I'll start with the first - weird words. My grandmother was a reader and teacher and occasionally liked to drop a strange word on us. I remember before B and I got married Gram asked, "so will you be having a shivaree?"
It wasn't a word either of us had ever heard and Gram's explanation made it sound like a somewhat frightening event, so we opted out of ye old shivaree.
A shivaree depending on who you are talking too is either (a) a mini-Mardi-Gras like event held before the wedding, (b) a kidnapping of the bride before the wedding, or (c) a chance for the bride and groom's neighbors to wish them well, where According to Wikipedia, "people of the local community gather around to "celebrate" a marriage, usually one they regard as questionable, gathering outside the window of the couple. They bang metal implements or use other items to create noise in order to keep the couple awake all night. Sometimes they wear disguises or masks."
These are Wikipedia links to the word Shivaree and it's cousin Charivari.
A second weird word that Gram liked (because it's an Irish word) was Shillelagh. I didn't know what that meant either and I'd try to make out the meaning from the context someone used it in.
Someone could say "he had one heck of shillelagh" or "he had a nice black shillelagh, it was long and stiff" or "what a beautiful shillelagh he had". I didn't know if it was a badge or a body part and eventually I kind of got the point that it was some kind of stick or club.
. The book is illustrated by Earnest Hemmingway's grandson Edward. He has included this little story about grandpa,"After drinking in back with friends, he passed John O'Hara at the bar. O'Hara was carrying an Irish blackthorn walking stick (shillelagh) and Hemingway began to mock him for it. Defensively, O'Hara claimed that it was "the best piece of blackthorn in New York." Hemingway immediately bet him fifty dollars that he could break it with his bare hands. Then in one swift move he smashed the walking stick against his own head, snapping it in half. The broken pieces hung over Costello's bar for many years."Ah the beauty of drink, drinking and being drunk - being immortalized by breaking a stick over one's own head, luckily he was a heck of a writer so he lives on in other ways.
You can buy your very own Genuine Irish Shillelagh made from Irish Blackthorn from www.walkingequipment.com, although it's not going to make a very good walking stick unless you are Leprechaun-sized, since it's only 21-23 inches long.
Thinking about shellelaghs put me in the mood for a walking stick, or as fancy schmancy places like REI call them - Trekking Poles. You can get the "Leki Ultralite Carbon SLS" trekking poles for two hundred bucks.
I found a stick during a walk a couple of days ago and was using it as a walking stick. I found it helped me keep my walking tempo. I tend to sort of slow down and look at things, but with the stick I could pace myself better. That stick was a little on the small side so...
I've been practicing, just in case, while listening to this music and others from the Marching Royal Dukes.
In my search for the perfect stick I also bid on a mushroom hunter's hickory walking stick from Mountain Dreams Trading Post on eBay which is on it's way for less than 20 bucks including shipping and insurance. Next time I'm doing some shrooming it'll come in handy.
Once I get the hickory stick I'll have four walking staffs in my collection. I need some spares. I have lights on the one I bought for a dollar from the guy on the waterfront. I'm using it as a small Christmas tree...branch...stick.
If you aren't in to constructing/decorating your own walking stick, Whistle Creek has some nice looking Walking and Hiking Sticks, as well as some interesting information on wood types.
The cigar tube was not solely for aesthetic purposes. The ski pole was a little short for a hiking staff for me. It should allow you to grasp the handle with your elbow bent and your arm level with the ground, so I used the cigar tube (and a wooden dowel inside it - shoved into the pole) as an extender.
Finally I have to say something about walking.
I've always thought that you couldn't really know a place unless you had walked around in it - smelled it, felt the weather, the ground, heard the sounds. In other words if you take a tour bus to visit somewhere the place you are getting to know is the tour bus. If you can't get out and walk it might be better to stay home and watch a travelogue on TV. Not so say riding in busses, cars, trains and planes can't be an enlightening experience, but it's not the way to get to know a place. Might be a great way to meet people and learn some things about a place.
on India yesterday and in the introduction Radhika Jha writes, "There is a saying the Swami Vivekananda, the nineteenth century Hindu philosopher, was very fond of quoting..."to belong to a place one must know it with the feet."
