h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Which I believe I did at the end of this entry.

Brilliant Entry!

Mrs Joseph Mary Plunkett gave me pause, but you repeat later that Mary was Joseph's middle name - is that right? Perhaps a footnote to explain?

in spe - huh?

Otherwise - genius!

Gif (No relation.)

Joseph Mary Plunkett was the man's name, much like Erich Maria Remarque or Carl Maria von Weber...

What could we say in a footnote? (People have funny middle names?)

'In spe' is Latin for 'in hope'. (It's also the name of an Estonian progressive rock band.) Does that need a footnote due to extreme dorkiness?

In spe needs a footnote, but you don't need to mention the Estonian band (unless you want to).

I tend to add 10 links to my entries, and make to them to entries as close in subject as possible. Occasionally I have gone overboard and added 40 or 50 links, but I think 10 is a good number.

10 is probably a good number.

Hi Dmitri,

Your Latin is clearly better than mine Google got me to the German for 'in the future' - I think a translation in footnote is a good option.

The Maria thing not so much - when I saw it, I thought you'd got husband's and wife's names confused as I'd never come across 'Maria' as a male name before. Since it's me who's confused, perhaps other readers might be too. Or perhaps it's just me.

Gif

Mary as a middle name for a man is a Catholic thing. The RC church used to (perhas still does I'm not sure) designate various years as Marion years* (ie devoted to the worship of Mary) and quite often boys born during that year would be given the middle name Mary (Maria obviously for Spaniards...)


But a great article - I really enjoyed it!




*one of my dad's favourite jokes: He was born in a Marion year? Sure every year's a marryin' year!

It's probably you, Giford.
Maria is pretty common as a male middle name. W*k* for example gives 50 celebrity examples, and as well as Remarque and Weber already cited by dmg, there are notably famous ones including the poet Rilke, Pope Pius IX, King Juan Carlos and Bonnie Prince Charlie.
And I bet everyone on this site (except possibly Gnomon) knows the name of Jose Maria Olazabal.

I didn't know that about the Marian year. Thanks for the update - my resident lapsed Catholic didn't know that, either.

The phrase 'in spe' has now been provided with an edifying footnote, including another important EG link.

The problem with linking from footnotes is that when people roll over the footnote, rather than clicking on it, they just see the text and not the fact that some of it is linked. So when I see "Modern readers who aspire to an understanding of the period might do well to learn a few Latin phrases." without the link, it reads bossy more than linky

Bit late, but still:

Entry: Grace Gifford's Wedding - A53069051
Author: dmitrigheorgheni - U1590784

I have to agree, Maria is quite common as a male middle name here.

I never knew 'in spe' meant in hope, so I'm glad somebody asked (being German, I assumed it meant 'in (the) future').

Hopefully in the future, I think.

We wouldn't want our footnotes to look bossy, now, would we? I'm leaving the link, though.

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congrats

er...

Well deserved, say I.

Well done!