From: mdhangton@gmail.com   
      
   On Sunday, October 26, 2014 6:13:47 PM UTC-4, Brian M. Scott wrote:   
   > On Sun, 26 Oct 2014 00:53:11 -0700 (PDT), William Vetter   
   >  wrote in   
   >    
   > in rec.arts.sf.composition:   
   >   
   > > On Sunday, October 26, 2014 2:10:52 AM UTC-4, Brian M. Scott wrote:   
   >   
   > >> On Sat, 25 Oct 2014 22:58:12 -0700 (PDT), William Vetter   
   > >>  wrote in   
   > >>    
   > >> in rec.arts.sf.composition:   
   >   
   > >>> On Sunday, October 26, 2014 12:53:45 AM UTC-4, Brian M. Scott wrote:   
   > >>> The other is a   
   >   
   > >>>> former student who had black hair and the funniest name I   
   > >>>> ever encountered in a class: Ivan Ho.   
   >   
   > >>> It's not so unusual.  A lot of Asians give their children first   
   > >>> names of Catholic saints.  I've met a couple of Chinese Stanislauses.   
   >   
   > >> I don't know whether this particular combination of forename   
   > >> and surname is unusual or not, but it's very funny, and NOT   
   > >> because it's Russo-Chinese.  Think about it.   
   >   
   > > You telling me it's _Ivanhoe_,   
   >   
   > Of course.   
   >   
   > > or "I wanna whore"?   
   >   
   > More than a bit of a stretch, and not especially funny.   
   >   
   I really don't know what you think is very funny.   
   Some people think drag names like Ivana Bust is very funny.   
   Some people think a black man eating a watermelon is the funniest thing in the   
   world.   
   I knew a Taiwanese guy whose first name was really pronounced Zoo, spent his   
   whole life worried white people would laugh, spelled it Tsu.   
   I knew a guy whose name in Chinese meant "Shock the Universe" and all of the   
   other Chinese would tell white people that, because they thought it was funny.   
   Thank you for telling one of your stories...but you understand, I've known a   
   thousand Chinese students, scientists, professors, engineers, factory line   
   workers...this sort of thing is pretty routine for me.   
      
   I read _Ivanhoe_.  This description of a very minor character in the opening   
   scene is the only thing that really stood out for me, that was memorable:   
      
   The human figures which completed this landscape, were in number two,   
   partaking, in their dress and appearance, of that wild and rustic   
   character, which belonged to the woodlands of the West-Riding of   
   Yorkshire at that early period. The eldest of these men had a   
   stern, savage, and wild aspect. His garment was of the simplest form   
   imaginable, being a close jacket with sleeves, composed of the tanned   
   skin of some animal, on which the hair had been originally left, but   
   which had been worn off in so many places, that it would have been   
   difficult to distinguish from the patches that remained, to what   
   creature the fur had belonged. This primeval vestment reached from   
   the throat to the knees, and served at once all the usual purposes   
   of body-clothing; there was no wider opening at the collar, than   
   was necessary to admit the passage of the head, from which it may be   
   inferred, that it was put on by slipping it over the head and shoulders,   
   in the manner of a modern shirt, or ancient hauberk. Sandals, bound   
   with thongs made of boars' hide, protected the feet, and a roll of thin   
   leather was twined artificially round the legs, and, ascending above the   
   calf, left the knees bare, like those of a Scottish Highlander. To make   
   the jacket sit yet more close to the body, it was gathered at the middle   
   by a broad leathern belt, secured by a brass buckle; to one side of   
   which was attached a sort of scrip, and to the other a ram's horn,   
   accoutred with a mouthpiece, for the purpose of blowing. In the same   
   belt was stuck one of those long, broad, sharp-pointed, and two-edged   
   knives, with a buck's-horn handle, which were fabricated in the   
   neighbourhood, and bore even at this early period the name of a   
   Sheffield whittle. The man had no covering upon his head, which was   
   only defended by his own thick hair, matted and twisted together, and   
   scorched by the influence of the sun into a rusty dark-red colour,   
   forming a contrast with the overgrown beard upon his cheeks, which was   
   rather of a yellow or amber hue. One part of his dress only remains, but   
   it is too remarkable to be suppressed; it was a brass ring, resembling a   
   dog's collar, but without any opening, and soldered fast round his neck,   
   so loose as to form no impediment to his breathing, yet so tight as to   
   be incapable of being removed, excepting by the use of the file. On this   
   singular gorget was engraved, in Saxon characters, an inscription of the   
   following purport:--"Gurth, the son of Beowulph, is the born thrall of   
   Cedric of Rotherwood."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)