animals

Swan-upping, anyone?

Today was pretty uneventful, even for a Monday.

My Forgotten English calendar informs me that it’s the Traditional Swan-Upping Day, when

…since the Middle Ages, the Worshipful Company of Dyers and that of Vintners have annually rounded up and marked mute cygnets’ bills upriver from London — a bit like old-fashioned American cattle-branding. Using sharp knives, the companies’ swan-wardens once indicated ownership with one or two nicks respectively to distinguish their own from unmarked, royal birds. But now the birds’ legs are banded instead. At one time, swan ownership in Norfolk and Suffolk was indicated by a wide range of nicks, as seen in a 500-year-old scroll depicting ninety-nine distinctive marks. A remnant of this practice can be seen in the pub name, The Swan with Two Necks — a corruption of The Swan with Two Nicks.

Around here? Not so much.

Thursday various

Wednesday various

  • Presenting The Human Centipede Video Game. Warning: will spoil the movie (which in turn may spoil your appetite) and possibly your enjoyment of the original Centipede game.
  • Marina Sirtis and Jonathan Frakes really do have great chemistry together. It’s almost enough to forgive their shared bathtub scene in Insurrection. They’re refreshingly candid and engaged.
  • Meanwhile, I am not immune to the cuteness of the sloth.
  • Juliette Wade on teeth in science fiction [via]
  • And finally, ever wonder what happens in Disneyland after dark? (And no, it’s not that Cory Doctorow scales the fence and performs his technomagic in the forgotten recesses of Tomorrowland…although, can you prove that he doesn’t?) [via]

Monday various

Tuesday various

  • You meddlesome kids get off Richard Schickel‘s lawn!
  • That, my friends, is one big bunny. [via]
  • There was a lot of talk recently about a new law in South Carolina that would require “subversive” organizations to register with the state. This, of course, put me in mind of a line from Good Morning, Vietnam: “Well, we walk up to someone and say, ‘Are you the enemy?’ And, if they say yes, then we shoot them.” Turns out, it isn’t exactly true. Or, rather, the law’s been on the books for about sixty years. There’s actually a bill before the SC legislature to repeal it. So, you know, that’s good. [via
  • Here’s an interesting article from the New York Times last month:

    To millions of “Twilight” fans, the Quileute are Indians whose (fictional) ancient treaty transforms young males of the tribe into vampire-fighting wolves. To the nearly 700 remaining Quileute Indians, “Twilight” is the reason they are suddenly drawing extraordinary attention from the outside — while they themselves remain largely excluded from the vampire series’ vast commercial empire. [via]

  • And fianlly, ever wonder what the Westminster dog show would look like from the opposite point-of-view? [via]