There Was One Of Those Hyperspecific Polls That Had An Option Like Your Grandfather Told You War Stories

There was one of those hyperspecific polls that had an option like “your grandfather told you war stories that he never told anyone else” and now I feel like I have to tell the story about how a spider saved my grandpa’s life in WWII and how my family doesn’t kill spiders because we owe our existence to that One Single Spider

Currently thinking about non-English translations of Jabberwocky, because it has to be so hard translating a nonsense poem.

And it’s not just making the nonsense words fit the translated language’s morphology, you have to have most of the nonsense words mean something for a later chapter in the book where Humpty Dumpty explains the portmanteau words. So in one Japanese translation, “frumious,” which is a portmanteau of “fuming” and “furious,” is translated as “takeburu,” which draws on the words “takeru,” fierce, and “keburu”, to smoke.

But I also just love the names of the Jabberwock in other languages. In French he’s le Jaseroque, der Jammerwoch in German, Barmaglot in Russian, and at least one Danish translation named him Kloppervok. It’s the one word you could very justifiably keep untranslated, but everyone wants to make the name fit, make it feel at home in the translation.

I have no point here, I just think it’s neat.

Fungus millipedes in the family Polyzoniidae

Found in North America and Europe

Photos 1-2 by kueda, 3-5 by pileated, 6-7 by mhedin, 8 by squamatologist, and 9-10 by naiad_nissa

Kate MccGwire, Secrete (mixed media with magpie feathers)

Three of my recent cephalopod paintings, in order of creation. Nautilus on blank skateboard, Kraken on wood panel, Japanese Firefly Squid on blank skateboard.