esteven: (Default)
esteven ([personal profile] esteven) wrote in [community profile] where_away2012-06-12 06:46 pm

Ram and Puss

'Brother, how tedious you can be, on occasion. I did hear some cries of "Jolly rogers - jolly rogers - we shall roger them." But in parenthesis, Jack, tell me about this word roger. I have often heard it aboard, but can make out no clear nautical signification.'
'Oh, it is no sea-term. They use it ashore much more than we do - a low cant expression meaning to swive or couple with.'
Stephen considered for a moment and then said, 'So roger joins bugger and that even coarser word; and they are all used in defiance and contempt, as though to an enemy; which seems to show a curious light on the lover's subjacent emotions. Conquest, rape, subjugation: have women a private language of the same nature, I wonder?"
Jack said, 'In some parts of the West Country rams are called Roger, as cats are called Puss; and of course that is their duty; though which came first, the deed or the doer, the goose or the egg, I am not learned enough to tell.'
'Would it not be the owl, at all?'
'Never in life, my poor Stephen. Who ever heard of a golden owl?


Why is it the duty of the rams to be called Roger, and of cats to be called Puss?
feroxargentea: (Default)

[personal profile] feroxargentea 2012-06-12 05:49 pm (UTC)(link)
*giggles* You tell me!
feroxargentea: (Default)

[personal profile] feroxargentea 2012-06-12 06:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Jack has never contemplated on such matters! :-D
feroxargentea: (Default)

[personal profile] feroxargentea 2012-06-12 06:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Say that again and keep a straight face this time!
heather_mist: (Default)

[personal profile] heather_mist 2012-06-12 06:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Aubrey the Chaste - and wanting to be caught...
heather_mist: (Plum)

[personal profile] heather_mist 2012-06-12 06:38 pm (UTC)(link)
For preference, but any port in a storm, ya know? ;-)
heather_mist: (Default)

[personal profile] heather_mist 2012-06-12 06:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Because if you saw a ship approaching you and flying it there was the likelihood you were completely f***ed?!

This is what wikipedia says:
The origin of the pirate flag has been lost. It is thought that pirates originally used a red flag, which was also common in naval warfare, to signal that no quarter would be given. This red flag was called Joli Rouge (pretty red) by the French, and may have been corrupted into English as Jolly Roger. From the red flag it seems that individual pirates began to develop their own personal flags in order to terrify their foes into a quick surrender. In contrast with the well known red flag, they used the black flag of quarantine and disease as the base, with the universal symbol for death, the skull and bones, and modified it to suit their individual tastes. The skull and bones was also used in captains' logbooks to indicate the death of a sailor.

Not everyone agrees on this. Some historians[who?] think the term Jolly Roger is more likely a reference to the English use of 'Roger' as a term for fornication. Stud bulls in England were commonly named Roger. This implied that if the victim did not surrender, they would be 'Rogered'.

A third possibility is that Jolly Roger derived from 'Old Roger' as a term for the devil.


Not just rams then.

heather_mist: (Default)

[personal profile] heather_mist 2012-06-12 06:34 pm (UTC)(link)
You started it!
*g*
derien: It's a cup of tea and a white mouse.  The mouse is offering to buy Arthur's brain and replace it with a simple computer. (Default)

[personal profile] derien 2012-06-12 08:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Only somewhat irrelevantly, I recently read "The Pyrates" by George MacDonald Faser, which was a lot of fun and had Calico Jack Rackham as the only sane character. I was delighted when I found his flag linked from Wiki...



The article implied that these flag designs are pretty much exactly as they appeared at that time, though of course I have no way of knowing for sure. It looks so clean-lined I have to wonder if it was touched up more modernly. I want to convert it to a blue-and-pink-overlapping-to-lilac bisexual pirate flag, but I'm suck at GIMP. ;)
heather_mist: (Default)

[personal profile] heather_mist 2012-06-12 11:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Something along these lines perhaps (it may not be lilac enough for you, I can play around with it if you like it though....)


derien: It's a cup of tea and a white mouse.  The mouse is offering to buy Arthur's brain and replace it with a simple computer. (Default)

[personal profile] derien 2012-06-13 02:17 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, that's lovely! Not what I was picturing, but really awesome! :)

I was picturing this, with sculls rather than triangles...

heather_mist: (Default)

[personal profile] heather_mist 2012-06-13 08:50 am (UTC)(link)
I'm only seeing a red cross, no picture :(