On Frankenstein

1816 was The Year Without a Summer, also known as Eighteen hundred and froze to death. During its snowy summer ( and I mean snowy summer! ) Mary Shelley and her lover Percy Bysshe Shelley visited Lord Byron at his villa by Lake Geneva in Switzerland. It was the "wet, ungenial summer" that forced the Shelleys and their friends to spend their Swiss holiday indoors. I guess they were getting kind of bored ;) so they entertained themselves by reading ghost stories. To refreshen the atmosphere Byron challenged the Shelleys and his physician Polidori to each compose a story, to see who could write the scariest tale.

Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein,
Byron wrote a fragment based on Balkanic vampire legends,
Polidori wrote The Vampyre (the first vampire story published in English)
and Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote his wife's novel preface. :))

Polidori based his principal character on Byron and named him "Lord Ruthven" as a joke. Not sure it was a good joke, as Polidori was soon dismissed.

It's not that obvious who's behind Mary Shelley's monster. I have a suspect. Let me give you a few clues:

In 1814 Mary and Percy Shelley eloped to France. Upon their return, Percy, who was an advocate of free love, invited his wife to join his new household. Just as their sister :))

Being commited to free love, Percy Shelley believed that his community of friends should share everything: ideas, books, wifes, etc... He urged Mary to share her favours with his best friend, although she felt no attraction for him. He also might have had a relation with Mary's step-sister. Mary had asked Percy to send her step-sister away from their household, but he refused to change the manner in which he conceived his community to be organised. Yay, free love !!!!

Percy left Mary to nurse their sickly child on her own, while he entertained her step-sister Claire. When the child died, he went on entertaining Claire...

Unintentionally Percy even contributed to the death of their second daughter by ordering Mary to travel with the sick child in the Italian summer heat.

More clues?

If you actually read all the way to the end, then it is time to say THANK YOU!

Cloud Cuckoo Land

Clouds and rocks used to be so close together. So close together in a single word. Cloud started off meaning "mass of rock". It was extended metaphorically in the 1300s based on the similarity of cumulus clouds and rock masses.

Today they're still close together. And Cloud Cuckoo Land is still there. The perfect city between the clouds.

Hearing Sounds

I am a bit confused. No wonder :)

In my language a frog goes oac!; in English it goes croak!, but if you're from North America it'll go ribbit! Not to mention that in Ancient Greek it used to go brekekekex koax koax! :)) And I am sure that if I ask, you will come up with different answers.

I didn't know frogs can speak so many foreign languages !! :)) There is an explanation: species of frog found in another area may make another noise. Oooook, let's say I believe this. What about the dogs then?

In my language dogs go ham! In English, you all know, they go woof-woof! All the dog breeds, not just one... The sound a dog makes is ouah-ouah in French, gaf-gaf in Russian, wau-wau in German, ..., ..., .. and even meong meong in Korean :))

I remember hearing dogs in different countries... I am sure they made the same sounds. I thought at least the onomatopoeic words should be universal because they imitate the sound they describe. Why do we hear these sounds differently?

Hobby

Hobby is one of my favourite words. Let me tell you why:

Originally it was a proper name for a horse. Remember Dobbin? The Merchant of Venice? :))

GOBBO:
Lord worshipped might he be! what a beard hast thou
got! thou hast got more hair on thy chin than
Dobbin my fill-horse has on his tail.

LAUNCELOT
It should seem, then, that Dobbin's tail grows
backward: I am sure he had more hair of his tail
than I have of my face when I last saw him.

Hobby started off as meaning a "small horse, pony," later "mock horse used in the morris dance," and in the 16th century it became "a child's toy riding horse". From a child's toy to the meaning we all know today it's just a small step.

And guess what? The connecting notion between a child's toy and today's meaning for hobby is the fact that both activities do not go anywhere :))It's good to have a hobby! Activity for amusement :) If ever you turn pro, don't stop being a hobbyist!