It's a Gnother Gnu

[m31andy]

Bizarre (though interesting) article in the New Scientist today:

True Blood: The Real Vampire Slayers

Such scholarly articles, I suppose, are both an interest and necessary every time the vampire legend takes another left turn into sparkledom. (And actually it's interesting to plot the movement in the legend and how it takes a leap forward every time vampires become popular again, for whatever reason.)

I, in fact, have several books/articles on the rise of the mythology. Which probably doesn't surprise anyone here...

What does make me boggle is why is the New Scientist so interested?!

Perhaps this April Fools' I'll start the rumour that New Scientist is actually a spoof, like The Onion.

Oops. I just did.

Apropos of nothing, how do you pronounce "gnu"? (And I'm asking how you pronounce it, not how it's properly pronounced....)

[Poll #1677148]

Comments

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

And now I have this stuck in my head:

[m31andy.livejournal.com]

*grin*

Well, it's always good to share the wealth... (A Transport of Delight was on the ipod earlier and I can't listen to it without laughing - which upsets my work colleagues no end as I work in a completely open plan office!

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

My granddad used to sing it to us. I can still hear him doing the gnu voice. *G*

Ah, A Transport of Delight always makes me laugh at that attempt at a lower class London accent as much as the song itself.

[m31andy.livejournal.com]

*G*

Ah, well, there's a story behind the song (as there always is...) C, clanwilliam, several others and I were at a pub quiz and we were asked the question "How many miles would a London bus travel around London on a full tank of petrol?"

We were the only team in the pub that got the answer right. And all because I remembered the song:

That thirty-foot long by ten-foot wide, Inside that monarch of the road, Observer of the highway code, The big six-wheeler, London transport, Diesel engine, Ninety-seven horsepower, Ninety-seven horsepower omnibus!

Why yes, the answer was "zero".

*G*

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

That's wonderful. I love it when the strange pieces of info stored in the brain actually prove to be useful. *g*

[roven75.livejournal.com]

I'd pronounce it "noo(s)", and this is where I learned it from ;)
Gnus Stand

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

I love the way we're all referring to comedy takes as our reference point. *g*

Good gnus

[constant-muse.livejournal.com]

This is where I learnt it:

P.G. Wodehouse

And one more gnu, so fair and frail,
Has handed in its dinner-pail;

Re: Good gnus

[chamekke.livejournal.com]

(The females all are rather small,
The males are somewhat bigger.)

B'dum tish!

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

For anybody exposed to Flanders and Swann at a critical age (as clearly you were) it has to be "g-nu". Though if I knew the correct click, out of sheer bloody-mindedness I would use that.

[gritsinmisery.livejournal.com]

Wildebeast.

[multiclassgeek.livejournal.com]

Gnu was actually an answer in the QLL main game this week.

Guh-Noo, FWIW.

[elfbert.livejournal.com]

sort of.... "..Nu." So I stick an awkward pausey noisey glottle-stoppy noise on before the N.

The dictionary would no doubt have a weird symbol for that noise. I don't have one.

[saintvic.livejournal.com]

Do you know I don't think I ever have pronounced gnu before this post.