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The Write Way 24 March 2006 My Brother Esau is a Hairy Man
Greetings, [Firstly, thank you to everyone who has written asking about how we're faring after Cyclone Larry. From all accounts, it was terrifying with winds of more than 290 kmh when the cyclone made landfall in the Far North. It's a long way from my little corner of the world (around Brisbane), but there's been a great deal of damage in the region, with 95-98% of the entire country's banana crops destroyed. Sugar farmers who were just making ends meet after the world sugar slump have had their crops wiped out ... avocado trees have been flattened ... tropical fruit plantations have been smashed. It's not good. In some towns, more than half the homes and buildings have lost their roofs, and many have been totally destroyed. There are hundreds of people homeless and sleeping in community centres, and more than 150 schools in the Far North had to close because of structural damage after Larry hit. (Many are now reopening, so at least the kids can get some sort of normalcy back in their lives ... it will be some time before that happens for the adults.) But no-one was killed ... and we have the advance warnings from our oft-maligned Weather Bureau to thank for that. (I just heard that one old chap died from a heart attack during the storm ...) You can read more details about Larry. Hurricanes, tsunamis, cyclones ... It's certainly been a wild old time on our dear little planet recently, hasn't it?] On a totally unrelated note ... Do you have lines that have been floating around in your subconscious mind for yonks? Words that just rise to the surface on odd occasions for no discernible reason? Uh-oh ... You mean it's just me, then? Sigh ... Oh, well. In for a penny, in for a pound, as my Grandma used to say; I may as well carry on with these embarrassing revelations since I've already spilled the beans ... One such line that has haunted me for decades is the title of this week's newsletter. I remind you that I have no brothers or sisters ... hirsute or otherwise, so I wouldn't dare hazard a guess why this particular line keeps inserting itself into my life, but it does. So this week, I decided to find out why it leaves me undisturbed for months or sometimes years at a time and then suddenly arrives home like the prodigal son, all smiles and unabashed bravado after spending its inheritance, and expects to be welcomed back into the fold. A quick search on my best mate Google, and the mystery was solved ... Memory came flooding back. It is in fact a line from a skit on Beyond the Fringe, a 60s BBC review written and performed by Alan Bennett, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Jonathan Miller. This series achieved a cult following during my Uni days, even though it had been around for a couple of years by then. The line in question is from a skit delivered by Alan Bennett called, Take a Pew. You can read it here (and no doubt wonder as you do what this reveals about my tiny mind!) Given my odd preoccupation with these words, you can understand why I was so taken with an ad campaign that's currently running on telly out here. It's one of those teaser campaigns that doesn't tell you what it's advertising ... it just shows a clip and then puts up a website. And yes, I'm gullible, so I had to look it up ... Here's the URL. Play the ad and see if you can guess what it's advertising. When you get to the site, I'm sure that like me, you'll really be hoping that the chap in the photo was an actor who was made up for the part ... I mean, really hoping ... Hair is funny stuff, isn't it? Have you ever wondered why it is that the hair on your arms stay short, while hair on your head keeps growing? No?
And what, I hear you ask, does this have to do with writing? Well .... (Hang on ...give me a minute, and I'm sure I'll come up with something ...) Ummm ... I know! Your characters have to be hairy or smooth, don't they? Now you have some handy reference material to give accuracy to your descriptions! And you thought I couldn't work it around to writing ... Oh ye of little faith! Some of you may be itching to whack in a comma or two in the title of this week's musings, to make it: My Brother, Esau, is a Hairy Man. And if the urge so moves you, feel free to give in to it, for there's nothing wrong with an attractive pair of commas to set off your parenthetical elements. However, because the meaning in this sentence is unambiguous, the commas aren't absolutely necessary. If I'd rearranged the words a tad, then you'd be justified in expecting to see the commas: Esau, my brother, is a hairy man. And the reason makes sense, doesn't it? There may be any number of men called Esau who are hirsute, but only one of them is my brother (unless our parents were especially unimaginative). This week's quiz: Try these hairy words .. match 'em up: cortex, exfoliate, alopecia, melanin, depilate, follicle, glabella, keratin, papilla, telogen 1. a smooth prominence of the frontal bone between and above the eyebrows; the most forward projecting point of the forehead in the midline at the level of the supra-orbital ridges; the space between the eyebrows 2. a process of removing the top dead skin layers to reveal healthier, newer skin underneath 3. the largest section of a single hair, containing the main bulk of