is 'emo' or 'e' the prefix for emotional?

[Bozo_D...@37.com]

What about emoticon, email, and promotional?

[CDB]

On 25/09/2013 6:06 AM, Bozo_D...@37.com wrote:

> What about emoticon, email, and promotional?

When 'tis proed, locoed, ext,
Ye shall know the word's prefixt.

You'd have to be crazy to want to go a mile a minute.

[micky]

On Wed, 25 Sep 2013 03:06:57 -0700 (PDT), Bozo_D...@37.com wrote:

>What about emoticon, email, and promotional?

I normally ignore posts that are incomplete without the subject line.
Would you write a paper or a book in which your main thought was in
the subject and nowhere else?

But I'll make an exception. Emo is a juvenile clownfish. Or maybe
a killer whale.

[Mike L]

Thank you, Doctor Kennedy: that was divine.

--
Mike.

[Bozo_D...@37.com]

What do you mean a mile a minute? I don't get it. I found the root 'motional', and wondered how 'pro' and 'e' became attached for 'promotional' and 'emotional' ... and while you're at it, how about 'pro' and 'tein' for 'protein', and how is diploma and diplomacy related?

[CDB]

On 25/09/2013 5:13 PM, Mike L wrote:

> CDB <belle...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Bozo_D...@37.com wrote:

>>> What about emoticon, email, and promotional?

>> When 'tis proed, locoed, ext,
>> Ye shall know the word's prefixt.

>> You'd have to be crazy to want to go a mile a minute.

> Thank you, Doctor Kennedy: that was divine.

Should I be professing myself apologetic?

[CDB]

On 25/09/2013 7:35 PM, Bozo_D...@37.com wrote:

> CDB wrote:
>> Bozo_D...@37.com wrote:

>>> What about emoticon, email, and promotional?

>> When 'tis proed, locoed, ext,

>> Ye shall know the word's prefixt.

>> You'd have to be crazy to want to go a mile a minute.

> What do you mean a mile a minute? I don't get it. I found the root
> 'motional', and wondered how 'pro' and 'e' became attached for
> 'promotional' and 'emotional' ... and while you're at it, how about
> 'pro' and 'tein' for 'protein', and how is diploma and diplomacy
> related?

Oh, you meant seriously.

"Emotional" has the prefix "e", whose basic meaning in Latin is "out".
"Emotion" is related to the verb "emovere", basically "to move out", but
also meaning "to excite, make agitated". The ending "-al" makes the
noun into an adjective. "Emoticon" is a combination of "emotion" and
"icon", a Greek word meaning "image" or "picture".

"Promotional" has the prefix "pro", which here means 'forward". You
move forward when you are promoted, and a promotional video is intended
to move a product up the sales charts.

I was joking when I wrote as if "loco-" were a prefix meaning "crazy".
Loco-motive, geddit?

The prefix "e" in "email" stands for "electronic".

"Protein" is related to Greek "protos", meaning "first" (the "pro" here
means something like "in front") and the related adjective "proteios",
meaning "of first quality". It's a modern scientific word, and the
scientist who coined it thought protein was good stuff to feed the
troops. Had to look that last bit up.

I'm tired. Here are "diploma" and "diplomacy", and a couple of other
words at no extra charge:

<http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=diploma&searchmode=none>

[Mike L]

My dear chap, you may profess yourself blue in the face and there will
still be no need for apology. Apoplectic, perhaps...

--
Mike.

[R H Draney]

CDB filted:

An organist is a proponent of organism, and therefore practices organization....

(As one of my old .sig files said, "What good is being an executive if you never
get to execute anyone?")...r


--
Me? Sarcastic?
Yeah, right.

[Bozo_D...@37.com]

THANK YOU ... if diploma and diplomacy were more closely related, i was gonna ask how a cap, gown and especially "mortar board" were related ... was wondering if the terms had any relationship to Masonry, and thanks for the link to the Online Etymology Dictionary too.

[CDB]

On 26/09/2013 4:31 PM, Mike L wrote:
> CDB <belle...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Mike L wrote:
>>> CDB <belle...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> Bozo_D...@37.com wrote:

>>>>> What about emoticon, email, and promotional?

>>>> When 'tis proed, locoed, ext, Ye shall know the word's
>>>> prefixt.

>>>> You'd have to be crazy to want to go a mile a minute.

