After Monday and before Wednesday

It's Tuesday

The name Tuesday derives from the Old English "Tiwesdæg" and literally means "Tiw's Day".  Tiw is the Old English form of the Proto-Germanic god Tîwaz, or Týr in Norse, the god of single combat, victory, heroic glory and law in Norse mythology. Tiw was equated with Mars in the interpretatio romana and in most languages with Latin origins (French, Spanish, Catalan, Italian, Romanian, Gallician, Sardinian, Corsican, but not Portuguese), the day is named after Mars, the Roman god of war.

In the Greek world, Tuesday (the day of the week of the Fall of Constantinople) is considered an unlucky day. The same is true in the Spanish-speaking world. For both Greeks and Spanish-speakers, the 13th of the month is considered unlucky if it falls on Tuesday, whereas many countries consider it unlucky for it to be Friday 13th.  In Judaism, on the other hand, Tuesday is considered a particularly lucky day, because in the first chapter of Genesis the paragraph about this day contains the phrase "it was good" twice.  What happens if you are Greek or Spanish Jew I'm not sure....

The Liverpool Carters’ Working Horse Monument

This is down at the Liverpool Pier Head and was being much admired when we passed last month. 

“It is the boast of Liverpool that the horses employed in the city's industry are the finest in the kingdom and it is a boast to which it is scarcely possible to take exception."

1914 Guidebook to Liverpool

There was a May Parade of all the carter's horses and their families were involved for a while beforehand in polishing the buckles and brasses, blacking the leatherwork and creating the ribbons for fringing onto the bridle, collar and breeching.  The horses were groomed and shined and their manes and tails plaited.

And More in the Name 

Following on from my last post I have learned that there was, for a long time, a curiosity in nomenclature on the Australian pension list. His name was "Through-much-tribulation-we-enter-the-Kingdom-of-Heaven Smith."  The officials of the Pension department very pardonably abbreviated him into Tribby Smith.

Johnston’s Chameleons

Two tiny and very delicate Johnston’s Chameleons (Chamaeleo johnstoni) have hatched in UK’s Exmoor Zoo. Just over an inch (3 cm) long, the babies were laid by a female that was part of an illegal shipment seized by customs agents in Belgium whilst en route to the Czech Republic.  Johnston’s Chameleons occur only in the western branch of Tanzania’s African Rift Valley – the Albertine Rift – and are extremely rare in captivity, according to Danny Reynolds of the Exmoor Zoo.  “These are probably the first of this species ever born in captivity within UK zoos,” he said.  

The illegal shipment of 59 Chameleons was due to be destroyed when the UK’s Specialist Wildlife Services and UK Customs officials intervened and placed all the lizards in UK zoos. Females at several other zoos have laid eggs, but those at the Exmoor Zoo were the first to hatch.

Like all Chameleons, Johnston’s Chameleons are zygodactylous – they have two toes pointing forward and two toes pointing backward, which enables them to cling easily to tree branches (or toothpicks, as seen in these photos!)  They capture insects with their long, extrudable tongues.  In captivity, the babies are fed fruit flies and tiny crickets.

 Are you not....?

"Are you not going to mention me on your blog today?"

"No, dear."

"Your ratings will go down!"

"No, they've seen enough of you for a while." 

"Miaooooow." 

"Oh, all right then..."