the rain in spain falls mainly on the plaintiff

[freckles_and_doubt]

It rained again today! and last night! lots! heavily! the garden is all damp, and the city's starlings are doing that cute thing where they hunch their necks in and become short, plump and fluffy instead of sleek. So, for that matter, are the cats. The first sign of winter is Ounce wandering in from outside complaining because we've cruelly and deliberately made him all wet with this nasty water from the sky.

Have spent today in a weird combination of lecturing on sexuality and representation, essay-marking (not a good batch) and snatches of reading to stop my brain from dribbling out my ears. Possibly the choice of The Voynich Manuscript alternated with Dorothy Sayers was not particularly intelligent, since my brain is dribbling out my ears anyway. Although the particular Dorothy Sayers was chosen because it has a particularly fun cryptographic bit in which the Investigators decipher a code based on letter-pair substitution which relies on a code-word and a sort of grid thingy. All of which made much more sense after d@vid's talk on medieval cryptography last night. But much less sense after the essay marking. *allows brain to dribble restfully* Anyway, that Voynich manuscript, too, too weird.

I have also realised that Cassie Claire's version of Draco Malfoy was heavily based on Lord Peter Wimsey (who is, however, not actually gay). Always gratifying when I realise people read the same obscure, dated, madly British literature that I do. Hands up anyone who can, without resorting to Google, identify the context and genesis of Magersfontein Lugg??

Comments

Magersfontein

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

Magersfontein was the site of a battle during the boer war. Etienne Leroux wrote a satirical novel about it in Afrikaans. IIRC it involves a reenactment gone wrong. What's a lugg?

Re: Magersfontein

[(Anonymous)]

Well, a lug is an ear, so an ear obviously played an important part in the reenactment. Perhaps in a similar sense to that played by the spider in The Bruce's surprising comeback at Bannockburn (= stream of small fried oatmeal cakes).

wolverine_nun

Re: Magersfontein

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

Good grief, my LJ has suddenly become a re-enactment of 1066 And All That. Actually, a South African version - or, in fact, a Southern African version - would be way fun. Think of the frangled versions you could create of Shaka Zulu and Mzilikazi and Blood River and what have you...

Magersfontein Lugg

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

I'll take a wild guess that it's either a wrestling manuever, or a position used in wife-carrying contests.

With that, I'm off to google to get the straight dope on it.

medieval crypto

[rumint.livejournal.com]

If you enjoy such things, I can recommend Neal Stephenson's massive Baroque cycle - Quicksilver, Confusion & System of the World. I'm just finishing the last thousand pages of SotW, but the period crypto is excellent, as you'd expect from the author of Cryptonomicon.

Has D@vid seen my claws piece on Ars Magica redcap crypto? I can send a copy down if he hasn't.

A

Re: medieval crypto

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

I started reading Quicksilver, but didn't get more than a couple of chapters in - for some reason it didn't appeal to me at all. I had the feeling that lots of references to medieval mathematicians and scientists and what have you were going hopelessly over my head in an irritating fashion. Pity, because generally I think Neal Stephenson is brilliant.

D@vid's talk was in the SCA context, so the interest was in historical cryptography - on what were you basing the Redcap one?

Re: medieval crypto

[(Anonymous)]

woo! rumint, when you say CLAWs piece do you mean in CLAWmarks? I don't recall seeing it before, which issue? (do I know you?)

I haven't even started cryptonomicon yet, but I do have it from tracy

d@vid