>>> Thank you, Doctor Kennedy: that was divine.

>> Should I be professing myself apologetic?

> My dear chap, you may profess yourself blue in the face and there
> will still be no need for apology. Apoplectic, perhaps...

A confession instead, then. I had no idea who your Doctor Kennedy was,
but took "divine" as a clue and googled up Dr John Kennedy, a
Presbyterian divine and Professor of Religious Apologetics, or something
similar, in C19. Alas, I was not destined to geddit.

[CDB]

On 26/09/2013 8:44 PM, Bozo_D...@37.com wrote:

[words]

>> I'm tired. Here are "diploma" and "diplomacy", and a couple of
>> other words at no extra charge:

>> <http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search
=diploma&searchmode=none>

THANK YOU ... if diploma and diplomacy were more closely related, i was
gonna ask how a cap, gown and especially "mortar board" were related ...
was wondering if the terms had any relationship to Masonry, and thanks
for the link to the Online Etymology Dictionary too.

You're welcome. There's a site that offers links to that dictionary and
many others:

http://www.onelook.com/

[Mike L]

Oh dear! A childhood brutally deprived of the guiding hand of Benjamin
Hall Kennedy's Memorial Lines. My eyes cloud over even as I pen these
lines, for your teacher must have been at least "Also pecus
(pecudis)/Feminine in gender is", if not the first of "Feminine are
found in on/ Gorgon,sindon, halcyon".

--
Mike.

[Nick Spalding]

Mike L wrote, in <98lb49dj9c6843u2p...@4ax.com>
on Fri, 27 Sep 2013 20:03:17 +0100:

My copy of the immortal work is a 1922 printing of the 8th edition of
1909 that a got through Abebooks a few years back.

Once the property of:
W.J. KIDSTON
IIIA

and later of:
E.W.B. Cordingly
King's College
1929

--
Nick Spalding
BrE/IrE

[Nick Spalding]

Nick Spalding wrote, in <8aob49h5od6f8t0hu...@4ax.com>
on Fri, 27 Sep 2013 20:56:15 +0100:

^
I dammit

[CDB]

Ah. A cramped and untutored childhood, but there must be worse things
than still having a lot to learn.

The 'pedia has a painting of him holding a sheaf of papers, but his
expression hints that it was a cane, originally.

[Peter T. Daniels]

"Memorial Lines" produces no results at AbeBooks. What are these lines from?

[Nick Spalding]

Peter T. Daniels wrote, in
<4bab1fdc-5577-4674...@googlegroups.com>
on Sat, 28 Sep 2013 05:51:56 -0700 (PDT):

The Revised
Latin Primer
by
Benjamin Hall Kennedy, D.D.

Formerly Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge
Regius Professor of Greek
and Canon of Ely

Appendix IV, Page 209 in my copy.
--
Nick Spalding
BrE/IrE

[Mike L]

Indeed.

>
>The 'pedia has a painting of him holding a sheaf of papers, but his
>expression hints that it was a cane, originally.
>

Distinctly unforgivingly-avised: scares me even from the screen. In
mkitigation, though, I see he was a supporter of university eductaion
for women.

--
Mike.

[Peter T. Daniels]

The Google Books copy of the 1882 edition, from Harvard, was donated
by Mrs. Algernon Coolidge and originally belonged to "Mary B. Lothrop,
Algiers, November 1882," who may of course have been the same person.

Sadly it has neither appendixes nor a 209th page.

And then, there's another, the Public School Latin Grammar, 7th ed. 1890, covering more than 600 pages, but its appendixes deal with orthography,
pronunciation, the Aryan family, the Italic languages, weights & measures,
etc., but no Memorial Lines.

[Nick Spalding]

Peter T. Daniels wrote, in

<de03f372-9942-453d...@googlegroups.com>
on Sat, 28 Sep 2013 14:11:11 -0700 (PDT):

Mine is the 8th edition, of 1909, 1922 printing. Appendix IV actually
starts at page 221, 209 is the start of all the Appendices.

Would you like me to scan them and send them to you? There 6 pages of
small print approximately 7"x4�".
--
Nick Spalding
BrE/IrE

[CDB]

On 28/09/2013 5:07 PM, Mike L wrote:
> CDB <belle...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Mike L wrote:

[amo, amas, ...]

