It takes a certain gravity of mind to read history.

[mrissa]

So I have this book on the role of the Magnus brothers (Johannes and Olaus) in sixteenth-century Swedish culture and its effects in Europe. And Olaus Magnus is now running around Italy hobnobbing with the other Catholics. And I got to this bit:

"Specialists have occasionally spoken of 'the four evangelists' among the first Catholic theologians of controversy: Johannes Eck, Johannes Fabri, Johannes Cochlaeus, and Friedrich Nausea."

Now. Not only does this sound like one of us, by which I mean a fantasy writer, made them up, but: the man's name is Nausea. Friedrich Nausea. Which leads to all sorts of phrases that make me giggle, like, "just as he became Nausea's representative at the curia," and, "sent Nausea's works to the cardinals." And I sit there and think wholly mature things like, "I tell you what, there are some American Catholics who have been highly tempted to send Nausea's Works to the cardinals in the last decade or so," or, "Yah, I know who's Nausea's Representative at that party/meeting/etc."

I was trying to drink my ginger tea and make my stomach quiet down so I could go on with the chores that need doing, and here the 16th century is, handing me Nausea.

I am mentally 12.

This is like the Abelian Grape Joke, only maybe worse.

Comments

[icedrake.livejournal.com]

I'll add to your collection with a jaunt down to bioinformatics.

Q. What do you get when you cross a mountain climber with a mosquito?

A. You can't! One's a vector, the other one's a scaler!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Dan. Dmitri. Aughhhh.

That's the level of joke for which one wishes to know your middle name so one could use the whole thing in the aughhhh.

It's not the same as elephant grape sine theta at all.

[icedrake.livejournal.com]

Dmitriy Evgenyevitch Zlotnikov. Just so you have the option in the future :) (no middle name, but I suppose a patronymic will do in this situation)

Clearly, I've been reading too much of somuchpun

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

A patronymic will do nicely. Evgenyevitch is much easier to thunder out in "Oh what a terrible joke" mode than a middle name like John.

(And sorry for misspelling your first name; I hate it when people misspell mine, so I'm particularly sensitive to that.)

[icedrake.livejournal.com]

That's OK. It's a transliteration from Russian anyway, so it's not like there's a right and a wrong way -- only my way and, apparently, the way of every other Dmitry/Dmitri in the world. I like to be different.

For bonus points, the Israeli government screwed it up in my *passport*. There, it's "Dimitri." Had to work hard to keep that off my official Canadian paperwork, I did.

But then, I'm currently struggling getting a contractor's name right on a regular basis: Nichole.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. Is there ever a problem with travel, having two different spellings of passport? That seems like a potential nightmare.

[icedrake.livejournal.com]

Not really. All my documents issued by one country are internally consistent, and it's not like I'd ever have an occasion to travel on two passports at the same time.

Though I'd only used the Israeli passport for international travel twice: Once when entering Canada, and I had no other documents to contradict the spelling, and the second time on a school trip to the US, well before 2001. Not exactly the most likely group to be chosen for secondary screening :)

[carbonel]

Yowch. I must remember that.

[aedifica]

And would anyone really *want* Nausea evangelizing for anything they felt strongly about? (Which is to say I'm enjoying the image of who's Nausea's representative at a given party, but have no further images to add.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I am imagining a young Gene Wilder saying, "It's pronounced Nau-ZAY-uh."

[aedifica]

...yes. He is of course descended from the *famous* one.

[icedrake.livejournal.com]

The courting habits (to be polite about it) of the Nausea family are not something I want to visualize.

[aedifica]

Now that you mention it, eww.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Hell, the 16th century is handing you Cochlaeus and Nausea, the former possibly causing the latter...and making you feel Eck. Have you ever considered that you are the victim of a conspiracy FABRIcated by a 16th century Catholic evangelists?

(Right there with you on the mentally 12 thing.)

[summers-place.livejournal.com]

*facepalm*

(and *gigglesnork*)

[desperance.livejournal.com]

This is like the Abelian Grape Joke, only maybe worse.

Please, Mris, what's the Abelian Grape Joke?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Q: What's purple and commutes?
A: An Abelian grape.

This is funny if you know that level of maths and have the sense of humor of a 7-year-old. Which covers quite a few people, actually.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

If you don't like math, try:

Q: What's purple and conquers Asia Minor?
A: Alexander the Grape.

Or else:

Q: What's got great long tusks and conquers Asia Minor?
A: Alexander of Mastodon.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

S'okay, I was already giggling.

Also, my favourite joke:

Q: What's brown and sticky?
A: A stick.

[icedrake.livejournal.com]

Q. What's purple and lights up?
A. An electric grape!

[summers-place.livejournal.com]

Q: What's purple and rolls along for thousands of miles?
A: The Grape Wall of China.

[carbonel]

This is comparable to how much enjoyment I got from learning about what happens when you add two atoms of mendelevium to certain positions on a benzene ring.

[diatryma.livejournal.com]

Pleeease do not make me spend all afternoon figuring that out.

[carbonel]

If the Md are next to each other, it's an orthodox.

If they're opposite each other, it's a paradox.

And if they're separated by 2 sides on one side and 4 sides on the other, it's a metaphysician.

[hypatia-j.livejournal.com]

Eee! Chemistry jokes!

[zeborah]

Oh my, it's true: not only is every 16th century woman called Anne or Anna, but every 16th century man is called Johannes. I just didn't notice properly earlier because I was so busy keeping my book free of more than a couple of Annes that I let slip in a Johann, a Jon, a Jehan, and two Hans. (Hmm, does Jens count? I'm not sure of the derivation. But I've got at least one of them too.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I hate to be the bearer of sad news, but I believe Jens does in fact count.

[zeborah]

Hahaha . Actually it increases my long-felt desire to write a book (or at least a short story) where every character has essentially the same name.

[zeborah]

^ There was meant to be a <headdesk> there but I forgot to escape the vital characters.

[asciikitty.livejournal.com]

I noticed a tendency to do this in one of my [stories of as yet undetermined length] and I decided to go with it. I have characters named every variation on Margaret that I can find. I resorted to nicknames about six in though.

[zeborah]

Awesome! (Hmm... Meg, Madge, Marge, Maggie, Margot, Peggy, Greta, Gretel depending how similar they can be though the same probably goes for Madge and Marge really - anyway after that I'd have to research.)

[kythiaranos.livejournal.com]

Obviously Mr. Nausea was on a Diet of Worms. *rimshot*

[summers-place.livejournal.com]

*looks around for her stash of throwing peanuts*

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

apropos of nothing...

The other day Brian and I roasted eggplant with some lemon juice and ate it otherwise plain and it was wonderful and I was pretty sure the inspiration for that was a post of yours from a while back.

So thank you.