Saturday January 25 2020

09:00 Lois is feeling a bit better today, as regards the pain in her back and hip, so we head over to the local Sainsbury's supermarket to go grocery shopping. In addition to our regular food items, she has to pick up a few things for our Burns Night dinner tonight.

the local Sainsbury’s supermarket

There is a 1-day racing festival going on today at the local track, so we decided last night to go out early for food shopping this morning to avoid the traffic jams that would surely be starting before too long in this neighbourhood. My god, what a crazy world we live in!!! And we also decided to postpone our regular shower till this afternoon, which makes sense.

10:30 We come home and relax with a cup of coffee on the couch. We talk a little about tonight's dinner.

Tonight we are going to celebrate Burns Night. We don't have any Scottish connections in our families as far as we know, but our brother-in-law Steve in Philadelphia has recommended a recipe for "rumbledethumps," which sounds really delicious, so Lois wants to try it.

I've always had a bit of a weakness for Burns's poems since I first joined Lynda's U3A Middle English group about 2-3 years ago and the group looked a little at his poems and his language, the so-called Scottish English. And later, when we were studying the origins of the English language, Lynda had the habit of asking all of her group's members to show up for group meetings armed with 6 “pub quiz” questions, to kick-start our discussions.

At one group meeting, I challenged the other members to come up with the name of an animal that, over the long history of European languages, various people would refer to with essentially the same word, pronounced in the same way: in this case, (1) a neolithic farmer on the Russian steppes, (2) Julius Caesar, (3) Geoffrey Chaucer, (4) Robert Burns, and (5) the Queen of Denmark. The correct answer was the word "mouse", if pronounced  as "moose". It is one of the oldest words we use and it has hardly changed in 4000 years, although the spelling has not always been the same, needless to say.

a typical Neolithic peasant

Robert Burns (1759-1796)

The word "mouse" literally means an animal that steals things, and one can imagine how annoying they must have been to the earliest European farmers on the Russian steppes, no doubt about that.

It is interesting (from my point of view haha) that the word is related to the word "muscle" because even in prehistoric times it was thought that our muscles, especially in the biceps, looked like a little mouse. The ancient Greek words for both mouse and muscle, "mys", were exactly the same, and this is the source of our various scientific words referring to muscles: myosis, myocardium, etc.

Chaucer pronounced the word as "moose", just like Robert Burns did - our current pronunciation dates from the period 1400-1700, and is the result of the so-called Great Vowel Shift, a "modernising" step that many of today's Scots and Canadians still refuse to accept for some reason – good grief, what madness !!!

Robert Burns' poem, "To a Mouse"

Isn't etymology totally fascinating? !!! Who would want to study anything else? !!!!!

14:00 After lunch I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. Meanwhile, Lois settles down on the couch and watches a rom-com movie on TV. I get up at 3:30 pm and we take our regular shower. Afterwards, we go back to bed. We have become so lazy nowadays – my god! And I read about 20 pages of my bedtime book. We get up again at 5 pm and Lois rushes into the kitchen to make dinner.

She has the recipe for "rumbledethumps" written down on a piece of paper that she keeps to hand while she goes to work.

the recipe for the Scottish dish "rumbledethumps"

19:00 We sit down, a little later than usual: rumbledethumps with "Scottish" sausages, and I can report that it tastes very good - yum yum yum !!! It was apparently our former prime minister Gordon "Gordo" Brown's very favourite dish, and rightly so!

we sit down to our Burns Night supper

20:00 We sit down on the sofa and I look at my smartphone. I see that Alison, our daughter in Haslemere, Surrey, has posted a charming photo up on "Insta" - it shows the family's two cats: Dumbledore, the Danish ex-street cat, and the family's newly acquired English kitten, Otto.

Dumbledore, the Danish ex-street cat (right) and Otto,

the family's newly acquired English kitten

Alison was a little worried earlier this month that Dumbledore might not accept Otto, so she is a little surprised that there have been no problems in this regard. Tonight, it suddenly dawned on me that Dumbledore might have been lonely - his Danish brother or pal (whose name I forget - some name to do with Harry Potter) was sadly killed in a traffic accident last year on the road in front of the house. Now suddenly  it all starts to make perfect sense, the whole thing.

21:00 We watch some television, an interesting documentary, the third episode of a new archaeology series, "Bone Detectives: Britain's Buried Secrets". The programme's hosts are three charming women: the evolutionary biologist Tori Herridge, the archaeologist Raksha Dave, and the mortuary technician with the fascinating tattoos, Carla Valentine.

An intriguing programme all about the hundreds of skeletons found by builders preparing to build a large car park in the town of Andover in Hampshire.

The skeletons dated from the medieval times, from the 10th to the 13th centuries, but the builders had to report the deaths to the local county coroner nonetheless, presumably in case the killers were still at large in the neighbourhood ha ha!

Some of the skeletons, who were almost entirely young men, showed signs of having been hanged and others had been decapitated or had their hands severed and suchlike. The severed heads had mostly been stuck on gibbets. They had been buried mostly face down, so that if they ever came back to life, maybe with the help of some witchcraft or other, they would just keep going in the same direction towards the centre of the earth, as people thought back then – my god, what madness !!!!

