[LMB] 2 questions, one Vorkosigan, one list-related

[Rene' Nilsson]

Not sure if this shows up more than once, but it appears in Shards of Honor:

"Yes, I can just picture you, whiling away your twilight years—at age
forty-four. Ha! Picking grapes, sailing your boat—your father told me about
your sailboat. I hear they're going to rename the village Vorkosigan
Sousleau in your honor, by the way—"

I thought it was pretty clear, but I did take French. :) I don't actually
remember anything about sails being laid out to dry. They were indoors at
this time...

Rene'


On 5/5/07, Dan Tilque <dtilque at nwlink.com> wrote:
>
> Lois McMaster Bujold wrote:
>
>
> > Dan Tilque dtilque at nwlink.com
> >
> >> The name Vorkosigan Sousleau is a joke, a bilingual pun. Made
> >> by Count Vortala.
> >>
> >> First note that Surleau is French for "on the water". Well,
> >> actually the French would be spelled "sur l'eau", but the
> >> spelling of the village name has obviously been modified a bit
> >> over the centuries. Going by the same spelling mod, Sousleau
> >> means "under the water". The pun comes from equating French
> >> 'sous' with English 'souse'. The "Aral's honor" part is a
> >> reference to his drinking, of course.
> >
> >
> > *** A bilingual pun, but it only secondarily refers to Aral's
> > drinking. It mostly refers to Aral's sailing.  Note the
> > context of the scene, Aral laying the sails of his small boat
> > out on the grass to dry.  Then think about how they got that
> > way...
>
> Sails get wet in the normal course of sailing, although the wind
> will mostly dry them out at the same time. But the spray leaves a
> bit of residue in the sails that makes them stiff and that
> residue needs to be washed out periodically. This is especially
> the case when sailing on salt water, of course, but applies to
> sailing on fresh water as well.
>
> So laying sails out to dry does not imply the boat was capsized.
> He could have just washed his sails.
>
> > Although I suppose I really shouldn't have expected the bulk
> > of the readership, who likely don't have small boat sailing
> > experience, to have gotten that one.  Hm.
>
> I have zero experience sailing boats, but I'm sure of the above
> facts.
>
> --
> Dan Tilque
>
>
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