Another Arnold Zwicky, and several Arnold near-Zwickys

December 9, 2017

Yesterday, a posting “The other Elizabeth Zwicky”, about a Facebook counterpart (in Chicago) to my daughter, Elizabeth Daingerfield Zwicky. Well, it turns out that I have a Facebook counterpart too (now in Romanshorn CH).

Also yesterday, a posting

From the continuing annals of near-Zwickys, a contrasting pair of Zwickes, one of them named Arnold.

And a posting “Zwick, maybe from Zwickau”, on still more near-Zwickys, traced to the Saxony region of German, close to the Slavic lands of what are now Czechia and Poland, supplying a probable Slavic source for the surname Zwick.

Now: two Arnold Zwicks, and several Arnold Zwickers, in Germany and in Nova Scotia.

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Zwick, maybe from Zwickau

December 8, 2017

Still more on near-Zwickys.

My previous posting looked at two Zwickes, one of them named Arnold Zwicke (a close call, but I still think it’s the case that there have only ever been two Arnold Zwickys in the US, and the other one is my father). The short surname Zwick (which in college I sometimes got called as a nickname) seems pretty clearly to be of Slavic, rather than Swiss, origin; is probably related to the German placename Zwickau; and is shared by two (unrelated) Americans in the film industry.

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Zwicke

December 8, 2017

From the continuing annals of near-Zwickys, a contrasting pair of Zwickes, one of them named Arnold.

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Frank and John in 1971

December 8, 2017

A follow-up to my posting of the 4th, “A dark week in early December”, noting that the 4th is Frank Zappa’s death day, the 8th — today — John Lennon’s (and the 6th Wolfgang Mozart’s, but he doesn’t figure in today’s story). Now Kyle Wohlmut has posted on Facebook a Guitar World 10/8/17 story “John Lennon and Frank Zappa Jam in New York City in 1971” by Damian Fanelli:


Yoko Ono, John Lennon, Frank Zappa

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The other Elizabeth Zwicky

December 8, 2017

In tech, even, but she’s not my daughter, Elizabeth Daingerfield Zwicky (EDZ):

(#1) Elizabeth not-Daingerfield Zwicky’s Twitter photo

I’ll call her E¬DZ for short.

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The Hollywood sign in a time of troubles

December 8, 2017

Among recent editorial cartoons on sexual harassment cases are three that use the Hollywood sign as a symbol of things gone wrong in la-la land.

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Monkey see, monkey fear

December 7, 2017

Today’s Bizarro brings us a talking monkey facing the news:

(If you’re puzzled by the odd symbols in the cartoon — Dan Piraro says there are 3 in this strip — see this Page.)

Funny enough as it stands, but much funnier if you recognize the monkey as the character Curious George and his companion The Man With the Yellow Hat. So: a cross-comic reference, and because of that, a challenge to understanding.

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The saguaro in bloom

December 7, 2017

Here in northern California, we’ve had some early rain — not very often and not a lot, but enough to turn the golden hillsides to bright new green. And enough to convince the cacti and succulents in Stanford’s Arizona Garden that Their Time Has Come, so they’re bursting with new growth and breaking out in flowers. Notably, a big ol’ saguaro cactus has thrown out huge creamy blossoms, much like these in this photo from the net:

(#1) The state flower of AZ; NM claims the yucca

Meanwhile, the saguaro serves as an anthromorphic symbol — a man with both arms in the air — and a phallic symbol (an interpretation encouraged by the fact that the cactus is, oh dear, prickly).

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Posted in Comic conventions, Language and ethnicity, Language and plants, Linguistics in the comics, Phallicity, Signs and symbols | Leave a Comment »

gruggerwear

December 6, 2017

(Hunky antipodal gay jocks modeling underwear, a bit of cheap language play, but otherwise not much to shock kids or the sexually modest.)

From the Daily Jocks people today, Aussie gruggerwear (gay rugby underwear) packaged into a calendar so you can take one for the team:

(#1) For the Melbourne Chargers Rugby Union Football Club

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Revisiting 14: belly buttons

December 6, 2017

In my recent tortellini posting (on the 4th, “I say it sounds yucky and I say the hell with it”), I quoted from the Wikipedia article:

Tortellini [and their larger versions tortelloni] are ring-shaped pasta, sometimes also described as “navel shaped”, hence their alternative name of “belly button” (ombelico).

Now metaphoric navels (informally, belly buttons) have come up on this blog before, in a 10/26/10 posting “The counterpart of phallic symbol”:

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