Comments on: A Brief Moment of Culture, Part XII

By: Ed Gedeon (eddurd)

Ed Gedeon (eddurd) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 21:55:16 +0000

Big Freakin' (tm) Gun Count = 45

By: Jeffrey Channing Wells (channing)

Jeffrey Channing Wells (channing) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 21:55:15 +0000

For some reason, I’m very happy I got to use the phrase “Gerbil Containment Failure”. It’s just so very Helen to have a gerbil containment failure alarm.

By: Shaenon Garrity (shaenongarrity)

Shaenon Garrity (shaenongarrity) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 21:55:14 +0000

I had a mouse once that managed to chew through a plastic terrarium. He worked hard on it for weeks. It was very Shawshank.

By: John Campbell (jcampbel)

John Campbell (jcampbel) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 21:55:13 +0000

"Burble" was coined by Lewis Carroll about 1855 in his poem Jabberwocky, which makes it a new-fangled contrivance compared to some of the other words in that sentence, which date back past Beowulf.

Having seen my gerbil escape his terrarium by chewing through steel wire mesh, I wouldn't think yogurt with the consistency of strong plywood should slow Artie down much.

And I'd never heard of a quoll, so I deployed Google, and one of the results it brought up was this article, which, if not mad science, precisely, is definitely at least slightly off-kilter. Also, apparently, inspired by Little Red Riding Hood, so it should fit in just fine over in Skin Horse.

By: Leon Arnott (l)

Leon Arnott (l) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 21:55:12 +0000

That third paragraph has a satisfying ’19th century explorer’ tone to it.

And I like that yoghurt monsters ‘burble’. It seems to be just the right antique word to deploy in a storyline whose very title espouses class and rarefication.