Exciting news, monkeys and donkeys

I'm practically* dancing a gleeful jig around my loungeroom as I type this (I'm a woman; multitasking is what we do). Why, you ask? I just this minute found out via Facebook that Mark Forsyth, the author of The Etymologicon, has a new book coming out on 1 November. I got goosebumps when I read that. Really! 

The book is called The Horologicon: A Day's Jaunt Through The Lost Words of the English Language. Forsyth describes it thusly on his blog, Inky Fool:

A horoscope is a look (scope) at the hour (horo) that you were born. It's related tohorology, which is the study of clocks, and to a horologicon, which is a book of hours, and, much more importantly, the title of my new book which comes out on November the first.

The Horologicon will not, I confess, address all, or even any, or the burning questions of horology. Instead, it is a book of strange and wonderful words that I've found cavorting at the back of the dictionary. However, unlike most books of strange and wonderful words, these are arranged in a useful manner. They are arranged by the hour of the day when you're most likely to need them.

So if, for example, you have ever woken up before dawn and lain abed worrying, The Horologicon tells you in chapter one (6am-7) that you are suffering from what the Old English called uhtceare, or anxiety experienced just before dawn.

Needless to say, I'm counting down the days.

* I left out one of the Cs in 'practically' when I first typed it, and Blogger's spellcheck suggested 'piratically' as the top alternative. That works too. Yarrrrrr! 

Monkeh magic

A couple of months ago Luke brought home an amigurumi toy version of the PG Tips monkey from work. I'd never heard of PG Tips tea or their spokesmonkey, but after seeing this ad on YouTube, I'm a fan (of the ads, not the tea).

The monkey and Johnny Vegas appear in other ads for PG Tips in which Johnny addresses his little sidekick in his English accent simply as "monkeh" . It makes me laugh when Luke  imitates him. 

Me: Say "monkeh"!
Luke: Monkeh
Me: Say "donkeh"! 
Luke: Donkeh
Me: Say "the monkeh is riding a donkeh"!

And so on. 

Speaking of donkeys (not a segue that will get much use), look at this video of an adorable baby donkey called Primrose. She was born prematurely with bowed front legs, so vets put her legs in bright pink plaster casts. So cute.