Via:         UK.AC.EX.CEN; 24 DEC 92 10:33:59 GMT
X-Mailer:    ELM [version 2.3 PL0]
Date:         Thu, 24 Dec 92 10:34:14 GMT
From:         M.E.Bennun@CEN.EX.AC.UK
Subject:      Re: Mervyn's wodges
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.notabene
              OSB" at Dec 24,92 4:37 am

J. P. Earls, OSB wrote........
>
>
> Rob Lavenda--
>
> The following does not decide the size issue of wodges.  I wrote
> Mervyn some time back in admiration of what I thought was a
> fine neologism--erroneously remembering it as "glodges"--and he,
> after explaining that it was a common word for an unwonted thickness
> of ink on paper, associated with typesetting rather than penmanship,
> went on to give the following.

Oh dearie dearie me. No, no, no, no.... you've got it so wrong, and
clearly misunderstood me. It's not an "unwonted thickness of ink on
paper...." but an unwAnted thickness of paper which does, or should
and therefore either is expected to or shall or is going to, carry
ink. All typists/secretaries would understand that, especially after
they have done it once to the same handwritten manuscript already
finishing late last night, and must do so again before stopping for
lunch today because of changes you made to the original text rendering
it unfit to be sent to an editor who should have had it the day before
yesterday.

The expression "a great wodge of type" does in fact derive from the
text described by J.P.  Earls, and to which I drew his attention.  The
association is doubtless with something unpleasant, arduous to
negotiate, and generally depressing. Drawing VERY heavily on the same
sources, I add the following.

The phrase was brought into the English language by explorers and
adventurers in the last century who first caught up with and mapped
the San Serriffe island group when it was closer to the east African
coast, having not long (in geological terms) negotiated Cape Agulhas.
Indeed, one theory is that English became the working language as a
result of these contacts, displacing Caslon which is retained for
ceremonial occasions only. However, it made no impact on Ki-Flong
which is indigenous to the Flongs who live in the Woj of Tipe on the
south island (Caissa Inferiore).

But I quote further from the GUARDIAN's travel editor's review of San
Serrife - an article illustrated, may I interpose, with photographs of
a flock of kwotes coming home to roost (on the ground) in the Woj of
Tipe, and a bronze statue of Lord Wrongfont, the last occupant of the
British Residency in Gutenberg Square in the capital, Bodoni:

"But it is Lower Caisse, separated from its northerly neighbour by the
formidable Shoals of Adze, that offers the rosiest tourist prospects.
Gillsands, stretching down for miles from the southernmost resort of
Gillcameo, could well become a second Acapulco once a solution is
found to the problem of sand erosion.... "

This is the phenonomen whereby sand is transferred by ocean tides and
currents from the west and deposited in the east of the two islands
(the so-called double Coanda effect); the tidal currents further cause
the northern island to develop a generally circular outline, while the
south island develops a tapering peninsula which curves south and
east, enclosing Gillsands Bay and ending at Thirty Point. I have maps
and charts available - please send me a stamped and addressed
digitiser if you want a copy.

I note from another column that in 1977 San Serrife was in a collision
course with Sri Lanka due to this phenomenon of tide erosion; the
science correspondent describes calculations which, "based on the
present movement of 1,400 metres a year and an exponential
acceleration rate, suggest that the island group will hit the coast of
Sri Lanka at a velocity of 940 km am hour on January 3, 2011."

Ah, well..... It must be the festive season......

 ---------------
Mervyn E. Bennun, Law Department, University of Exeter
Phone: (+44) (0) 392 263 161
Postal Address: Amory Building, Rennes Drive, Exeter EX4 4RJ, Devon, U.K.
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU