m31andy: (bernard)
m31andy ([personal profile] m31andy) wrote2011-02-04 05:57 pm

It's a Gnother Gnu

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]

[identity profile] draycevixen.livejournal.com 2011-02-04 06:14 pm (UTC)(link)

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.

[identity profile] m31andy.livejournal.com 2011-02-04 06:31 pm (UTC)(link)
*G*

Ah, well, there's a story behind the song (as there always is...) C, [livejournal.com profile] 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*

[identity profile] draycevixen.livejournal.com 2011-02-04 06:38 pm (UTC)(link)

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