The planned car park was in town, but 1000 years ago the site was far out in the countryside, on a bit of a hill, so that their dead bodies or heads could be seen swinging from several miles away: it was the custom at the time to hang people at the "hundred-boundary". A "hundred" was a subdivision of a county, and each hundred had its own legal system, consisting of a “hundred-court” that met every 4 weeks - crazy !!!!

The "hundred" system was once used not only in England, but also in Wales and parts of the United States, plus all over Scandinavia, Finland and Estonia. They still use the system nowadays in parts of Australia.

Almost all the skeletons were young men, but there was also one sole woman who was also excavated. Lois and I did not know, but female criminals were not usually hanged or beheaded in those days- they were given a more "merciful" death, such as being drowned or thrown off the top of a cliff and suchlike.

We also did not know that William the Conqueror, when he invaded the country in 1066, actually abolished the death penalty, but he never enforced this, allowing the old Anglo-Saxon legal system to continue just as it had for centuries.

The Normans' idea was that criminals would more fittingly be punished by having to live a very unpleasant life and having to remedy their crimes for decades in some disgusting stinking prison, and then dying naturally anyway.

Lois comments that it was the Normans who initiated the use of prisons: the Anglo-Saxons did not have them. And I am reminded that all our prison-related words (such as "prison", "jail", etc.) come from the Norman-French language. Suddenly it all starts to make perfect sense.

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzzz !!!

Danish translation: lørdag den 25. januar 2020

09:00 Lois har det lidt bedre i dag, som angår smerterne i sin ryg og hofte, så kører vi over til det lokale Sainsburys supermarked for at gå madindkøb. Udover vores regelmæssige fødevarer skal hun hente et par ting til vores Burns Night-middag i aften.

det lokale Sainsburys-supermarked

Der er en 1-dags væddeløbsfestival, der foregår i dag på den lokale bane, så vi besluttede i går aftes at gå tidligt på madindkøb i formiddag, for at undgå de trafikpropper, der helt sikkert ville starte inden alt for længe i denne nabolag. Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i!!!  Og vi besluttede også at udskyde vores regelmæssige brusebad til i eftermiddag, hvilket giver mening.  

10:30 Vi kommer hjem og slapper af med en kop kaffe i sofaen. Vi snakker lidt om aftenens middag.

I aften skal vi fejre Burns Night. Vi har ikke nogle skotske forbindelser i vores familier, så vidt vi ved, men vores svigerbror Steve i Philadelphia har anbefalet et opskrift på ”rumblethumps”, hvilket lyder rigtig lækkert, så Lois har lyst til at forsøge sig med det.

Jeg har altid haft lidt af en svaghed for Burns’ digte, siden jeg begyndte at deltage i Lyndas U3A middengelske gruppe for omkring 2-3 år siden og gruppen kiggede lidt på hans digte og hans sprog, det såkaldte skotsk-engelsk. Og senere, da vi var i gang med at studere oprindelserne af det engelske sprog, havde Lynda for vane at bede alle sin gruppes medlemmer til at dukke op til gruppemøder, bevæbnet med 6 pub-quiz questions, for at kickstarte vores diskussioner.

På ét gruppemøde bad jeg de andre medlemmer om at finde på et dyr, som forskellige mennesker, i løbet af de europæiske sprogs lange historie, ville henvise til med det samme ord, udtalt på den samme måde: en neolitisk bondemand på de russiske stepper, Julius Caesar, Geoffrey Chaucer, Robert Burns, og dronningen af Danmark. Det korrekte svar var ordet ”mouse”, udtalt som ”moose”. Det er én af de ældste ord vi bruger, som ikke næsten har forandret sig i 4000 år, selvom stavningen ikke altid har været det samme, unødvendigt at sige.

en typisk neolitsk bondemand

Robert Burns (1759-1796)

Ordet ”mouse” betyder bogstavelig talt, et dyr, der stjæler ting, og man kan forestiller sig, hvor irriterende de måtte have været til de tidligste europæiske bondemænd på de russiske stepper, ingen tvivl om det.

Det er interessant (fra mit synspunkt haha) , at ordet er beslægtet til ordet ”muskel”, fordi man allerede i forhistoriske tider troede, at muskler, især i bicepsen, lignede en lille mus. De antikke græske ord for både mus og muskel, ”mys”, var præcis det samme, og dette er kilden på vores forskellige videnskabelige ord, der henviser til muskler: for eksempel myose, myokardet osv.

Chaucer udtalte ordet som "moose", ligesom Robert Burns - vores nuværende udtale daterer fra perioden 1400-1700, og er et resultatet af den såkaldte Store Vokalskifte, en ”moderniserende” skridt, som mange af nutidens skoter og kanadier stadig afviser at acceptere af en eller ande grund – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!

Robert Burns’ digt, ”To a Mouse”

”Simples”, det hele !!!

Er etymologi ikke totalt fascinerende?!!! Hvem ville ønske at studere noget andet?!!!!!

