RE: mailbags’ response to the witches teat Q…
Upon stating this “Since a witch is in league with Satan” you convey the thought you agree with it. I am sure you meant “as was believed in the burning times” didn’t you? I would hope so, in the Y2K one would be more enlightened 
Link to Mailbag: The expression ‘cold as a witch’s teat’
[Edited by CKDextHavn on 11-17-2000 at 07:12 AM]
Not sure where to begin to respond to that.
I would guess you should begin at the nipple.
Just a suggestion…
(I am new at this so forgive my erring in etiquette)
I am not sure where the confusion is. Speaking from my ancestral background I was referring to the belief of witches being in league with Satan as they were/are healers, midwives, herblists, farmers, educators, housewives and yes, even jerks & for the most part (for arguments’ sake)were not Christian therefore no Satan. I had hoped the one who made the statement meant ‘as was believed once’ since I doubt anyone (educated) in the 20th century would believe such nonesense. Then again
Then too the fact most witches (though not all) are/were of a Pagan lifestyle (culturally) if not also Pagan in religion, depending on pantheon. So looking at it from a Pagan standpoint it is ludicrous as we do not have a ‘devil’/atonement/sin/hell as Christian dogma has.
As to being ‘espyed’ under scrutiny as having the 'mark; being covert made numbers of ‘true’ practitioners having succumbed to the witch craze fairly minimal in comparison to total count (which no one will ever know).
My I do tend to ramble on …sorry.
Pan, first off, welcome, glad to have you posting here.
Second, for future, please, when you are the first poster starting a topic, it is very helpful if you provide the link to the Mailbag Answer or Staff Report or Cecil Column or whatever being referenced. That helps keep everyone else on the same page, so that people know what you’re commenting on. (I have edited your post above to include the link.)
Finally, yes, of COURSE. When we respond to word and phrase origins, we usually assume that people understand we mean “according to the thinking of that time”. If we kept tossing phrases like that, though, there would probably have been about a dozen of 'em in that short Mailbag Answer alone… makes for borrrrrrring reading. So we assume that when we talk about such quaint notions, the reader understands we mean “contemporary to the times when the phrase originated.”
You will note that the term “supposedly” appears almost half a dozen times in one short paragraph in that Answer. Sounds repetitive and boring and is, um, supposedly unnecessary.
[Edited by CKDextHavn on 11-17-2000 at 07:18 AM]
From the mailbag answer
[nitpick]Tit is the older spelling unless I am very much mistaken. The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary has this to say under the etymology of teat: “Probably of Germanic origin, replacing earlier tit.”[/nitpick]
[[I doubt anyone (educated) in the 20th century would believe such nonesense.]]
At the risk of appearing to flame (heh) you, my point would be that most educated people in the 20th century don’t believe in any of that nonsense. But that’s just my opinion.
Why not? Supposedly educated people demonstrably believe in all the ahistorical nonsense about old-time “witches” being members of the phonus-balonus 20th-century Wicca cult. (We’ve had all this out before, folks.)
Being of a scientific bent, I think a more interesting question is just what level of cold we are talking about here. Which is colder: a witch’s tit, a whore’s heart, a welldigger’s ass, or hell’s bells? And are any of them cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey???
Jill:
Ok, sorry, I understand your meaning now. You are correct. If they were educated they’d know better. Or at least we’d hope so. But then, coming from my side of the fence there are those I see daily who know better and still persist in the myth. Then again, who wants to admit they have been duped? I didn’t take offense to your post. There was no flaming attempt. Have a good day
Nicole RW <]:o)
CKDextHavn:
By ‘pan’ I assume you mean pagan? I will try and fisgure out how I messed up the link thingy. Thought I did it correctly.
I apologize also for redundancy. You are right, it is annoying also. I suppose the reason ‘I’ do it is a matter of CYA. In an age of ‘political correctness’ i find myself being challenged constantly to clarify. Again, sorry. I am new at this. Think maybe I may just sit back and watch a while so I don’t faux pas the place to death lol
Nicole
I think that an experimental program ought to be designed. As the first step, we should get a representative sample of witches and feel their tits to determine how cold they are.
We’ll probably need some division of labor here. I volunteer to check all of the redheads under 35 in our sample…
Akatsukami = point made
Akatsukami
now that was intelligent.
I wonder, can you enlighten me on how many ‘true’ practitioners you know. I am not speaking of neo-wannabe playpagans who hopped n the ever present neo-pagan bandwagon spewing Elizabethan English blah blah blah… I mean true ancestral witches.
I am definitely not volunteering to check out welldigger’s asses.
Colibri
does this mean we can count you out for counting brass monkey’s balls too? S
Damn straight. I don’t know why Akatsukami gets to pick first. It was my idea. And I ain’t checking out a husky’s nuts in a dogsled race either. So there.
Now that we’ve heard from the pagans, I’m wondering what’s keeping the welldiggers. I’m expecting one to show up on this thread any minute and claim his ass isn’t really all that cold.
Colibri:
or those of the simian persuasion
Fine, I’ll check all the brunettes. And since my mouth and tongue are more sensitive to heat than my fingers…
Now, now, don’t you all know that in any properly-conducted scientific study, the results must be reproduceable? We clearly need multiple researchers to cover each sample group, on several occasions to control for extraneous variables. We wouldn’t want a bias based on the researcher here, now would we?
I’ll double-check females between 18 and 35, without regard to hair color. A tough job, I know, but anything for the sake of science.
…well far be it from me to hamper the advancement of scientific knowledge in the frontier of teat inspection.
I suppose I’d be remiss in not offering myself up (in the name of science, of course)as a ‘subject’. Anything to further the witchy cause… heavy sigh