I thought we were supposed to be discussing bears.
You don’t come here for the subject of the OP do you?
My cat’s breath smells like cat food.
In the movie version of Serenity, there are these two guys, Fante and Mingo, played by identical twins. Fante and Mingo, Fante and Mingo… where have we heard those names before?
It was in The Big Combo. Fante was Lee Van Cleef and Mingo was Earl Holliman.
If you wait fifteen minutes, you can check on Wikipedia and verify everything I posted.
An hour and it’s too late.
Joking? Europe had brown bears.
I understand that The Winter’s Tale is set in a mythical past time, an unspecified date, but long ago.
Also, I understand that there were bears in Sicily in the past. I have been unable to find exactly when they died out , but a tale set in the past could plausibly have them.
Shakespeare probably didn’t know that, though.
What are you talking about? Bears have been in North America since the last Ice Age. The black bear, the brown bear, and the polar bear have been native to North America since at least then. Do you mean something weirdly different about calling them natural rather than native?
“If the person you are talking to doesn’t appear to be listening, be patient. It may simply be that he has a small piece of fluff in his ear.”
– A bear of very little brain.
This bears repeating.
There was literally a bear-baiting place just down the road from the Globe, and Shakespeare probably borrowed a bear from them for that scene. They would have used black bears.
Also, I think that the grizzlies of the American West are a little on the large size, for U. arctos, so might well be larger than the typical European brown bear. The population on Kodiak Island are even larger.
Cite?
I find it unlikely that they would have used a live bear at all. It would be very dangerous, wouldn’t it. And it is known that other theatre companies of the time had bear costumes. And A Midsummer Night’s Dream certainly has a play within a play featuring a lion played by a human actor.
And can you cite that bear baiting would use a black bear? As I understand it, there are black bears native to America and Asia, but not Europe. Would they really have brought them all that distance?
OK, not quite “the millionth time”, but I’m currently reading the Codex Alara series, by Jim Butcher, and it took me until halfway through the second book to realize that the main character, Tavi, is short for “Octavius”. Which makes sense, given that he’s implied to be son of Septimus, son of Sextus.
It took me another book to catch on.
To the first spoiler, or the second? Because I thought the second one was a little too obvious.
The first. It’s been a while since I read them but I seem to remember at some point thinking that there had to be an unknown heir, but I never made the connection of “Tavi” being short for “Octavius”.
I was well into my thirties before I realized the name Liam was short for William.
I’m older than that now and that’s new to me.
Around here with a large Irish American population Liam is by far more popular than William, and no Liam I know is actually named William.
In fact, by googling I see that Liam is the most popular boys name in the US and William is tenth most popular. So maybe it’s not just an Irish thing.
I wouldn’t call it an abbreviation. “Liam” is an Irish version of William, just as “Wilhelm” is a German version and “Guillaume” is a French version.