>>> Oh dear! A childhood brutally deprived of the guiding hand of Benjamin
>>> Hall Kennedy's Memorial Lines. My eyes cloud over even as I pen these
>>> lines, for your teacher must have been at least "Also pecus
>>> (pecudis)/Feminine in gender is", if not the first of "Feminine are
>>> found in on/ Gorgon,sindon, halcyon".

>> Ah. A cramped and untutored childhood, but there must be worse things
>> than still having a lot to learn.

> Indeed.

>> The 'pedia has a painting of him holding a sheaf of papers, but his
>> expression hints that it was a cane, originally.

> Distinctly unforgivingly-avised: scares me even from the screen. In

> mitigation, though, I see he was a supporter of university education
> for women.

Lending new meaning to "six of the best". In my study after prayers.

[Peter T. Daniels]

No, thank you; perhaps they are available _somewhere_ from some other fan.

The edition is posthumous: could the lines have been written by _another_
author? or incorporated from some volume of Kennedy's (doubtless wretched)
verse?

[Mike L]

Fair question: the edition we all probably used was edited and revised
by Sir James Mountford. I've lost my old copy, and the one I have now
(thank _you_, Oxfam: glad to have helped) was printed in 1957.
Mountford lived through most of the 20th C, so a feeling tells me he
didn't write the "verses" in the Appendices. I doubt if Kennedy ever
published any serious verse: these rather forced mnemonics are there
only to help children, and some were quite successful. For my part, I
needed such jewels as:

"With ablative:
"A, ab, absque, coram, de,
Palam, clam, cum, ex, and e,
Sine, tenus, pro and prae;
Add super, subter, sub and in,
When 'state,' not 'motion,' 'tis they mean."

(Note the bard's uncertainty about the Oxford comma.)

I don't think there was an other reviser between K and M: the Latin
Prose composition book we suffered was "Mountford's Kennedy's
Bradley's Arnold", which suggested the busy Sir James was the man they
went to for Kennedy-polishing.

--
Mike.

[Peter T. Daniels]

We had Jenney & Scudder, the prepositions were in lesson 3 or so, and
I at least just memorized them in the alphabetical order they were
given in -- I remember walking the whole length of the apartment,
which had a nice long hall, back and forth, repeating the list.

The quiz the next day was, "Write down all the prepositions you've
learned, along with any additional information about them."

Whereupon Tom Mencher said, "You mean the cases?" and Mr. Tobin went
ballistic.

Quite a few of the ones in that ditty weren't in our list.

[Robert Bannister]

>>> small print approximately 7"x4ž".

>>
>> No, thank you; perhaps they are available _somewhere_ from some other fan.
>>
>> The edition is posthumous: could the lines have been written by _another_
>> author? or incorporated from some volume of Kennedy's (doubtless wretched)
>> verse?
>
> Fair question: the edition we all probably used was edited and revised
> by Sir James Mountford. I've lost my old copy, and the one I have now
> (thank _you_, Oxfam: glad to have helped) was printed in 1957.
> Mountford lived through most of the 20th C, so a feeling tells me he
> didn't write the "verses" in the Appendices. I doubt if Kennedy ever
> published any serious verse: these rather forced mnemonics are there
> only to help children, and some were quite successful. For my part, I
> needed such jewels as:
>
> "With ablative:
> "A, ab, absque, coram, de,
> Palam, clam, cum, ex, and e,
> Sine, tenus, pro and prae;
> Add super, subter, sub and in,
> When 'state,' not 'motion,' 'tis they mean."
>
> (Note the bard's uncertainty about the Oxford comma.)
>
> I don't think there was an other reviser between K and M: the Latin
> Prose composition book we suffered was "Mountford's Kennedy's
> Bradley's Arnold", which suggested the busy Sir James was the man they
> went to for Kennedy-polishing.
>

I can't even remember the name of the Latin primer we used. I think we
called it the "Eating Primer", but whether the name was "Eton" or
"Eaton", I don't remember.

--
Robert Bannister

[Peter Young]

On 30 Sep 2013 Robert Bannister <rob...@clubtelco.com> wrote:

> On 30/09/13 5:15 AM, Mike L wrote:

[snip]

>> I don't think there was an other reviser between K and M: the Latin
>> Prose composition book we suffered was "Mountford's Kennedy's
>> Bradley's Arnold", which suggested the busy Sir James was the man they
>> went to for Kennedy-polishing.
>>

> I can't even remember the name of the Latin primer we used. I think we
> called it the "Eating Primer", but whether the name was "Eton" or
> "Eaton", I don't remember.

