RANDOM RAMBLINGS AND DERANGEMENT

 

Bound-ery boundary bunnies to you on this onest of November!   (Or:  RABBITS!!)

The month started by lulling us into a sense of false security, with a sun smiling sweetly and balmy breezes.  Then, as soon as everyone was lured outside, came some wild wind and drenching drips to reveal an apparent intention to out-sog October.

Oh well, the consolation is that it has been months since I needed to top up swimming pool or ponds.

 Thought for today:

Is it right to write a wheelwright rite right-handed?

 The wright bit comes from an old English word meaning ‘worker’.  One couldn’t apply it to most of our local ones, though.  They are too often rong.

 That reminds me of one of my high school teachers (no, he wasn’t an educator; and we were pupils, not learners) by the name of Phillips, known for reasons unknown as ‘Fluffy’.  He would pause in his lectures to say, ‘Right.’  Then, he had some sort of nervous disorder which would lock him into saying long strings of them, as in, ‘Right, right, right, right, right, right … right … right-right-right, right … right!’  He seemed completely unaware of anything out of the ordinary in his ‘right’ marathons.

Now, following up from that thought in no way whatsoever, I come to a Nepomuk.   A recent post of Kate Shrewsday referred to Johann Nepomuk Målzel as being a hearing-aid manufacturer for Beethoven.  The name struck me because I happen to be fond of the music of  Hummel, whose potted particulars are:

Johann Nepomuk Hummel (November 14, 1778 – October 17, 1837) was an Austrian composer and virtuoso pianist. His music reflects the transition from the Classical to the Romantic musical era.

In his lifetime his music was said to have been more popular than that of Beethoven.

So, who or what was a Nepomuk?

That is easy.

John of Nepomuk (or John Nepomucene) (Czech: Jan Nepomucký) (c. 1345 – March 20, 1393)^[1] is a national saint of the Czech Republic, who was drowned in the Vltava river at the behest of Wenceslaus, King of the Romans and King of Bohemia. Later accounts state that he was the confessor of the queen of Bohemia and refused to divulge the secrets of the confessional. On the basis of this account, John of Nepomuk is considered the first martyr of the Seal of the Confessional, a patron against calumnies and, because of the manner of his death, a protector from floods.

 It only leaves me to wonder if the Nepomuk-bumper-offer was the same lad who is said to have done a good deed on the Feast of Stephen (26^th December) when the snow lay all about deep and crisp and even?

No.

That was some four hundred years before, and the carol Wenceslaus was a duke, not a king.  He was given a promotion by Neale, who adapted the original German poem.  Apparently the earlier Wenceslaus was hacked to death by his apparently hacked-off brother Coleslaw with a B, and was regarded as a martyr by his followers.

 That was fun!  I enjoy letting my mind loose to range around every now and again.  So now, if it is deranged, does that mean it is back on track?

© November 2012 Colonialist (WordPress/blogs24)