essage-Id: MMMMMMM MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM MMM MMMMMMMMMMM MMMMMMMM MMM M MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM MMM MMMMMMMMMMM MMMMMMM MMMMMMMMM MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM MMMMMM MMMMMMM MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM MXXXXXXXMMMXXXXXXXX/.\\\XXXXXMMMMMMMMMMM MMMMMMMMMMM MMMM MMMMM XXXMXXMXXXXXXXMXXX/.:.\\\\XXXXXXXMMMMM MMMM MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM MM XXXXXXXXXXMXXXXXX/:__:.\\\\\XXMXXXXXXXMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM ++++++++++XXXXXX/:| |:.\\\\\\XXMXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXMMMMMMXX ++MM++++++++++++|.|__|.:|: . |XXXXXXXXXXMMXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX ++++++++++++++++|:.:.::.| : |XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXMXXXXXXXXXXXXX ++++++++++++++++|.:..:.:|. :| signal station +MMMMM++++ ---|:.::.:.|.____ and observatory ++++ ++++ M M ++++++ ++ SIGNALLING M M M M aaaa rrr sss ++ ++ TO M M M a a rr s + + M M a a r ss + + M M a aa r s + + M M aaa a r sss + + + + The Official Electronic Newsletter of + + The Arthur Ransome Society + + + +Content is the personal opinion and the intellectual property + + of the contributors and does not reflect the opinion of TARS,+ + any other person or group. Any mail received Will Be Publish-+ + able unless Marked Otherwise. This includes senders' identi- + + ties and email addresses. We're not junk emailers! IF YOU DO + + NOT WANT THIS NEWSLETTER please send Reply to that effect. + Distributed by TARS-Net, the E-Mail Group of The Arthur Ransome Society: Admirals: Dave Thewlis <71210.76@compuserve.com>, Doug Faunt George Lang Secretary: Peter Dowden World Wide Web: http://newton.otago.ac.nz:808/~peter/arthurpage.html _________________________________________________________________ ISSUE NUMBER 15 SEPTEMBER 1995 SIGNITORIAL Dear Tars, This is the first Signalling to Mars issue distributed under the auspices of TARS-Net, now the officially-constituted E-mail Group of the Arthur Ransome Society. YOUR SIGNALLER REGRETS the time taken to send this out. There wasn't very much to do, but it's a matter of finding the time and energy. Also the usual collection of letters at the end is ommmitted: there are so many having accumulated YOUR SIGNALLER RESIGNS: now that I have a full-time job outside of the University, and no job inside it, it is difficult to get along here to my old office with the regularity required to run a good journal. I am pretty pleased with my effort to date, and I am sure that it will pass into good hands. Apply to the Admirals if you are interested. In the meantime I will devote more energy to New Zealand TARS activities [where there is a [possibility of a visit from our TARS Secretary, Kirsty Cochrane], to the Arthur Ransome World Wide Web Pages, and to (more enjoyable) creative writing for S2M as a contributor [and just you try getting me to meet deadlines, O new Signaller!!]. I will of course continue as TARS-Net Secretary, the 1st port of call for anyone finding us on the Web. MAILING LISTS: Who knows about this feature of Email, and can set one up for TARS-Net? I can't get anything useful on this subject out of the local Computer Services people here. We should use a List Server of some kind for the S2M distribution, and also we could have an open list for newsgroup-style informal discussion [an idea for a alt.books.ransome newsgroup was insufficiently supported to make it worthwhile]. I wouldn't personally want to get involved in the setting-up of any new lists, I make the suggestion in the hope that someone out there might take it on. AR WEB PAGES: These need some maintenance and I'll get on to this in the next few months without S2M as a conflicting priority. I would love some more PHOTOS of AR related locations and boats. Any pics of Vlissingen [Flushing] in the Netherlands would be especially welcome, I am also short of Coot/Big 6 and Great Northern-themed pix, and have no Carribean or China Sea ones either! I'll take good care of the photos, and send them back. You can try sending files of pix instead, but I have found photos themselves to be best. Peter Signaller -------------------------------------------------------------------- A WALLACALLAWALLA DICTIONARY Pseudointellectual Preface: Wallacallawalla is a rare language from which only 4 words have ever been recorded (or 5 if you count the name of the language itself). It seems to have been used as a means of communication between explorers and an Australian-born savage. This savage is herself thought to be of the same ethnicity as the explorers, so while Wallacallawalla may well be be influenced by one of the many Australian languages known by the generic term "aboriginal", this influence is probably only reflected by the general sounds of the words: a linguistic connection is most unlikely. The writer Arthur Ransome has recorded the only known words in this toungue, words which though few in number can convey quite abstract concepts. allawallacallacacuklacaowlacaulla (vb) (1st pers pl) From the abstract verb "to be unable to tell a person something due that person being a native" [not recorded] it means, "We can't possibly tell you because you are a native". [Note: according to context, niceness of the said native may be implied] burroburromjeboomding (vb) [expression of] not caring about something as long as that thing is all right glook (int) all right [Note: may be confused with following; even by the best of natives] drool (imper) [have a] good night; sleep well [cf prec] [Note: can also be erroneously mistaken for a similar (N Am) English imperative; results of this misunderstanding