The moon; was Re: Camels vs. dromedaries?

Brenda Lester alphatwin2002 at YAHOO.COM
Thu Apr 3 20:46:09 UTC 2008


I go with B for bi-, prefix for two (humps in this case).

  bl


Barbara Need <nee1 at MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Barbara Need
Subject: The moon; was Re: Camels vs. dromedaries?
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On 3 Apr 2008, at 15:20, Laurence Horn wrote:

> At 3:16 PM -0500 4/3/08, Barbara Need wrote:
>> On 3 Apr 2008, at 15:02, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>
>>> At 2:49 PM -0400 4/3/08, Mark Mandel wrote:
>>>> FWIW, I could never remember which of the Bactrian and dromedary
>>>> was
>>>> which, till I looked at the capital B and capital D sideways.
>>>>
>>>> Mark Mandel
>>>>
>>> Aha. So camels always tell the truth, unlike the moon, which
>>> always lies.
>>
>> Unless you love south of the Equator!
>>
> Good point! Well, if you live south of the Equator, you have to
> stand on your head, and then the moon will always lie, plus you'll be
> able to grab on to the earth to keep from falling off.

Actually, if you live south of the Equator, you see a different Man
in the Moon (that is, the three craters we take as eyes and mouth are
rotated and the top pair are, as here, taken for the eyes). And Orion
is standing on his head! Very weird!

Barbara

Barbara Need
UChicago

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