Names. And extradition.

 The book I am currently reading, “The Unsheltered” by Barbara Kingsolver, has a character by the name of Antigone, an unusual name for a young woman in the second decade of the 21st century. Mind you her father is from a Greek family and he regards it as a normal name. Fair enough. They call her Tigger or Tig for short. Tig’s tiny baby nephew is called Aldus (I had to be careful with spelling as I wanted to make that Aldous), named after his British grandfather. His American grandmother finds it a strange name for a baby, an old Saxon name apparently, but then in this modern age many children have odd names. This one gets called Dusty for short. 

The only Dusty I ever heard of was Dusty Springfield. How do you decide whether a name if make or female? Usage I suppose. Which brings me to a name I came across in the Guardian’s weekend feature “Blind Date”. Last Saturday it featured Artemis and Sienna, a young man named after a goddess who liked (maybe still likes) to go hunting, and a young woman named after a splendid Italian city. Names are strange! 

A standard question in “Blind Date” is: Any awkward moments?

Artemis replied:

“Sienna didn’t finish her croquette. It wasn’t an awkward moment, but I really wanted the little leftover ham chunks and never asked for them.

Good table manners?
I’ve never seen someone wield a knife and fork like that before. Sienna is the Zoro [anime character who is a masterful swordsman] of table etiquette.”

Two points: Zorro is spelt with a double R and he was a swordwielding vigilante long before animé was a regular thing in our lives. This is what Wikipedia has to say about him.

Zorro

Zorro is a fictional character created in 1919 by American pulp writer Johnston McCulley, appearing in works set in the Pueblo of Los Angeles in Alta California. He is typically portrayed as a dashing masked vigilante who defends the commoners and indigenous peoples of California against corrupt and tyrannical officials and other villains. His signature all-black costume includes a cape, a hat known as a sombrero cordobés, and a mask covering the upper half of his face. In the stories, Zorro has a high bounty on his head, but is too skilled and cunning for the bumbling authorities to catch, and he also delights in publicly humiliating them. Because of this, the townspeople started calling him "El Zorro" due to his foxlike cunning and charm. Zorro is an acrobat and an expert in various weapons, but the one he employs most frequently is his rapier, which he uses often to carve the initial "Z" on his defeated foes, and other objects to "sign his work

In today’s news I came across this in the Guardian:

“Westminster magistrates court has formally approved the extradition of the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the US, in what will ultimately be a decision for the UK home secretary, Priti Patel.

The Wikileaks co-founder, who has the right of appeal, appeared by video link from Belmarsh prison in south-east London during what ones of his barristers described as a “brief but significant moment in the case”.”

Well, if he’s depending on the magnanimity of Priti Patel, I don’t have great hopes of his avoiding extradition. We shall see! Fingers crossed for Julian Assange! 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!