could be nasty] "WITH A LOT OF SALT" Recipies from Wild Cat Island Warning: May contain hazardous amounts of salt and fat. Eat at your own risk. "Signalling to Mars", TARS, or the Swallows will take no responsibility for any ill effects of eating these dishes. Scrambled Eggs 6 eggs 1 pat of butter salt, pepper Melt butter in a large frying pan. Empty the eggs into the sizzling butter. Stir together. Add salt and shake the pepperpot over it. When the eggs begin to flake, keep scraping them off the bottom of the pan. Eat the scrambled eggs, as soon as they let you, with bread and butter. [Susan Walker, SA ch IV] Peas (to prevent scurvy) Boil them with some salt, then put a pat of butter on them. [Native advice, SA ch VI] Potatoes Peel, then boil for a long time, prodding them with a fork to see if they are done, until every potato looks like a sponge. [Susan and Titty Walker, SA ch VI] Perch some Perch a lot of salt a lot of butter Clean the perch (a dreadful business). Burn the insides in the fire. Wash them, then fry in butter with a lot of salt. [Susan Walker, SA] Pemmican cakes some Rather soft butter which ought to be eaten anyway potatoes pemmican Peel the potatoes and set to boil until soft. Chop the pemmican into very little bits like mince. Mix with the broken-up potatoes. Make the mixture into round, flat cakes. Melt the butter in a frying pan. Fry the cakes till they sizzle and bubble all over. [Man Friday - or should it be "fryday" - SA ch XVIII] WHAT IS THE SHIP'S BABY'S NAME, VICKY OR BRIDGET? >Here's a minor speculation with respect to Swallows and Amazons, >having to do with Vicky/Bridget. I have always assumed that the >youngest Swallow was always named Bridget but had the nickname Vicky >originally, as suggested in SA and SD. (I have no idea whether Brigit >Altounyan was nicknamed Vicky during her first couple of years). > >However, based on internal evidence, it looks more likely that AR >intended >the youngest Swallow to actually be named Vicky, and changed his mind >later. > >In Swallows and Amazons we meet "...little Vicky, a fat baby, like the >pictures of Queen Victoria in old age....". > >At the beginning of Swallowdale, we find: "Bridget was too young. >She was only three, and though she was growing up fast and everybody >had stopped calling her Vicky because she no longer looked like Queen >Victoria in old age...." > >But in Swallows and Amazons, in the chapter "A Birthday Party", we >find "...a birthday cake, a huge one with Victoria written in pink >sugar on the white icing and two large cherries in the middle, because >Vicky was two years old." > >It seems rather unlikely (at least to me) that somebody's nickname, >expanded to the full name which she didn't have, would appear on her >birthday cake in favor of her real name. And, although Swallows and >Amazons was a work of fiction, AR generally went to a lot of trouble >to be thoroughly realistic. > >I think a tenable hypothesis therefore is that the character was >originally intended by AR to be named Victoria, and was so named in >SA. Note that the reference that Vicky is "a fat baby like the >pictures of QE in old age" doesn't actually say that Vicky is a >nickname given her for that reason. AR had of course changed Taqui's >name (and sex), and perhaps initially he felt it was only fair that >somebody else's name be changed as well. Or, since Vicky isn't really >very evident in Swallows and Amazons in her own right, perhaps he felt >it didn't so much matter (and it wouldn't have, if there had been only >the one book). > >By the time he wrote Swallowdale, though, the character is indeed >Bridget, corresponding to Brigit's real name, and the original >reference to QV has become an explanation of why she was called Vicky >in the first book. The change (if an intentional change it was) >doesn't seem to have resulted from a visit to the Altounyans; as far >as I know AR didn't go out to see them until after the publication of >Swallowdale. > >Now, it's perfectly possible that this has been pointed out multiple >times already and cleared up to everyone's satisfaction, but I haven't >found the reference, so I thought it might make a good speculation -- >if not an essay -- for S2M. > >NB: Peter Dowden points out that although it's Bridget Walker in the >books, it's Brigit Altounyan/Sanders in real life. I doubt that this >is >significant with respect to the hypothesis advanced. The only >explanation that occurs to me is that AR might possibly have been >deliberately using a "more familiar" spelling of Bridget for his >audience. > SWALLOWS AND AMAZONS: WAS THE GREAT AUNT THERE? Here are a few quotes from SA, during and after the scene of the Parley and Treaty Peggy: He's only our Uncle sometimes. He was last year, but this year he's in league with the natives, and the natives are very unfriendly. Peggy: Let's be allies... We wanted to be allies as soon as we saw smoke on the island yesterday. We are sick of natives. And we wanted to be allies at once if only we hadn't promised to be home for lunch... there wasn't time for anything else. Nancy (on hearing SWALLOW gave chase): ...what a chance we missed. If we had only known we'd have given broadside for broadside even if it had made us late for lunch. Peggy again: Well Nancy was saying that our surprise attack was such a good one that we'd have to go on being enemies and I said I was sick of enemies what with our natives and Uncle Jim being no good this year. The common theme is one of being back in time for lunch with some unfriendly natives. Hmmmmm. Surely not the lovely Molly Blackett and the kindly Cook: who else can it be? Could AR have written about the GA before even having invented her? END OF ISSUE 15