the hair 4. a small projection of tissue at the base of a hair or tooth or feather 5. a fibrous scleroprotein that occurs in the outer layer of the skin and in horny tissues such as hair feathers nails and hooves; hair's natural protein 6. loss of hair (especially on the head) 7. resting phase of the follicle in the hair cycle 8. removal of hair on the surface of the skin 9. insoluble pigments that account for the color of skin, hair, scales and feathers 10. a pore in the skin from which a hair grows And here's a story about hair ... sort of ... A man went in early to a bar, ordered a drink and sat down. Because it was early, there was no one else around except the bartender, who was working getting his drink across the bar. He reached for the pretzels and as he started to eat one, he heard, "Hey, Pssst, nice pants!" "Hey, did you say something?" he said to the bartender. "No." "Hmmm, maybe I'm hearing things," he thought. He started eating the pretzels again, and heard, "Psst, hey! Nice shirt!" "You said something, didn't you?" he said to the bartender. "No, I didn't. What are you talking about?" "Never mind." He went back to the pretzels, looking around warily from side to side. Then he heard it again. "Psst! Nice haircut!" "All right, that's it!" the man said, jumping up. "Someone keeps saying things like, 'Nice hair,' and I know I'm not going crazy!" "Oh!" said the bartender. "I know what that is! It's the pretzels! They're complimentary!" Last week's quiz:
Subscribe Here If you've received this little missive from a friend, you can get your very own issue, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed every Friday morning by clicking here: mailto:WritingTips-subscribe@yahoogrups.com Some words of wisdom that Donna found and passed along: When red-haired people are above a certain social grade their hair is auburn. (Mark Twain) Inflation is when you pay fifteen
dollars for the ten-dollar haircut you used to get for five dollars when you had
hair. I'm not offended by dumb blonde jokes because I know that I'm not dumb. I also know I'm not blonde. (Dolly Parton) Did you know that every newsletter is archived? So if you've missed anything since 1998 or want to revisit some favourites, you can do so any time! Don't forget to bookmark the page when you get there ... or even make it your Home Page. (For Internet Explorer, just click on Tools ... Internet Options ... General ... fill in www.write101.com/archives/index.htm and click OK. For Netscape, select Edit ... Preferences. Then select Navigator from the left menu, click Home Page and enter the URL above next to Location and click OK.) An Ape that wants to play Hamlet after being type-cast as King Kong, a talking anvil and that rottweiller ... Dr Morgenes is still caught in the nightmare that is the casting couch. Help him find a plot! Just click on the Comments button at the end of the entry to add your contribution. If you have friends who fancy themselves as writers, invite them to contribute (just forward this newsletter in its entirety to them). I often trawl this for comments to post on my site ... so if you say something about the newsletter or site, be warned, you may end up being read by one of the 2,000+ unique visitors who visit Write101 every day! Make your Mark on the World. Then stop by our Map of the World and read the messages. (Just click List) and add your mark. A Little Something Extra If you're writing a book, and you decide that your characters are going to have hair problems, have I got a surprise for you! All you could ever possibly wish to know about head lice! And if you want to make one of your characters a scientist working on hair ... all about the structure of hair. What about setting your story in the past? Need some authentic hairstyles? Say no more! Here's a gallery of historical hairstyles ... just for you!
Word of the week: Hirsute (adj) covered with hair; hairy; shaggy This wonderfully useful word comes from the Latin hirsutus (rough, shaggy) and may even owe a passing nod to horrere (to bristle with fear). It's one of those words that sounds as if it should mean something quite different, don't you think? When I first heard it as a teenager, I was sure it meant something like 'very intelligent; learned; well educated,' and I was disappointed when I looked it up and saw "hairy." But I've since become rather fond of it (as you may have noticed). Oxymoron of the week: Hair growth (Now you may not think this is an oxymoron ... but go back and read the articles about hair growth and you'll get it). And this week's Latin phrase couldn't be anything else given our obsession with things hairy ... Capillamentum? Haudquaquam conieci esse! [kah-peel-ah-MAYN-toom? howd-kwoo-ah-KWOO-ahm] (A wig? I never would have guessed!) Kind regards, Jennifer P.S. Want to donate to the upkeep of this newsletter? Here's how: 1. Pay by PayPal: OR 2. Click here to subscribe for a full year OR 3. Use your credit card on my secure order form. (You can also access the PayPal subscription link from this page if the link above didn't work for you. With PayPal, you can use your credit card, PayPal account or pay online using your own cheque account.) OR 4. Send a cheque (made payable to Jennifer Stewart) Copyright 2006 Jennifer Stewart Individual articles copyrighted by
their authors.
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