Gout.

March 2, 2017 by 18 Comments

A lovely epigram by Thomas Erskine:

The French have taste in all they do,
Which we are quite without;
For Nature, which to them gave goût,
To us gave only gout.

Comments

  1. Harry Campbell says
    March 2, 2017 at 10:18 pm

    Have some madeira, m’dear!
    It’s really much nicer than beer.
    I don’t care for sherry, one cannot drink stout,
    And port is a wine I can well do without;
    It’s simply a case of “chacun à son gout”…
    (Flanders and Swann)

  2. languagehat says
    March 3, 2017 at 10:11 am

    A very appropriate quote! (The Flanders & Swann routine, for those unfamiliar with the masterpiece in question.)

  3. Squiffy-Marie von Bladet says
    March 7, 2017 at 10:54 am

    The French can’t make a simple stew
      and have to do without.
    They claim it’s more-or-less ragout,
      but that’s a claim I doubt.

    A L Tennyson (actually a direct bloodline descendent although not of that Tennyson).

  4. languagehat says
    March 7, 2017 at 10:56 am

    Well, everyone’s a direct bloodline descendent of someone, aren’t they?

  5. Squiffy-Marie von Bladet says
    March 7, 2017 at 11:07 am

    Yes, usually Genghis Khan.

  6. John Cowan says
    March 7, 2017 at 12:54 pm

    Charlemagne.

  7. Brett says
    March 7, 2017 at 9:11 pm

    King David is another popular one.

  8. languagehat says
    March 7, 2017 at 9:20 pm

    Not to mention Mitochondrial Eve.

  9. Squiffy-Marie von Bladet says
    March 8, 2017 at 3:15 am

    Eukaryotes? Parvenus! I can trace my lineage back to abiogenesis and — on a good day — beyond.

  10. John Cowan says
    March 8, 2017 at 8:17 am

    “I am, in point of fact, a particularly haughty and exclusive person, of pre-Adamite ancestral descent. You will understand this when I tell you that I can trace my ancestry back to a protoplasmal primordial atomic globule. Consequently, my family pride is something inconceivable. I can’t help it. I was born sneering.” —Pooh-Bah, Lord High Everything Else

  11. Trond Engen says
    March 8, 2017 at 12:39 pm

    Not to mention Mitochondrial Eve.

    That was yesterday. Happy Mitochondrial Day, everyone!

  12. Rodger C says
    March 9, 2017 at 9:49 am

    Isn’t Mitochondrial Day between Ruby Tuesday and Habermas?

  13. Trond Engen says
    March 9, 2017 at 1:12 pm

    (I actually think that’s one of the best jokes I’ve ever made, and it fell flat.)

    Also:

    mitochondrial evesdropping “the habit of making reference to your descendance from Mitochondrial Eve as a means to discretely elicit genetic information from others.”

  14. languagehat says
    March 9, 2017 at 1:29 pm

    (I actually think that’s one of the best jokes I’ve ever made, and it fell flat.)

    Hey, I enjoyed it!

  15. Squiffy-Marie von Bladet says
    March 9, 2017 at 2:49 pm

    It’s still over a week to Orthodox Mitochondria!

    But mostly this is what you get without Facebook’s proprietary ‘like’ technology. It is a savage and primitive world out on the blogs.

  16. Hans says
    March 9, 2017 at 6:22 pm

    Like

    (Wow, it works! And it’s such a simple word to write!)

  17. Trond Engen says
    March 9, 2017 at 6:58 pm

    It’s still over a week to Orthodox Mitochondria.

    Oh, Crist-mass!

    Like

    Me too.

  18. Trond Engen says
    March 9, 2017 at 7:05 pm

    But mostly this is what you get without Facebook’s proprietary ‘like’ technology. It is a savage and primitive world out on the blogs.

    So I have turned into an attention junkie by Facebook fingering. Which means I can only blame myself for not making a viral meme.

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