Axe-rated sex scene
QUESTION
In the film Bound, Corky (Gina Gershon) has a tattoo on her upper arm. Violet (Jennifer Tilly) says: ‘That’s a great tattoo, “Beautiful Labarus”. Are you surprised I know what it means?’ What does it mean? AT the centre of the Minoan civilisation and culture was the Palace of Knossos, the Bronze Age site excavated by Arthur Evans in 1900. It was the seat of the Minoan King Minos and considered the location of the Labyrinth that housed the legendary Minotaur. One of the motifs found at the palace was the Labrys, a double-headed axe.
Labrys have been found all across Crete; 19 axes found in a religious sanctuary in the cave of Arkalochori are thought to date from at least the 17th century BC.
One of these was the large solid bronze Arkalochori Axe which features several inscriptions apparently in Linear A script, an as yet undeciphered Greek writing system.
It’s possible that the labyrinth is etymologically connected with the word Labrys, indicating a link between the Labrys and the bull, a sacred creature in Minoan culture.
The Labrys once had a practical use but became imbued with special religious significance. For the Minoans, the symbol was especially associated with female divinities and priestesses, and therefore later became associated with female empowerment and the lesbian movement. In the film, the symbol is a clear sign of Corky’s sexual orientation.
In other cultures, the Labrys was connected with male divinities.
In Caria, a Greek culture from southwest Anatolia, the double axe was wielded by their storm-god Zeus Labrandeus, usually depicted with a tall lotus-tipped sceptre in his left hand and the Labrys over his right shoulder.
Geraldine Mercer, London.
QUESTION
Is it true that the Cork slagging term ‘ langer’ is derived from langur, a type of monkey? IT’S quite likely that the Cork expression ‘ langer’ is derived from a species of monkey, the langur, common in India, which was well-known to the many Cork soldiers who served in the Royal Munster Fusiliers in India.
The Royal Munster Fusiliers were formed in 1881 by merging the 101st Regiment of Foot, the 104th Regiment of Foot and various local militia units in Munster.
The Bengal Fusiliers were also predecessors of the Royal Munster Fusiliers; the Bengal Fusiliers were part of the long tradition of British army service in India dating back to the 1650s. Cork had long British military links with India.
After the formation of the Royal Munster Fusiliers, its first battalion went out to India in 1884 and stayed for 17 years, until 1901. During that time, many men from Cork who had signed up for the new regiment found themselves being shipped out to India for long service there.
It’s said that they became very familiar with the langur monkey, usually found in the forests of India. These langur monkeys are distinguished by very long tails, up to 100cm l ong. The Cork soldiers serving in India were plagued by the langur monkeys and found them much more of a nuisance than anything else.
So when they came home on leave to Cork, they brought the word ‘langur’ with them and it quickly became corrupted to ‘langer’ , meaning someone who is agitated or irritating. A langer in Cork slang quickly became used to denote someone who was a nuisance or intoxicated, frequently both. The term has also been widely used to denote a penis, relating to the long tails of the langur monkeys.
But some sources say that this use of the word ‘langer’ comes in fact from an Irish word used in the Muskerry Gaeltacht. ‘Leangaire’ means a long, slender salmon.
While the origins of the general use of the word langer in Cork are considered to be a relic of Corkmen’s service in the Royal Munster Fusiliers, it’s merely one well-used word that’s part of Cork’s considerable vocabulary of slang words.
Nowhere else in Ireland, even Dublin or Belfast, has such a rich diet of slang as Cork, which is almost a dialect in its own right.
Renowned collectors of words and phrases, such as Seán Beecher, have had a field day; Beecher compiled a lexicon of Cork slang.
It’s easy to find at least 200 examples of words and phrases that are used as slang in Cork every day, even today, although some of them are too rude to reproduce in a family newspaper.
But you could go on a date or ‘jag’. When you’re out on your date, you will be ‘all Gillette’, meaning all dressed up, named after the razor blade.
Or if you took a dislike to someone, you could give them a ‘lowry’ , which in Cork slang means a dig or a puck. If you’ re being encouraged to be ‘doggy wide’ with someone, it means being careful with someone who’s known to be tricky.
On the other hand, if you are referred to in Cork as ‘pure daycent’, that means you’re considered brilliant or excellent.
Practically every activity in Cork is denoted by slang; there’s a word or phrase for everything.
If you go for a stroll along Patrick Street in Cork city centre, you’ll be described as ‘doin’ Pana’. And if you buy a copy of the Irish Examiner (formerly called the Cork Examiner), you refer to ‘de paper’, which everyone will recognise.
Frank Nolan, Bantry, Co. Cork.
QUESTION
What is the origin of the concept of Ockham’s razor? What is the razor? THE phrase describes a problemsolving technique that’s attributed to a 14th-Century English Franciscan friar named William of Ockham.
In short, it’s the argument that all things being equal, the simplest explanation for a phenomenon is most likely to be the correct one.
It serves as a warning against unnecessary complexity, which sometimes only clouds the issue.
The razor is a reference to the idea of ‘ shaving away’ unnecessary assumptions from a hypothesis or cutting apart two similar conclusions.
Curiously, the concept cannot be found in any of Ockham’s writings and the first recorded use of the phrase dates from several centuries after Ockham’s death.
The concept of giving most weight to the simplest explanation can be traced all the way back to the ancient Greeks, including Pythagoras and later Aristotle.
Peter Ryan, Maynooth.
QUESTION
Is it true that Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be executed in Britain, appeared in the 1951 British comedy Lady Godiva Rides Again? RUTH Ellis’s intriguing appearance in Lady Godiva Rides Again was one of the best-kept secrets in her life. It had been kept well away f rom the press i n 1955, and remained secret until I uncovered it by chance while researching the book Ruth Ellis My Sister’s Secret Life written with Ruth Ellis’s sister Muriel Jakubait who died in 2013.
It wasn’t until Muriel told me of her sister’s friendship with actress Diana Dors that I began an in-depth search for clues about their relationship and stumbled across the Lady Godiva Rides Again connection.
No authors of previous books about the Ruth Ellis story managed to find this fascinating other side to Ruth Ellis.
Instead, they have got away with spinning the story of the pretty, dumb nightclub hostess, who knew l i ttle about birth control and apparently murdered her womanising lover David Blakely in a fit of jealousy (not mentioning of course that Blakely was actually gay) that everyone has believed for the last 60 years. The truth about her would sound far too ridiculous.
Since the book’s publication in which details of Ruth’s role in Lady Godiva appeared, I set up a Wordpress blog called Searching For The Truth About Ruth Ellis. In this I publish new findings about her.
Monica Weller, Surrey.