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Tuesday 25 November 2014

Thing Not To Do Today, Probably: ululate.

To howl, to wail, to yell, to cry, to scream,
To crack through heaven's gauzy shell with pain,
And pierce the angels' songs with grief and rage.

Unfortunately, being English, the nearest people here generally get to a good ululation is an uneasy clearing of the throat as they prepare to sidle from a scene.

Ah well.

I suppose if we're desperate to have a good ululate we could always have a game of Cowboys and what are now known as Native Americans...except that I suppose even that can't be done, these days. I mean, it'd have to be a game where neither side was allowed to win.

So what chance do we have of ululating? Not much.

And I suppose that explains why at the moment everyone seems to feel the need to join a choir.

Thing Not To Do Today Probably: ululate. This word comes from the Latin ululāre to howl, from ulula, which means screech owl.

Eastern Screech Owl.jpg
This is an Eastern Screech Owl, which you find in America and so isn't the sort of screech owl the Romans would have been talking about. But, hey...


 



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