5.0760 Non-Electronic Queries (4/165)

Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Tue, 10 Mar 1992 20:31:22 EST

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 5, No. 0760. Tuesday, 10 Mar 1992.


(1) Date: Mon, 9 Mar 1992 17:33:58 -0500 (15 lines)
From: rkallet@epas.utoronto.ca (Robert Kallet-Marx)
Subject: Q: Date of pyramids?

(2) Date: Tue, 10 Mar 92 09:34:48 GMT (118 lines)
From: Jonathan "R." Partington <JRP1@phx.cam.ac.uk>
Subject: Quote Identifications

(3) Date: Tue, 10 Mar 92 11:41:20 EST (18 lines)
From: Annick Deakin <42162_1242@uwovax.uwo.ca>
Subject: Movie Query

(4) Date: Tue, 10 Mar 92 14:19:36 EST (14 lines)
From: "David H. Hesla" <ILADHH@EMUVM1>
Subject: Caldecott

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 9 Mar 1992 17:33:58 -0500
From: rkallet@epas.utoronto.ca (Robert Kallet-Marx)
Subject: Q: Date of pyramids?

A colleague of mine remembers reading in various places recently, neither
of which he can recall precisely, that an American scientist, using a kind of
stone analysis, proposes a date for the earliest pyramids towards 8-7000
BC. Can anyone refer us to a good discussion of this theory?

Many thanks,

Robert Kallet-Marx
Classics, Toronto
RKALLET@EPAS.UTORONTO.CA

(2) --------------------------------------------------------------128---
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 92 09:34:48 GMT
From: Jonathan "R." Partington <JRP1@phx.cam.ac.uk>
Subject: Quote Identifications ?

The following quotations have been supplied by various different
people. Some are unidentified, others fragmentary, some perhaps
plain wrong. Any suggestions will be much appreciated.

1) "Neither snow nor rain
Nor Gloom of night
Shall stay these couriers
From the swift completion
Of their appointed rounds."

2) From some sort of comic poem (about a shipwreck, I think):
"If I've got to go down
I want to go down with you."

3) This one is the end of a piece of music (sounds like a symphony or opera)
with the brass section playing. If it was in C major it would go
6 | E
C (5 beats) . . . . CC (2 half beats)| C
8 | A???
and then repeats the same rhythm in F major. The piece ends with a lot of
chords, one to a bar.

4) JG Ballard is supposed to have said "The only truly alien planet is Earth".
When and where?

5) I'd like to know what, if anything, is the source of the
following passage:

"Dusk. Out they come, shyly at first. Dusk deepens to dark
and they grow bolder. No longer winking, unblinking. Constant."

6) I learnt the following poem at school, but can't remember
the author's name, nor can I find it anywhere. Any ideas?

"I wonder if, in Norfolk now,
The woodland traveller knows how
Exiles in Africa desire
The sight of snow upon the bough.

At homes the fields are thick with mire;
The grey leaves form a sodden pyre
And, after tramping through the snow,
Men warm their bodies by the fire.

But only those who lack them know
What beauty cold dark evenings show
To those who when the North winds blow
Through Norfolk's winter woodlands go."

7) I'm trying to identify a song I heard several years ago. It
was sung by an American and was about one of the funeral parlours
in America which does things rather over-the-top. The only lines
I can remember are:

"I want to go simply when I go.
They'll give me a simple funeral there, I know;
With the casket lined with fleece,
And the fireworks spelling out 'REST IN PEACE'.
Oh, take me when I'm gone to Forest Lawn."

(Forest Lawn being the Funeral Parlour in question)

8) "Theorems are perhaps like poems. The profundity of the thought
cannot be judged by the length of the result."

This doesn't seem to be from Hardy's "A Mathematician's Apology"
but ought to be.

9) "Lord, forgive those who {some heinous thing or other}. And Lord,
forgive me, for I cannot forgive them."

10) "Nobody believed him, so out of politeness to his listeners he pretended to
be joking."

11) Where does "Hand me down my silver trumpet, Gabriel" come
from? It carries on, "Hand it down, send it down, any old way
just get it down, hand me down my silver trumpet Lord." To a
nice catchy tune.

12) I'm trying to track down the song "Dem bones, dem bones, dem
dry bones" (loosely based on Ezekiel, chapter 37). Can anyone
supply the words, or a reference where they can be found?
Presumably it's a negro spiritual. Thanks.

13) I'm trying to remember the rest of a short poem which is
called, I think "Epitaph - Tuppence Coloured, Penny Plain" and
goes something like this:

"He worshipped at the altar of romance
(Tried to seduce a woman half his age)
And dared to stake his fortune on a chance
(Gambled away his children's heritage).

..... missing lines .....
..... .....
Dreams were his refuge and he longed for sleep
(He failed in business, took to drink and died)."

14) "le dernier fils d'une race epuisee"

occurs in "Sons and Lovers" but has never been traced. It is
known not to be by any of the obvious people such as Racine and
Chateaubriand.

15) Where does "Hark, yon tree hath no leaves but they will out" come from?

16) A friend of mine used the following quotation in an
advertisement, and attributed it to Ruskin. Some Professor of
Ruskinology wrote to him and said "no, it isn't." I have seen it
before, but cannot remember where.

"There is hardly anything that some man cannot make a little
worse and sell a little cheaper; people who consider price alone
are this man's lawful prey."
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------26----
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 92 11:41:20 EST
From: Annick Deakin <42162_1242@uwovax.uwo.ca>
Subject: Movie Query

A friend of mine who is not a member of this list is asking me
to forward a query :
"Would any one know the exact title of a French film (about 5-6
years old?) depicting a healing woman accused of sorcery while or
because a priest falls in love with her. There is also in this
film the episode of another woman who keeps her imprisoned and
starving husband alive by actually nursing him".
I hope that this rings a bell to those who have seen this film.
Thank you very much in advance. Annick


_____________________
Annick Deakin,<deakin@uwo.ca>, (519) 661 2104, FAX:(519) 661 3540
Language Learning Centre, The University of Western Ontario
(4) --------------------------------------------------------------22----
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 92 14:19:36 EST
From: "David H. Hesla" <ILADHH@EMUVM1>
Subject: Caldecott

I'd be grateful if someone would tell the date of the first publication of
Randolph Caldecott's RIDE A COCK HORSE. This is a children's book, and such
books were not always provided with a date of publication.

Mange tak,

DAVID H. HESLA
ILA
EMORY UNIVERSITY
ATLANTA GA 30322