Dilbertly ironic
CyberCypher
Ironic Banshees
---------------
You've probably heard the old saying, "She screamed like a banshee."
I didn't learn much about banshees in school but I deduce that they
are dead people who scream loudly. That seems unpleasant enough. But
lately I have been learning more about the bad qualities of
banshees. I've overheard these nuggets from people who apparently
have detailed banshee knowledge:
"I had to pee like a banshee."
"My head hurt like a banshee."
"I was sweating like a banshee."
It's no wonder that banshees are rarely invited to parties. No one
wants to hang around with a screaming, peeing, sweating, dead person
with a headache, especially if beer is involved.
I've also learned recently that "ironic" means anything you want it
to mean. Example:
Me: "I heard that Bob was killed by a meteor."
Induhvidual: "Wow. That's ironic."
Me: "Why is it ironic? Was he an astronomer?"
Induhvidual: "No, it's ironic because, you know, what are the
odds?"
Me: "So anything unlikely is automatically ironic?"
Induhvidual: "No, it also needs to be bad."
Me: "This conversation is ironic."
Induhvidual: "Shut up! You're making me pee like a banshee!"
John Holmes
>
> I've also learned recently that "ironic" means anything you want it
> to mean. Example:
>
> Me: "I heard that Bob was killed by a meteor."
>
> Induhvidual: "Wow. That's ironic."
>
> Me: "Why is it ironic? Was he an astronomer?"
No, it was a nickel-ironic meteorite.
--
Regards
John
Steve Hayes
>From Scott Adams' Dilbert Newsletter #49:
>
>Ironic Banshees
>---------------
>
>You've probably heard the old saying, "She screamed like a banshee."
>I didn't learn much about banshees in school but I deduce that they
>are dead people who scream loudly. That seems unpleasant enough. But
>lately I have been learning more about the bad qualities of
>banshees. I've overheard these nuggets from people who apparently
>have detailed banshee knowledge:
>
>"I had to pee like a banshee."
>"My head hurt like a banshee."
>"I was sweating like a banshee."
For quite a large part of my life I know of a banshee only as a kind of
military aircraft.
It was only much later (I think through computer games), that I didcovered the
dead person meaning.
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk
Padraig Breathnach
>On 28 Aug 2003 23:53:46 GMT, CyberCypher <hui...@netscape.net> wrote:
>
>>From Scott Adams' Dilbert Newsletter #49:
>>
>>Ironic Banshees
>>---------------
>>
>>You've probably heard the old saying, "She screamed like a banshee."
>>I didn't learn much about banshees in school but I deduce that they
>>are dead people who scream loudly. That seems unpleasant enough. But
>>lately I have been learning more about the bad qualities of
>>banshees. I've overheard these nuggets from people who apparently
>>have detailed banshee knowledge:
>>
>>"I had to pee like a banshee."
>>"My head hurt like a banshee."
>>"I was sweating like a banshee."
>
>For quite a large part of my life I know of a banshee only as a kind of
>military aircraft.
>
>It was only much later (I think through computer games), that I didcovered the
>dead person meaning.
You shouldn't have: a banshee is not a dead person, but a harbinger of
death. Her cry portended death.
Tradition has it that her cry was a keen or a lament, rather than a
scream. She was said to sit on a wall outside a house where somebody
was to die, keening and combing her long hair.
PB
david56
> On 28 Aug 2003 23:53:46 GMT, CyberCypher <hui...@netscape.net> wrote:
>
> >From Scott Adams' Dilbert Newsletter #49:
> >
> >Ironic Banshees
> >---------------
> >
> >You've probably heard the old saying, "She screamed like a banshee."
> >I didn't learn much about banshees in school but I deduce that they
> >are dead people who scream loudly. That seems unpleasant enough. But
> >lately I have been learning more about the bad qualities of
> >banshees. I've overheard these nuggets from people who apparently
> >have detailed banshee knowledge:
> >
> >"I had to pee like a banshee."
> >"My head hurt like a banshee."
> >"I was sweating like a banshee."
>
> For quite a large part of my life I know of a banshee only as a kind of
> military aircraft.
>
> It was only much later (I think through computer games), that I didcovered the
> dead person meaning.
AFAIK the only thing a banshee does is "wail" or possibly "scream".
There was a superhero or X-Man or whatever called the Wailing
Banshee, I think, in the early 70s.
--
David
I say what it occurs to me to say.
