Re: no friends of Charlie's
Paul Kennedy (kennedyp@toronto.cbc.ca)
Fri, 25 Jun 1999 17:52:05 -0400 (EDT)
I keep promising myself that I'm going to quit this thread (which, as I
earlier agreed, is utterly silly--which is largely MY FAULT!).... but.....
>Cute, but one of the crosses that I bear is that my name is, indeed, Thor.
>Makes it rough. Imagine, if you will, all the Thor jokes, puns, insults,
>etc. Then say them again in your head 50 times. That's what every party is
>like for me. Every time.
>However, now that you mention it, being Scottish by blood, and considering
>the number of Viking ships on the British shores in days of yore, well, it
>would seem to be historically accurate...
One of the most amazing moments in my otherwise uninteresting life occurred
on Orkney, in the mid-1970s.... I was bicycling around what was then a
wonderfully remote island, trying to avoid cowpies when I pitched my tent on
Scapa Flow every night.... There's this UNBELIEVEABLE archeological site
called MAES HOWE.... (This on the very magical island that is also home to
the Ring of Brogar and Skarra Brae--please feel free to correct my spelling,
Scottie.... Gaelic never was my strength.....)
Anyway, back in the mid-70s, you had to knock on the door of a croft not far
from Kirkwall, wherefrom would emerge a beautiful (Island?) (Highland?)
(Celtic?) (North British?) (Viking?) lassie with--I swear it!--more of a
Norwegian accent than anything associated with the British Isles.... She'd
walk you to the middle of a field.... In the centre of the field was this
huge, man-made mountain.... It was a Celtic (...but again correct me if I'm
wrong, Scottie, it may have actually been Pictish....) burial mound.... She
grabbed a naked light bulb on a long extension cord, and on hands and knees
escorted you to the burial chamber at the end of a long passage, in the very
centre of the mound....
Inside, when the naked lightbulb was illuminated, she showed the Viking
carvings on the walls.... A fabulous dragon..... Norse calligraphy.... or
actually, graffitti.... "This one says", she quite literally SANG the
translation--and, as I say, her voice was much more Scandinavian than
Scottish--"this one says that the wisest man in the western ocean carved it,
with an ax...."
Orkney was part of Norway until the 16th or 17th century, Thor.... The
Vikings had vandalized this tomb, and taken away all the treasures....
You come by your name quite honestly....
But what's the point to any friggin' thread?
Cheers,
Paul
>Nevertheless, AGAIN:
>
>And the point to this whole silly friggin' thread is.... ?????
>
>Thor
>
>
>
PS--To quote my good buddy Wm 'MacDuff' Shakespeare: "Reason not the need!"
I think someone ought to write a good book about the brilliance of
Shakespeare as an economist..... Those are four formidable words! REASON
NOT THE NEED! Needs are never rational, right Scottie? Tears touch those
parts of life that cannot be explained....