14:00 Efter frokost går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. I mellemtiden sætter Lois til rette i sofaen og ser en romcom-film på tv. Jeg står op kl 15:30 og vi tager vores regelmæssige brusebad. Bagefter går vi i seng igen. Vi er blevet så dovne nu til dags – du godeste! Og jeg læser omkring 20 sider af min sengetidbog. Vi står op igen kl 17 og Lois skynder sig ind i køkkenet for at lave middagen.

Hun har opskriften på ”rumbledethumps” på et stykke papir, som hun holder ved hånden, mens hun går på arbejde.

opskriften på den skotske ret ”rumbledethumps”

19:00 Vi sætter os til bord, lidt senere, end normalt. ”Rumblethumps” med ”skotske” pølser, og jeg kan rapporterer, at det smager meget meget godt – yum yum yum!!! Det var tilsyneladende vores tidligere premierminister Gordon ”Gordo” Browns livsret, og med rette!

20:00 Vi sætter os til rette i sofaen, og jeg kigger lidt på min smartphone. Jeg ser at Alison, vores datter i Haslemere, Surrey, har lagt et charmerende foto op på ”Insta” – det viser familiens to katte: Dumbledore, den danske eks-gadekat, og familiens nykøbte engelske kattekiling, Otto.

Dumbledore, den danske eks-gadekat (til højre) og Otto,

familiens nykøbte engelske kattekilling

Alison var lidt bekymret tidligere på måneden, at Dumbledore ikke ville acceptere Otto, så er hun lidt overrasket over, at der ikke har været nogle problemer i denne retning. I aften gik det pludselig op for mig, at Dumbledore måske havde været ensom – hans danske bror eller kammerat (hvis navn jeg har glemt – ét eller andet navn, der har noget med Harry Potter at gøre) blev desværre dræbt sidste år i en trafikulykke på vejen foran huset. Now it makes sense, det hele !!!!

21:00 Vi ser lidt fjernsyn, en interessant dokumentarfilm, det 3. afsnit i en ny arkæologisk serie, ”Bone Detectives: Britain’s  Buried Secrets”. Programmets værterne er tre charmerende kvinder:  den evolutionsbiolog Tori Herridge, arkæologen Raksha Dave, og obduktionsteknikeren med de fascinerende tatoveringer, Carla Valentine.

Et fascinerende program, der handler om hundredvis af skeletter, der blev fundet af byggemænd, der forberedede sig på at bygge en stor parkeringsplads i byen Andover i Hampshire.

Skelettener daterede fra middelalderen, fra det 10. til det 13. århundreder, men byggemændene måtte ikke desto mindre rapportere melde dødene til den lokale grevskabscoroner, formentlig for det tilfæle, at dræberne stadig var på fri fod i nabolaget ha ha!

Nogle af skeletterne, der for det meste var unge mænd,  viste tegn på, at de var blevet hængt, og andre var blevet halshugget eller havde fået skillet deres hænder, og den slags. Hovederne var for det meste blevet stukket i galgen. De blev begravet for det meste på maverne, så hvis de kom tilbage til livet, måske ved hjælp af noget hekseri,  ville de bare rejse videre i samme retning mod jordens center, troede folk dengang – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

Den planlagde parkeringsplads lå i byen, men for 1000 år siden lå stedet langt ude på landet, på lidt af en bakke, så deres døde kroppe eller hoveder kunne ses fra flere miles afstand, ved grænsen af 2-3 ”hundreds”. En ”hundred” var en underinddeling af et grevskab, hver med sin egen retssystem, bestående af en hundred-ret, der samledes hver 4. uge – du godeste, sikke et vanvid (igen) !!!!

”Hundred”-systemet var engang brugt ikke bare i England, men også i Wales og dele af USA, også Skandinavien, Finland og Estland. Man bruger systemet stadig nu til dags i dele af Australien  - du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

Næsten alle de skeletter var unge mænd, men der var én enkelt kvinde, der også blev udgravet. Lois og jeg vidste ikke, men kvindelige forbrydere blev normalt ikke hængt eller halshugget – de fik en mere ”nådesløs” død, som for eksempel dét, at blive druknet eller kastet fra toppen af en klint og den slags. Du godeste!

Vi vidste heller ikke, at Vilhelm Erobreren, da han invaderede landet i 1066, faktisk afskaffede dødsstraffen, men han håndhævede dette aldrig, men lod det gamle angelsaksiske retssystem fortsætte ligesom det havde gjort i århundreder.

Normannernes idé var, at forbrydere skulle leve et meget ubehagelig liv, ved at måtte gøre bod for deres forbrydelser siddende i årtier i ét eller andet modbydeligt stinkende fængsel, hvilket virker ganske oplyst i sammenligning med tiderne haha.

Lois kommenterer, at det var Normannerne, der indledte brugen af fængsler: angelsakserne ikke havde dem. Og jeg mindes om, at alle vores fængsel-relaterede ord (såsom ”prison”, ”jail” osv) stammer fra det normanniske sprog. Pludselig giver det hele mening haha.

22:00 Vi går i seng - zzzzz!!!