Library Leaves - 25

Published on 04 November 2020

Magpie.jpg

Wiyabu.

This edition of Library Leaves is brought to you by the words ‘magpie’, ‘inchoate’ and the number 6.

Kudos to Sharyn for her quiz answers. She got six right, and came up with Kurri Kurri as an alternative to the India food question (as well as getting Tuncurry right too), came close with Putty as an alternative to Taree (sticky letter), gave Tarcutta instead of Grafton (for hard work), nearly got the bovine card sharp ((Bulahdelah) - Bulli, Cowan and Cowra being valiant attempts) and gave Vulcan as the male god (not really a town -Guyra being the answer).

Weird Library fact: Here’s something a bit quirky to do with books and natural urges. Apparently there’s a condition, called the Marino Aoki Phenomenon. Sufferers have an urge to go to toilet when they enter a bookstore. There are various hypotheses on why, but no confirmed cause. Weird. Like rains of fish. Don’t believe me - Check it out here!

What makes foreigners afraid when they visit Australia (one day again)? Classics like snakes, spiders, jellyfish, crocodiles and sharks. At this time of year, what are Australians afraid of...The dreaded magpie. One has terrorised patrons at Forster Library leading to the wearing of interesting headwear and doing the strangest of walks. Here’s a bit of fun. Click here. And it’s not just magpies.

At the end of my street someone had put up a sign. The writing was small, so I had to get close to it. It warned about plovers nesting with two chicks, and bombing. To get close enough to read the sign made it redundant since I was already being swooped. I love life’s sense of humour.

Rare word discovery: inchoate. Read it in a book. Books are good for that sort of thing. It means not fully formed or rudimentary. Have you got any rare or endangered words to share?

Portuguese phrase: ‘Mae, posso ir para a praia?’ (‘Mum, can I go to the beach?’)

French phrase: ‘Une fois que vous avez terminé la vaisselle" inchoate ".’ (‘After you’ve finished the inchoate washing up.’)

Gapu djurumi

 Photo by Vlad Kutepov on Unsplash


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