Shorter Latin Primer (Kennedy?), usually modified on the front of the
book to "Shortbread Eating Primer". One class-mate managed to make it
"Shorter Way of Eating Prime Beef". But I think we've been here
before.

Peter.

--
Peter Young, (BrE, RP), Consultant Anaesthetist, 1975-2004.
(US equivalent: Certified Anesthesiologist)
Cheltenham and Gloucester, UK. Now happily retired.
http://pnyoung.orpheusweb.co.uk

[Nick Spalding]

Peter T. Daniels wrote, in

<47eccafa-3ebd-4a1d...@googlegroups.com>
on Sun, 29 Sep 2013 16:17:04 -0700 (PDT):

Palam (in sight of), clam (unknown to) and coram (in the presence of)
have never made it into anything else that I ever saw. Most of the
others have turned up as English prefixes.
--
Nick Spalding
BrE/IrE

[Mike L]

On Mon, 30 Sep 2013 08:27:23 +0100, Peter Young <pny...@ormail.co.uk>
wrote:

>On 30 Sep 2013 Robert Bannister <rob...@clubtelco.com> wrote:
>
>> On 30/09/13 5:15 AM, Mike L wrote:
>
>[snip]
>
>>> I don't think there was an other reviser between K and M: the Latin
>>> Prose composition book we suffered was "Mountford's Kennedy's
>>> Bradley's Arnold", which suggested the busy Sir James was the man they
>>> went to for Kennedy-polishing.
>>>
>
>> I can't even remember the name of the Latin primer we used. I think we
>> called it the "Eating Primer", but whether the name was "Eton" or
>> "Eaton", I don't remember.
>
>Shorter Latin Primer (Kennedy?), usually modified on the front of the
>book to "Shortbread Eating Primer". One class-mate managed to make it
>"Shorter Way of Eating Prime Beef". But I think we've been here
>before.
>

Yes the "Shorter" was a truncated version of the original "Latin
Primer" which became for all of us, and our parents, "The Revised
Latin Primer".

--
Mike.

[charles]

In article <aisj49d8cecebeqjb...@4ax.com>,

possibly , in our loft is my father's "Revised". We only used the "shorter"
in the 1950s.

--
From KT24

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.18

[John Briggs]

Only when revised...
--
John Briggs

[Robert Bannister]

On 30/09/13 8:52 AM, Robert Bannister wrote:

> I can't even remember the name of the Latin primer we used. I think we
> called it the "Eating Primer", but whether the name was "Eton" or
> "Eaton", I don't remember.
>

I looked on my bookshelf yesterday afternoon and discovered to my
amazement The Revised Latin Primer by Benjamin Hall Kennedy. Now, this
is according to the label inside the cover a copy I must have filched
from school, but I have written (twice, for some reason) "R.H.Bannister
UCL", so I must have obtained it from some other past pupil when I was
university where we were forced to do Latin for the first year. This is
not the book I remember using at school myself. Apart from anything
else, this book is green whereas I remember using a blue book.
--
Robert Bannister

[Robert Bannister]

On 30/09/13 3:27 PM, Peter Young wrote:
> On 30 Sep 2013 Robert Bannister <rob...@clubtelco.com> wrote:
>
>> On 30/09/13 5:15 AM, Mike L wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
>>> I don't think there was an other reviser between K and M: the Latin
>>> Prose composition book we suffered was "Mountford's Kennedy's
>>> Bradley's Arnold", which suggested the busy Sir James was the man they
>>> went to for Kennedy-polishing.
>>>
>
>> I can't even remember the name of the Latin primer we used. I think we
>> called it the "Eating Primer", but whether the name was "Eton" or
>> "Eaton", I don't remember.
>
> Shorter Latin Primer (Kennedy?), usually modified on the front of the
> book to "Shortbread Eating Primer". One class-mate managed to make it
> "Shorter Way of Eating Prime Beef". But I think we've been here
> before.

