the_gneech | Happy Birthday, calicougar!

For your present, here's today's Forgotten English!

roving forty
A small acreage of land owned by a logger who, however, cut timber all over the country with no regard for ownership. Western Great Lakes.
--L. G. Sorden and Jacque Vallier's Lumberjack Lingo, 1986

Feast Day of St. Gomer,
a patron of woodsmen. Vincent Holt's Why Not Eat Insects? (1885) suggested alternative sources of protien to the frugal woodsman, such as tree grubs: "When the plantations are cut down, why should this delicacy be wasted? If foolishly rejected at the tables of the rich, these larvae should be a joy to the woodsman's family, and a reward for the toil of the breadwinner. ... What valid objection can there be to eating these insects when the larvae of similar beetles are eaten all over the world, both by natives and by whites, and when such larvae are unanimously pronounced to be wholesome and palatable? ... Even the strong-stomached and hungry sailor will rap his sea-biscuit on the table to shake out the worms before eating it. Let him shake out the worms, by all means, but let him collect them, fry in lard, and spread the dainty upon his biscuit."

Charming. :P But what does it have to do with St. Gomer? And what kind of dorky saint goes around being named "Gomer" anyway?

In other news, I hope to have a new Fictionlet later today.

-The Gneech