“Courant” is a now obsolete term for “newpaper”. Current usage is in heraldry when it refers to an animal running.
Courant means newspaper (in a Scottish dialect), or it means running such as, for example, a greyhound courant. Also, to be au courant is to be well-informed about something.
Courant, currant, and current are examples of homophones.
Currants are sometimes confused with raisins, but they are actually different kinds of dried fruit.
Raisins can cause kidney failure in both cats and dogs. The cause of this is not known.
The English phrase “raining cats and dogs” is a colloquial term for heavy rainfall. Its etymology is unknown, though the first recorded use of the phrase (or something similar to it) was in 1651, when English poet Henry Vaughan referred to a roof that was secure against “dogs and cats rained in shower.” In 1652, English playwright Richard Brome used a closer term, “it shall rain dogs and polecats,” and in 1738, Jonathan Swift used the exact term, “rain cats and dogs.”
One must always be careful going outside when it is raining cats and dogs.
You wouldn’t want to step in a poodle.
(I’ll just show myself out now… )
-“BB”-
According to the ultimate authority on everything, Guiness, the heaviest rainfall in a 24-hour period occurred on January 7-8, 1966, when 71.8 inches (1825 millimeters) fell on the French island territory of Réunion in the Indian Ocean. The event occurred during tropical storm Denise.
All of the poodles on the island were reported missing after the deluge.
(OK, I just made up that last statement.)
Réunion is where the flaperon of missing ghost plane MH370 was found back in July 2015, some 18 months after the plane went missing.
Réunion is about 3,400 miles from where MH370 last communicated with air traffic control.
“Flappers” were young women in Western countries during the 1920s, who were known for flouting the societal norms of the time, through such activities as wearing short skirts and “bobbed” hairstyles, listening to jazz music, driving automobiles, drinking alcohol, and engaging in casual sex.
American opera singer and silent film actress Geraldine Farrar (1882-1967) had a following of young female fans who were called “Gerry-flappers.”
Geraldine Ferraro went to the same college as my dancer son, Marymount Manhattan, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. In 1984 she was picked by Presidential Candidate Walter Mondale as his VP Candidate. She was the first woman ever to be a major-party national nominee.
Here are some pics of my dancer son. He got a BFA in Dance from Marymount Manhattan.
Sign me,
One Proud Papa!
The first Black woman to run for president and the first to receive valid votes in a general election was Charlene Mitchell. She was the nominee of the Communist Party in the 1968 election, and she received a total of 1,076 votes in the states of California, Minnesota, Ohio, and Washington.
@Bullitt, those pictures of your son are amazing!
Thanks!
In play:
Princess Charlene of Monaco, formerly Charlene Lynette Wittstock, is the wife of Prince Albert II. They married in 2011 when she was about 33 years old. In her younger years she was an Olympic swimmer representing South Africa at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Her 4 × 100-meter medley relay team finished 5th. She retired from professional swimming in 2007.
Prince Albert was a very popular brand of tobacco first made in 1907. It was named for the future king of England, Edward VII (called “Albert” by his family), and his picture was on the front.
It was sold in tins, which would prompt consumers to inquire of their tobacconists, “Do you have Prince Albert in a can?”
Edward VII (1841-1910) resigned from 1901-1910 (his death). He was married to Princess Alexandra of Denmark. He was the second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Edward was known as “Bertie” to the royal family throughout his life.
In 1860, Edward undertook the first tour of North America by a Prince of Wales. When he died in 1910, Edward was succeeded by his only surviving son, George V.
George VI of England was also nicknamed “Bertie” (his given name was Albert Frederick Arthur George). His predecessor was Edward VIII, who abdicated the throne in December 1936. George VI was succeeded by Elizabeth II, who reigned for 70 years.
Canada has had a queen regnant for more than half its existence since 1867: 104 years between Victoria and Elizabeth.
Canada, the second-largest country in the world behind Russia, has the longest coastline in the world, spanning over 125,570 miles and featuring beaches, cliffs, and fjords. Canada also has over 25,000 lakes, which contain one-fifth of the world’s fresh water. Half of Canada’s land is covered by forests, which is one-tenth of the world’s total forest area.
The boreal forest, or taiga, is the world’s largest biome. Made up primarily of pines, spruces, and larches, it covers a large part of Alaska, inland Canada and northern contiguous United States, to the Scandinavian and northern Russian land masses. In its current form is a relatively recent phenomenon, having only existed for the last 12,000 years since the beginning of the Holocene epoch.