[lit-ideas] Re: The Soft World of the Scottish Enlightenment

Ritchie: 
" 

A student misquotes James Buchan, "Crowded with Genius..." as follows, 


"This new culture [of the Scottish Enlightenment] 'displaced the 


antique world of velour, loyalty, religion, and the dagger.'" 

 
"
 
Geary: 
 
"Was that lad or lass one of the genteel class?
 Mike Geary
 possessor of a photo of Freud in his slip.
 Memphis"
 

-- Yes, it was a good error, typo or what have you, Ritchie. I was just 
joking.
 
Only that Geary is obsessed, after his seminars, to go into the
 
students' bloopers and comment. He collects a bunch.
 
Geary: it's a female from Bosnia, so what do you say?
 
I said that VE'lour is a nice word, and obviously the French found the 've' 
redundant, 
hence the idea of 'lure' (as in 'attract a hawk to its velvety hood').
 
I was also making the point that the case of 'lure' from 'velour' may compare
to the slightly sarcastic -- but I've grown to like the expression now --
'varsity' for 'university'. There are NOT that many words where we drop
the initial syllable.
 
Note that if the student had only _read_ the poem, there's the further
complication that Americans spell 'valor' what Brits (incl. Buchan) spells
'valour'. Don't know about Bosnia. :-). The Argies spell it either.
 
Cheers,
 
J. L.
 
 



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