Won't you guide my sleigh tonight?
Look who I found lurking in an alcove in St George's Hall this afternoon!
It's one of Santa's reindeer!
(Is the plural of "reindeer", "reindeer" or "reindeers"? The plural of "deer" is "deer": does the addition of "rein" make a difference? Would it make a difference if there were reinsheep? Or reingrouse? And what were reindeer/s called before they were sufficiently domesticated to be persuaded to wear reins and pull sledges?)
Oh, ok: it's clearly not one of Santa's reindeer/s, is it? It's an extremely thinly-disguised superlambanana. But, hey - you'll never hear me complaining about the arrival of a new and/or improved superlambanana. No, not even one as ludicrous as this.
I can't find any hard evidence to back up my suspicions, but I think this may be Our George after a nice rub down with several grades of sandpaper and a generous coat of some sort of high-shine sealant. Our George's perch was, after all, on St George's Plateau. So he's a local boy. And he was in such a mess by the end of the run that I suspect he wouldn't have fetched a very high asking price.
All of which leads me on to the exciting (for some of us) news that the long-awaited superlambanana book is finally available. Although, given that the cover price is £8, I'm really not sure how Cities500 can justify charging £13.20 to post it second class to a UK address... If you're willing to wait until they have it in stock, Amazon would be a much cheaper option.
The Editor
posted by
Lady Bracknell | Saturday, December 13, 2008
7 Comments:
Fab!
Dear Santa,
I really, really need a Superlambanana book.
HG
It needs to be written clearer but I'm pretty sure that is the price including Postage and Packaging.
Moses,
I realise that. (Although, reading my own post back, I can see I haven't expressed it very well.)
However, having posted something very considerably larger and heavier than the superlambanana book myself only yesterday for just a smidge over £6, I consider the extra £5.20 for p&p - not to mention £7.20 for p&p first class - to be excessive.
The book is nowhere near as big as one might imagine...
Dame Honoria,
My sentiments exactly. I rushed to the tourist information office to purchase one the moment I heard they were available.
In the US there is a special book postage, which sometimes takes a long time but is sometimes the way to go if you're buying a lot of heavy books. And if you want to send someone something really heavy, there is the flat rate box, which is about nine dollars and gets there in two days.
While none of that would apply in the UK, 7.70 sounds a bit much for one book.
On the matter of reindeer vs. reindeers, I have looked up the lyrics to Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, and there are only reindeer, both singular and plural, and no reindeers.
Your Ladyship
Dictionary.com (probably a more reliable etymological source than Robert May, the 1940s advertising executive, who penned the esteemed ditty concerning Rudolph), has this to say on the subject of reindeer/s:
~*~*~*~*~*
rein•deer (rān'dîr') n.
pl. reindeer or reindeers
A large deer (Rangifer tarandus) of the Arctic and northern regions of Eurasia and North America, having branched antlers in both sexes.
~*~*~*~*~*
Incidentally, also from the same source, it appears that the “rein” in reindeer, has nothing to do with reins being applied to deers. It is simply an odd linguistic amalgam.
“Dere” is Middle English for “Deer”, whereas “Rein” stems from the Old Norse “Hreinn” which, oddly, means “reindeer”.
So, literally, “hreinndere” (later “reindeer”) means “reindeerdeer”.
The word reindeer in Middle English dates back to before the 15th Century.
Yours Pedantically
B Dude
Things you learn...
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