You don't have to select your books ahead of time, you can just add them as you go.  If you do list your books in the beginning, you can always change them later on.
• Crossovers with other challenges count.
• Digital books count
• Re-reads count as long as you read them in 2012 and you post a new review for the book.
• You can join anytime

Noisy Miner

I got a new camera for Christmas this year, which is very exciting. Now I have to learn to use it. I was very excited to come across a friendly subject out the front of my parent's house over the Christmas break.

Noisy miners are native Australian honeyeaters. They shouldn't be confused with the introduced pest Indian Mynah.

This little fellow was fabulous.

He tolerated me peering through the bushes. He moved about within the bush a little bit (he was in the grevillea), but then he let me push some branches out of the way.

Until I got the perfect shot. And it was even in focus and sharp!

Saturday Snapshot, is a wonderful weekly meme from at home with books

Hands Only CPR

Interesting to see two recent videos from both sides of the Atlantic introducing Hands Only CPR to the general public. Both are fun, and funny, even though dealing with a scary sort of situation, and perhaps pave the way for the day that we can have Stayin Alive blaring out from the resus bay? We can only hope so!

I do love any video that uses the word geezer, that's quality! But I do prefer the Disco Can Save Lives aspect of the American version. Wonder when the Australian version will happen? Oh dear they did a flash mob version, but did the wrong music!

Ah but noone expects it to work!

The Adventures of Tintin 3D

I was so pleasantly surprised by this movie. The reviews I'd seen had been lukewarm at best really, and the gushings of Richard Wilkins have never swayed me, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I hadn't been a great Tintin fan as a child, and so wasn't familiar with the stories. I was hoping to catch up with the three stories that were the basis for the movie- The Crab with the Golden Claws (1941), The Secret of the Unicron (1943) and Red Rackham's Treasure (1944). But the Chrismtas period got away from me, and there was only one opportunity to go see the movie as a family outing so I went before reading the books.

And it was fun. Much more funny than I expected. Much of the humour comes from Andy Serkis's wonderful Captain Haddock. A hard drinking Scottish sea captain is always going to provide some excellent opportunities for humour. Certainly much is made of his drinking, and the movie actually has quite a strong anti-drunkenness message.

Tintin is of course a famous boy reporter, who rather unwittingly becomes involved in a mystery when he  buys a model of a ship at the town flea market. The story is action packed and I think the 3D effects are the least annoying of any 3D movie that I've seen so far. They didn't seem tacked on for the sake of it, even though I guess at times they were.

It is a movie that appeals to all ages too, my 11 year old son loved it, and my mother enjoyed it as her first experience of a 3D movie. Actually, my son and I both want to see it again.

After seeing the movie I did get a chance to read the books. All were so much better and more refined and developed than Tintin in the Land of the Soviets that I read recently.

The Crab with the Golden Claws has opium trafficking as a central plot which was skipped in the movie version. Opium trafficking not being too kid-movie friendly I guess. I do love Captain Haddock's strings of inventive profanities. Swine! Jellyfish! Tramps! Trogolodytes! Toffee-noses!

Some elements of the three stories are reproduced exactly in the movie, other parts changed, others omitted completely. Red Rackham's Treasure introduces the eccentric, stone deaf inventor Professor Calculus who is left out of the movie. Still it's fun to meet Tintin properly after all these years, and I hope to read some more Tintin titles. 

101 Dalmations

I was anxious about this book. I've seen the Disney version and read lots of abridged versions when my son was younger, and I didn't like them all that much. In fact I'd really come to quite dislike them. The Independent suggested that Dodie Smith had been eclipsed by Disney, which is sadly true I think. But I should have known better than to doubt the original. 

The basic plot of the story is familiar to most of us from the Disney movie I suspect. Mr and Mrs Dearly are a lovely couple, living in London, who have two Dalmations, Pongo and Missis Pongo, who have a litter of 15 puppies. The Dearly's are somehow friends with the terrible Cruella de Vil, who wants to make a Dalmation coat, and so she steals the Dearly pups, and many other Dalmations to make her coats. Pongo and Mrs Pongo set out on a journey to get their pups back. 

That is the bare bones of the book too. Naturally there is so much more nuance than the movie. So much more humour. It is written with an omniscient third person point of view, so we get the thoughts of the major characters- particularly the dogs, who while they only speak dog, they are able to understand English. Indeed the dogs here think of the Dearlys as their pets, and the dogs take their pets for walks at times. Cruella hosts a dinner party to get to the dogs and all her food tastes of nothing but pepper. 

I learnt quite a bit about Dalmations from this book, not a breed I'd thought a lot about, although of course they are possibly one of the most distinctive dog breeds. Dalmations are thought to originate from the Dalmatins Coast in Croatia. They used to be used to run behind carriages for reasons which aren't totally clear to me. Dodie Smith tells us that Pongo was a name commonly used by these Dalmations who ran behind carriages. Later on Dalmations became "firehouse dogs" in America. Wiki tells us lots more interesting things about Dalmations- such as they are prone to deafness and gout.

There is a delightful English gentleness suffused throughout the book. 

Now (Christmas) carols are always beautiful but if you are sad they can make you feel sadder. (There are some people who always find beauty makes them feel sadder, which is a very mysterious thing.)

Perdita here is not Pongo's wife, as Disney would have us believe, but rather a lost dog (perditus being Latin for lost, and also a Shakespearian reference) who becomes a wet nurse to the bumper crop of puppies. Another Latin reference is cave canem "beware of the dog", which is apt, but I do wonder if young children actually got Latin references in 1956, or if their parents were much more likely than now to know what it meant. I do particularly like the notion of the twilight barking, it seems a perfect bookend from the dawn chorus, that the dogs use to communicate, perhaps all those dogs barking in the distance are really trying to help find lost puppies?