pirates in the Gulf of X

[Mark Mandel]

Oh, bother. Apparently my posting this morning was encoded. Apparently
even a Thorn in jest (in "*Th*e OED") is too much for this listserver.
I really wish we could fix that.

I was replying to Joel Berson's comment
>>>
I am reminded that in "As You Like It" the Forest of Arden is
referred to (a half-dozen times) as a desert.  Must have been near the Gulf.
<<<

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The* OED saith:

    1. An uninhabited and uncultivated tract of country; a wilderness:
   a. now conceived as a desolate, barren region, waterless and
treeless, and with but scanty growth of herbage;{em}e.g. the Desert of
Sahara, Desert of the Wanderings, etc.

    b. formerly applied more widely to any wild, uninhabited region,
including forest-land. Obs.
... 1600 SHAKES. A.Y.L. II. vii. 110 In this desert inaccessible,
Vnder the shade of melancholly boughes.

Mark Mandel

"Oh, bother," said the Borg, "we've assimilated Pooh."

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