Camels vs. dromedaries?

[Brenda Lester]

well, shakespeare did write that the moon was inconstant.

  :/
  bl

Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Mark Mandel
Subject: Re: Camels vs. dromedaries?
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In the northern hemisphere the moon looks (sort of) like a D while
growing from new to full, and like a C while shrinking from full to
new. C is the first letter of "crescens", Latin 'growing' and source
of "crescent", while D is the initial of "decrescens" 'shrinking'.
Therefore the moon is a liar.

Well, it works if you're a northern-hemisphere classicist.

m a m

On Thu, Apr 3, 2008 at 10:17 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> At 4/3/2008 04:02 PM, 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.
>
> Well, I'm going through an eclipse, and in the dark on this apothegm.
>
> Joel
>
>
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
Mark Mandel

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