Well remembered. The Eatin Primer of course.
--
Robert Bannister

[John Briggs]

The blue book would probably be the Shorter Latin Primer.
--
John Briggs

[Nick Spalding]

charles wrote, in <53937d62...@charleshope.demon.co.uk>
on Mon, 30 Sep 2013 23:05:35 +0100:

I used the Shorter at prep school up to 1945 then the Revised at public
school.
--
Nick Spalding
BrE/IrE

[Nick Spalding]

Robert Bannister wrote, in <baulpf...@mid.individual.net>
on Tue, 01 Oct 2013 09:11:08 +0800:

Mine is green but covered in black paper.
--
Nick Spalding
BrE/IrE

[Nick Spalding]

John Briggs wrote, in <lup2u.17656$Jd4...@fx12.am4>
on Tue, 01 Oct 2013 02:23:28 +0100:

I remember that as having a biscuit colour.
--
Nick Spalding
BrE/IrE

[Tony Cooper]

On Tue, 01 Oct 2013 11:30:43 +0100, Nick Spalding <spal...@iol.ie>
wrote:

Is that a English biscuit or an American biscuit?

--
Tony Cooper - Orlando FL

[David D S]

Two countries separated by a common language...

--
David D S: UK and PR China. (Native BrEng speaker)
Use Reply-To header for email. This email address will be
valid for at least 2 weeks from 2013/10/1 22:16:58

[Nick Spalding]

Tony Cooper wrote, in <jvkl49p8ame77soun...@4ax.com>
on Tue, 01 Oct 2013 09:56:27 -0400:

English - Rich Tea.
--
Nick Spalding
BrE/IrE

[an...@alum.wpi.edi]

On Tue, 01 Oct 2013 11:28:50 +0100, Nick Spalding <spal...@iol.ie>
wrote:

>Robert Bannister wrote, in <baulpf...@mid.individual.net>
> on Tue, 01 Oct 2013 09:11:08 +0800:

>>

>> I looked on my bookshelf yesterday afternoon and discovered to my
>> amazement The Revised Latin Primer by Benjamin Hall Kennedy. Now, this
>> is according to the label inside the cover a copy I must have filched
>> from school, but I have written (twice, for some reason) "R.H.Bannister
>> UCL", so I must have obtained it from some other past pupil when I was
>> university where we were forced to do Latin for the first year. This is
>> not the book I remember using at school myself. Apart from anything
>> else, this book is green whereas I remember using a blue book.
>
>Mine is green but covered in black paper.

WIWAL, the only proper thing to cover a schoolbook was kraft paper,
usually obtained from a shopping bag. For values of "usually" that
closely approximate "always".

We had no foppish colo(u)red paper.

ANMcC

[an...@alum.wpi.edi]

On Tue, 01 Oct 2013 15:33:07 +0100, Nick Spalding <spal...@iol.ie>

wrote:

>Tony Cooper wrote, in <jvkl49p8ame77soun...@4ax.com>
> on Tue, 01 Oct 2013 09:56:27 -0400:
>
>> On Tue, 01 Oct 2013 11:30:43 +0100, Nick Spalding <spal...@iol.ie>
>> wrote:
>>
>> >John Briggs wrote, in <lup2u.17656$Jd4...@fx12.am4>
>> > on Tue, 01 Oct 2013 02:23:28 +0100:
>> >
>> >> On 01/10/2013 02:11, Robert Bannister wrote:
>> >> > On 30/09/13 8:52 AM, Robert Bannister wrote:
>> >> >
>> >> >> I can't even remember the name of the Latin primer we used. I think we
>> >> >> called it the "Eating Primer", but whether the name was "Eton" or
>> >> >> "Eaton", I don't remember.
>> >> >>
>> >> >
>> >> > I looked on my bookshelf yesterday afternoon and discovered to my
>> >> > amazement The Revised Latin Primer by Benjamin Hall Kennedy. Now, this
>> >> > is according to the label inside the cover a copy I must have filched
>> >> > from school, but I have written (twice, for some reason) "R.H.Bannister
>> >> > UCL", so I must have obtained it from some other past pupil when I was
>> >> > university where we were forced to do Latin for the first year. This is
>> >> > not the book I remember using at school myself. Apart from anything
>> >> > else, this book is green whereas I remember using a blue book.
>> >>
>> >> The blue book would probably be the Shorter Latin Primer.
>> >
>> >I remember that as having a biscuit colour.
>>
>> Is that a English biscuit or an American biscuit?
>
>English - Rich Tea.

