Sunday, 23 October 2011

The Telegraph


File:Télégraphe Chappe 1.jpgSome words pop up long before you think they would. The periodical Nature mentioned a marvellous maze of internetted connections in 1883. Computers have been employed since 1613 (when they were people who computed). The telegraph has been around since 1794. It was invented by a French chap called Claude Chappe and it consisted of wooden posts that could be moved around and thus form a distant vision or, in Greek, a tele-graph.

All of which is a long way round of saying that today's Sunday Telegraph (available at all good agents of news) has two lovely articles about Inky Fool and the book The Etymologicon: a leader that can be read here, and an article that is behind this link. In the papery version of the paper (from Greek papyrus) they can be found on pages 13 and 27.

This makes me inordinately and exorbitantly proud.

File:Chappe semaphore.jpg
The Inky Fool could not afford a mobile phone.
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7 comments:

  1. Anonymous23 October 2011 at 19:10

    You deserve this accolade, Mark. Your Inky Fool postings have informed me and amused me for months now. I return to the UK for a short holiday next month and shall be going almost straight away to Waterstones to buy your book. Huzzah!
    Kenn Norris

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  2. Gareth R Davies24 October 2011 at 15:39

    Not Waterstone's - I was just there this lunchtime and they didn't have three of the books I was after. One of them was Satan Burger by Carlton Mellick III, so perhaps understandable, but I had told them I was coming in for it...

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  3. Anonymous24 October 2011 at 22:07

    Thanks, GBD. Where's the best shop to go to? I'm only in London for 2 days.

    Kenn

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  4. M.H. Forsyth24 October 2011 at 22:31

    Waterstones are absolutely lovely and ought to be stocking it. As shall Foyles. In fact, I'm currently in love with all bookshops and newspapers.

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  5. James QT25 October 2011 at 08:14

    "Soon – was the Anglo-Saxon word for "now" – far more immediate than its current use"

    A suggestion presents itself for the subtitle to future editions - "Or, How Soon is Now"
    Thanks for the months of entertainment, will be buying copies for presents.

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  6. M.H. Forsyth25 October 2011 at 10:20

    I should probably add that the book isn't out until November 3rd, which is still nine whole days away.

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  7. Anonymous25 October 2011 at 23:59

    I will run to Foyles on the 7th. Maybe I will be the first person in Morocco to have a copy. Kenn

    ReplyDelete

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