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

Lil

Re Not knowing things are broken unless people push buttons-extension. "rather like" Gnomon's Butt- button.

I always suspect that the "stupidity of drunken sailors" stereotype was exploited when the British military expedition under Sir Eyre Coote arrived in the Hooglie River complex on its way to punish Suraj Ud Dowlah for "The Black Hole of Calcutta" etc.

The fleet moored for the night below the Bengali fort of Budge Budge, waiting to attack it the next day. The official story is that in the dark of night a single drunken sailor staggered up the hill, singing, swearing oaths etc and waving a pistol. In this way he managed to capture the fort single-handedly, since the Bengali forces had quietly withdrawn.

The next day the sailor was hauled up before Sir Eyre Coote who reduced the man to tears, swearing that he would never capture a fort for again for anyone as long as he lived. Coote put the man's action down to drunkenness, and noted sadly that Budge Budge had been captured with no "honour" accruing to anyone.

I suspect the sailor of having been a bit of a kindred spirit, who had guessed that the silent fort might be empty and had crept up on it ready to pretend to be a stupid harmless drunk who presented no threat. Only to go all the way and capture the fort.

But such initiative and enterprise is rarely welcome in the military, and he was lucky not to be severely flogged for insubordination etc. though the truth might have come out. And he had after all saved the expedition a great deal of trouble. So the episode went down as the action of a stupid drunken sailor.

Cass

I wonder if that's where the saying 'silly old coot' comes from?

Icy could come up with an Entry about names and well known phrases I'm sure

I offer up Boycott for one


lil xx

Lil

I rather feel that the expression "silly old coot" comes from the rather eccentric behaviour of the bird itself, so often seen in places where placid and predictable ducks are more common..

As we could be reminded during a recent walk during the cold spell, when much of a local lake was frozen and we got a close-up look at a coot that did not seem to be well, the coot's feet are not "paddles" like ducks and swans. They are dual-purpose- made not only for swimming but apparently for "walking on water" too, and they do not have to waddle on land like ducks, swans and other fowls.

It does mean that they do not depend so much on safety in numbers. And with their black colour they may well have inspired people to compare them with old ladies beginning to suffer from dementia. Not cruel. No doubt it was better to be called a coot than to be accused of witchcraft, as we were reminded yesterday a common explanation for odd behaviour.

Cass

I had to look and see what a coot was...
it's looks rather like a moorhen but with some slight differences...
the things you learn

Q. What makes a "popular" conversation?
A. For me, reading gems such as "Let he who is without a butt press the first button?"