=====
The address is valid today, but I change it periodically.
Evan Kirshenbaum
> haye...@yahoo.com (Steve Hayes) wrote:
>
> >It was only much later (I think through computer games), that I
> >didcovered the dead person meaning.
>
> You shouldn't have: a banshee is not a dead person, but a harbinger of
> death. Her cry portended death.
>
> Tradition has it that her cry was a keen or a lament, rather than a
> scream. She was said to sit on a wall outside a house where somebody
> was to die, keening and combing her long hair.
The Banshee, in Irish the _Bean Sidhe_ (pronounced "bann-SHEE"),
means "spirit woman." She is usually described as a single being,
although there are many of them. According to legend, one Banshee
guards each Milesian Irish family; these are the families whose
names start with O' or Mac, though those prefixes have been
dropped, particularly by American families.
Nevertheless, there is a Banshee for each branch of these
families, and the family Banshee can follow the descendants to
America, Australia, or wherever the Irish family travels or
emigrates.
The Banshee protects the family as best she can, perhaps as a
forerunner of the "Guardian Angel" in Christian
traditions. However, the time we are most aware of her is before a
tragedy that she cannot prevent.
Traditionally, the Banshee appears shortly before a death in "her"
family. The Banshee is almost always female, and appears filmy in
a white, hooded gown. The exception is in Donegal, Ireland, where
she may wear a green robe, or in County Mayo where she usually
wears black.
However, if she is washing a shroud when you see her, she may
merely signal a major life-changing event in your future. The way
to determine this is to go home and burn a beeswax candle after
seeing her; if it burns in the shape of a shroud, her appearance
foretells death.
The night before the death, the Banshee will wail piteously in
frustration and rage. Her family will always hear her, but many
others in the area will, too. For example, Sir Walter Scott
referred to "the fatal banshi's boding scream."
http://www.fionabroome.com/history/banshee.htm
I hadn't heard before about the banshee being a protector.
--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
HP Laboratories |The Society for the Preservation of
1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |Tithesis commends your ebriated and
Palo Alto, CA 94304 |scrutable use of delible and
|defatigable, which are gainly, sipid
kirsh...@hpl.hp.com |and couth. We are gruntled and
(650)857-7572 |consolate that you have the ertia and
|eptitude to choose such putably
http://www.kirshenbaum.net/ |pensible tithesis, which we parage.
R H Draney
>
>AFAIK the only thing a banshee does is "wail" or possibly "scream".
>There was a superhero or X-Man or whatever called the Wailing
>Banshee, I think, in the early 70s.
He had a scream that could shatter walls or (somehow) levitate him, and he was
Irish (given name Sean Cassidy)...in costume, he was called simply "Banshee", no
article or qualifier...(your more elaborate suggestion puts me in mind somehow
of the 1959 film "Behemoth", released in the US as "The Giant Behemoth")....
An unnamed character with the same powers appeared briefly in the second X-Men
movie earlier this year....r
Padraig Breathnach
> The Banshee, in Irish the _Bean Sidhe_ (pronounced "bann-SHEE"),
> means "spirit woman."
etc.
We are dealing here with folk tradition; most such traditions have
many versions.
>I hadn't heard before about the banshee being a protector.
>
Neither had I. I doubt if it is a common notion.
PB
Steve Hayes
wrote:
>haye...@yahoo.com (Steve Hayes) wrote:
>
>>On 28 Aug 2003 23:53:46 GMT, CyberCypher <hui...@netscape.net> wrote:
>>
>>>From Scott Adams' Dilbert Newsletter #49:
>>>
>>>Ironic Banshees
>>>---------------
>>>
>>>You've probably heard the old saying, "She screamed like a banshee."
>>>I didn't learn much about banshees in school but I deduce that they
>>>are dead people who scream loudly. That seems unpleasant enough. But
>>>lately I have been learning more about the bad qualities of
>>>banshees. I've overheard these nuggets from people who apparently
>>>have detailed banshee knowledge:
>>>
>>>"I had to pee like a banshee."
>>>"My head hurt like a banshee."
>>>"I was sweating like a banshee."
>>
>>For quite a large part of my life I know of a banshee only as a kind of
>>military aircraft.
>>
>>It was only much later (I think through computer games), that I didcovered the
>>dead person meaning.
>
>You shouldn't have: a banshee is not a dead person, but a harbinger of
>death. Her cry portended death.
Ah well, i suppose that shows what the aircraft manufacturers were thinking,
then!