Also American -Rich Tea, Arrowroot, and a few others. "Tea biscuits"
are an execption to the biscuit divide. They are also much less
frequently used, of course.

ANMcC

PS: Also seen the "Eating" variations, NewEnglandish, '70s. Mighta
been mine, or my fathers; my mother's school used the jesuit version,
although, IMS, my school which still had a good many SJs teaching
Latin, did not and hadn't.

[R H Draney]

David D S filted:

>
>Tony Cooper wrote:
>
>> On Tue, 01 Oct 2013 11:30:43 +0100, Nick Spalding
>> <spal...@iol.ie> wrote:
>>
>> > I remember that as having a biscuit colour.
>>
>> Is that a English biscuit or an American biscuit?
>
>Two countries separated by a common language...

Separated by a common cookie, more like....r


--
Me? Sarcastic?
Yeah, right.

[Robin Bignall]

That takes the biscuit.
--
Robin Bignall
Herts, England (BrE)

[Mack A. Damia]

Enough of this bickyering!

--

[Leslie Danks]

Crumbs!

--
Les (BrE)
This article is a honeypot for typo-spotters.

[Robin Bignall]

On Wed, 02 Oct 2013 00:58:28 +0200, Leslie Danks <leslie...@aon.at>
wrote:

>Robin Bignall wrote:
>
>> On 1 Oct 2013 15:18:14 -0700, R H Draney <dado...@spamcop.net> wrote:
>>
>>>David D S filted:
>>>>
>>>>Tony Cooper wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On Tue, 01 Oct 2013 11:30:43 +0100, Nick Spalding
>>>>> <spal...@iol.ie> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> > I remember that as having a biscuit colour.
>>>>>
>>>>> Is that a English biscuit or an American biscuit?
>>>>
>>>>Two countries separated by a common language...
>>>
>>>Separated by a common cookie, more like....r
>>
>> That takes the biscuit.
>
>Crumbs!

Let them eat brioche.

[Leslie Danks]

Or fill the wall up with our English bread.

[Mike L]

Several times, indeed. It annoys me that some of these standard
textbooks are economical with their publishing histories. Music is
worse, of course: often the only chance you have of getting a
publishing date is to work out a printer's code at the back.

--
Mike.

[Robin Bignall]

On Wed, 02 Oct 2013 01:05:22 +0200, Leslie Danks <leslie...@aon.at>

wrote:

>Robin Bignall wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 02 Oct 2013 00:58:28 +0200, Leslie Danks <leslie...@aon.at>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>Robin Bignall wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 1 Oct 2013 15:18:14 -0700, R H Draney <dado...@spamcop.net> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>David D S filted:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Tony Cooper wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Tue, 01 Oct 2013 11:30:43 +0100, Nick Spalding
>>>>>>> <spal...@iol.ie> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> > I remember that as having a biscuit colour.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Is that a English biscuit or an American biscuit?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Two countries separated by a common language...
>>>>>
>>>>>Separated by a common cookie, more like....r
>>>>
>>>> That takes the biscuit.
>>>
>>>Crumbs!
>>
>> Let them eat brioche.
>
>Or fill the wall up with our English bread.

Two loaves and five fishes.

[Robert Bannister]

I am pretty certain you are correct. I find I also have "A First Latin
Course" by Gardiner with my father's brother's name in and a date 1910.
We don't throw books away in my family.

--
Robert Bannister

[Robert Bannister]

That heavens it wasn't crumpet.

--
Robert Bannister

[Robert Bannister]

It is a dead language.

--
Robert Bannister

[Mike L]

Oh, dear. Back to Muffin the mule.

--
Mike.

[Robin Bignall]

On a technical note, mules are sterile. Can we be sure that the mule
has the equipment necessary for us to say "there's nothing queer about
Carruthers" (or Lyle, for that matter)?

[Mike L]

There are a few recorded cases of mule mares producing foals, but
AFAIK the youngsters are always sterile themselves. Read a bit about
it in New Scientist years ago. A sadly now late horse expert in the
broader family told me that mules are unusually fond of horse foals,
seeming to have the parental instincts without the physical capacity -
he even suggested they _knew_ in some way they were sterile, but I
find that hard to buy.

--
Mike.