Monday, July 16, 2007

Some tidbits from The Globe and Mail

Word watch
Budgie smugglers: Australian slang for men's tight-fitting swimming trunks.
The most common noun in English is "time," report the compilers of The Collins English Dictionary.
A different drummer
The Regency dandy Colonel Dan MacKinnon was an endearing eccentric who specialized in monkey impressions, reports Ben Wilson in his recently published Decency & Disorder: The Age of Cant 1789-1837. On one occasion, he convinced some Spaniards that he was the Duke of York, "only disabusing his hosts by diving head first into an enormous and full punch bowl, leaving his feet waggling in the air." Another time, he disguised himself as a nun in a Portuguese convent and was complimented by the visiting Duke of Wellington as being the comeliest of the order.

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