>Tradition has it that her cry was a keen or a lament, rather than a
>scream. She was said to sit on a wall outside a house where somebody
>was to die, keening and combing her long hair.
Anything else - what WAS(is) she?
Mike Lyle
body rising? I feel cold just typing this.
There's a rather similar Welsh being, but I've forgotten the details.
There are also corpse-candles, which burn along the route a funeral is
to follow (these are an English tradition, too, I think).
Like many folkways (such as, remarkably, the "rude" words in the Welsh
language) these traditions and superstitions seem to have died out
more thoroughly in Wales than in Scotland and Ireland. Feelings are
very strong here, but I might almost say there's a sort of pragmatic
reasonableness about the place -- maybe that's why Charles doesn't
like it! (Somebody told me that Unitarianism at one stage bade fair to
become the usual creed here.)
They say a Welshman is an Irishman who couldn't swim; but the
country's formative experience has been totally different.
Mike.
Padraig Breathnach
>On Fri, 29 Aug 2003 18:18:02 +0100, Padraig Breathnach <padr...@iol.ie>
>wrote:
>
>>haye...@yahoo.com (Steve Hayes) wrote:
>>
>>>For quite a large part of my life I know of a banshee only as a kind of
>>>military aircraft.
>>>
>>>It was only much later (I think through computer games), that I didcovered the
>>>dead person meaning.
>>
>>You shouldn't have: a banshee is not a dead person, but a harbinger of
>>death. Her cry portended death.
>
>Ah well, i suppose that shows what the aircraft manufacturers were thinking,
>then!
>
>>Tradition has it that her cry was a keen or a lament, rather than a
>>scream. She was said to sit on a wall outside a house where somebody
>>was to die, keening and combing her long hair.
>
>Anything else - what WAS(is) she?
Evan posted one account.
Banshee is an anglicisation of "bean sidhe". The word "bean" means
"woman", and "sidhe" refers to that other population which exists
alongside us, and is rarely seen by us -- variously referred to as
spirits, fairies, or the little people. So, a woman of the spirit
world.
It is thought that the sidhe are a conflation of a number of groups:
the tuatha dé danann (early settlers supplanted by the Celtic people);
the ghosts of the dead; the Celtic gods; and others.
In Gaelic tradition, the sidhe were to be feared. Their sacred places
-- ancient ring-forts, certain wells, and even certain trees -- should
not be disturbed. If the sidhe were appeased or left alone, they
generally did one no harm, and occasionally granted favours. But, if
angered, they were fearsome. Most interactions between the sidhe and
humans were bad experiences. (The leprechaun, who is not a major
figure in Gaelic myth, is a member of the sidhe.)
It seems that the bean sidhe tradition may derive from the idea of a
family goddess-protector, and that her wail was originally a lament
for the coming loss of one of her charges. As can happen with folk
traditions, the image changed over time, from that of a concerned
"friend of the family" to that of a somewhat malevolent being.
PB
Steve Hayes
wrote:
>haye...@yahoo.com (Steve Hayes) wrote:
>>Anything else - what WAS(is) she?
>
>Evan posted one account.
Yes, I saw that after I saw your post - it answered most of my questions.
>Banshee is an anglicisation of "bean sidhe". The word "bean" means
>"woman", and "sidhe" refers to that other population which exists
>alongside us, and is rarely seen by us -- variously referred to as
>spirits, fairies, or the little people. So, a woman of the spirit
>world.
>
>It is thought that the sidhe are a conflation of a number of groups:
>the tuatha dé danann (early settlers supplanted by the Celtic people);
>the ghosts of the dead; the Celtic gods; and others.
>
>In Gaelic tradition, the sidhe were to be feared. Their sacred places
>-- ancient ring-forts, certain wells, and even certain trees -- should
>not be disturbed. If the sidhe were appeased or left alone, they
>generally did one no harm, and occasionally granted favours. But, if
>angered, they were fearsome. Most interactions between the sidhe and
>humans were bad experiences. (The leprechaun, who is not a major
>figure in Gaelic myth, is a member of the sidhe.)
They sound just like the Greek exotika.
>It seems that the bean sidhe tradition may derive from the idea of a
>family goddess-protector, and that her wail was originally a lament
>for the coming loss of one of her charges. As can happen with folk
>traditions, the image changed over time, from that of a concerned
>"friend of the family" to that of a somewhat malevolent being.
Thanks very much!