“The Englishman likes to imagine himself at sea, the German in a forest. It is impossible to express the difference of their national feeling more concisely.” — Elias Canetti, Crowds and Power, 1960
Gunner
After the first Japanese air raid on Darwin in February 1942, Australian aircraftman Percy Westcott heard whimpering under the ruins of a mess hut and discovered a stray six-month-old Kelpie with a broken leg.
Westcott had the leg set and the two became friends. About a week later, “Gunner” revealed a special talent. As the RAAF personnel went about their normal routines at the airfield, the dog began to show signs of agitation, whining and jumping, and a few minutes later a group of Japanese aircraft appeared over Darwin, bombing and strafing the city. This happened again two days later, and successively throughout the weeks that followed.
It turned out that Gunner could hear approaching Japanese aircraft up to 20 minutes before they arrived, long before warning sirens sounded and before the planes had been detected by radar. He could even distinguish Japanese from Allied engines. He proved so reliable that the squadron’s commanding officer allowed Westcott to sound a portable air raid siren when Gunner alerted him to approaching attackers.
The dog became an inseparable member of the squadron, sleeping under Westcott’s bunk, showering with the men, sitting with them on outdoor movie nights, and even flying with them as they practiced takeoffs and landings. When Westcott was posted to Melbourne 18 months later, he left Gunner with a local merchant. What ultimately became of him is unknown.
Onlookers
“Think before you speak is criticism’s motto; speak before you think creation’s.” — E.M. Forster, Two Cheers for Democracy, 1951
“Sometimes an admirer spends more talent extolling a work than the author did in creating it.” — Jean Rostand, De la vanité, 1925
Relocated
In 2008, the occupants of a Zagreb apartment building proposed converting it into a condominium. The only resident who failed to agree was Hedviga Golik, a former nurse who had once occupied a one-room apartment in the building’s attic. Withdrawn, temperamental, and alienated from her family, Golik had not been seen in decades and was thought to have left the area. A dispute among the other tenants had prevented any of them from laying claim to the apartment.
When three representatives broke open the door that May, Golik’s body was lying on the bed, wrapped in blankets, a teacup by her side. She had died in 1966 and lain there for 42 years. The building superintendent, a former boyfriend, had been providing the unit rent-free, and the building’s architect had routinely paid the electricity bill.
She was buried the next day. A police spokesperson said, “So far, we have no idea how it is possible that someone officially reported missing so long ago was not found before in the same apartment she used to live in.”
Also-Rans
Who knows whether the best of men be known? or whether there be not more remarkable persons forgot, than any that stand remembered in the known account of time?
— Thomas Browne, Hydriotaphia, 1658
Roll Call
Surveying the American South in the 1980s, University of Florida linguist Thomas Pyles found so many unusual personal names that he managed to make a poem of them:
Yerdith, Virtus, Frow, LaDonna,
Nishie, Alderine, Zollie, Conna;
Garalene, Methalene, Ethelyne, Fal,
Bennilene, Gatsey, Ripsie, Ral.
Dolliree, Jetteree, Mauderie, Flem,
Nubit, Wogan, Omria, Kem;
Pheriba, Yuba, Twylah Jo,
Ovidetta, Zava Roe.
Leos, Cubie, Dicie, Metha,
Shi, Revonie, Sag, Uretha;
Arsie, Kissie, Bussie, Missie,
Yada, Telka, Clell, Elissie.
Ozena, Madula, Oleta, Zippie,
Ozella, Schiley, Florine, Rippie;
Amorus, Onan, Coeta, Pasco,
Reion, Merkin, Jeline, Vasco.
Incia, Phenis, Phalla, Icy,
Idlene, Birdene, Ala, Nicy.
Rectus, Dilly, Dally, Nil;
Mosco, Oco, Rumbo, Zill.
Stobo, Chlorine, Bamma, Floyce,
Willamane, Voncile, Thair, La Voice;
O’Leita, La Gita, Ludille, La Coy,
Arnetta, Loonis, Fanida, Hoy.
Shira, Reva, Terrayne, Aslean,
Etrelle, Mardelle, La Nan, Rudine.
Zazzelle, Glathu, Lavora, Troy,
Colonys, Wylodean, Cy, La Joy.
Alfa, Alto, Shyne, Arveta,
Pledger, Mortis, Cance, La Nita;
Anys, Cyrese, Bink, Eloyde,
Verdine, Merdine, Pink, La Void.
Raysal, Quintelle, Raz, Zerene,
Estyl, Bytha, Bevelene;
Boysy, Lugen, Lavator, Lake,
Eskaleen, Lueverine, Voline, Flake.
La Vada, La Voime, Donrue, La Nelle,
Kartaleen, Avalene, Zan Jamelle;
Ronalene, Darlene, Denna Fo,
Japnel, Oynel, Wynell, Bo.
Vivett, La Carl, La Bruce, La Don,
La Vondus, Burtis, Joette, Lavon;
Zedro, Velpo, Bryna Lee,
Zefferine, Windell, Zim, La Mee.
Oklahoma’s Hoyette White named her daughters Norvetta, Yerdith, Arthetta, Marlynne, and Wilbarine. “I wanted names no one had ever had and names nobody would ever want,” she said. “So I made them up.”
(Thomas Pyles, “Bible Belt Onomastics or Some Curiosities of Anti-Pedobaptist Nomenclature,” in Kelsie B. Harder, ed., Names and Their Varieties, 1986.)
Light Verse
Martin Gardner wrote a poem called “Simplicity”:
.
He wrote, “No one can say my poem does not have a point.”
Decisions
After last week’s post on Morton’s fork, reader Nick Hare sent three items. Rather than levy taxes, Athens used to task each of its wealthiest citizens to perform a liturgy, essentially a duty to finance a public project voluntarily. A citizen who was assigned this duty could avoid it by naming a citizen who was supposedly richer than he and thus better qualified to perform it. If the second man disputed this claim, the two would exchange their entire estates. The first man could hardly object to this, as by his own claim he would gain by it. This had the effect of discouraging spurious claims. The practice was known as antidosis, literally “an exchange.”
Virtue ethics meets consequentialism on Sesame Street:
And a trolley problem:
The trolley is hurtling toward Alice. Bob is on the other track.
Alice says, “Please, I don’t want to die, divert the trolley so Bob dies instead.”
Bob says, “Yes, divert the trolley onto my track — I don’t mind sacrificing myself so someone else can live.”
Should you divert the trolley?
(Thanks, Nick.)
Veritas
If we heard it said of Orientals that they habitually drank a liquor which went to their heads, deprived them of reason and made them vomit, we should say: ‘How very barbarous!’
— La Bruyère, “Of Opinions,” Characters, 1688
Clarity
In Dante’s Purgatorio, souls are surprised to see that their visitor casts a shadow and thus is not dead:
When they perceiv’d that through my body I
Gave way not for the rays to pass, their song
Straight to a long and hoarse exclaim they chang’d;
And two of them, in guise of messengers,
Ran on to meet us, and inquiring ask’d:
“Of your condition we would gladly learn.”
That’s a bit of a puzzle, note Roberto Casati and Patrick Cavanagh. “To be visible, supernatural entities must reflect light (if they do not emit it). But as a consequence they must be opaque to at least some light, and thus they should cast shadows.”
(Roberto Casati and Patrick Cavanagh, The Visual World of Shadows, 2019. Related: Why do ghosts wear clothes?)