You got the look the gods agree they want to see

[sovay]

I have had a multiple-front stressful day of the kind that leaves a person sort of uselessly vibrating, but a dear friend who is not on DW has just e-mailed me with the news that the Cerne Abbas Giant is neither a pre-Christian artifact nor seventeenth-century political satire but an early medieval . . . something and I am delighted. Or as I said elsenet, "The giant chalk dick has a date on it!"

(I am amused that the hold music I am currently stuck listening to is a kind of lounge muzak version of "On the Street Where You Live," but that's different. [edit] It was not so amusing that I felt obliged to listen to it after the first half-hour.)

Comments

[nineweaving]

Synchronicity! Just yesterday, I was looking for a passage in Sylvia Townsend Warner’s letters that I wanted to quote on my panel, and lighted on another. Ralph Vaughan Williams had decided that he needed to see the Cerne Abbas giant again, and had stopped by her house on his way. She didn’t say why RVW wanted to visit Chalk Dude, but recorded their conversation:

“He had asked me, a little sternly, why I had left off composing, and I explained that I had come to the conclusion that I didn’t do it authentically enough, whereas when I turned to writing I never had a doubt as to what I meant to say. But if I were reincarnated, I added, I think I would like to be a landscape painter. What about you? Music, he said, music. But in the next world, I shan’t be doing music, with all the striving and disappointments. I shall be being it.”

Nine

[sovay]

What about you? Music, he said, music. But in the next world, I shan’t be doing music, with all the striving and disappointments. I shall be being it.

That's really lovely.

I hope Chalk Dude went into the music he made.

[nineweaving]

That's really lovely.

I see now that the visit was just days before Vaughan Williams' sudden death, so lovely and poignant.

He and his wife sent friends postcards of the Giant, his said to include "rude comments," hers chaste.

I hope Chalk Dude went into the music he made.

You could write that story...

Nine

[tree_and_leaf]

I am SO HERE for the mediaeval weirdness.

[sovay]

I am SO HERE for the mediaeval weirdness.

I truly love that establishing an accurate range of dates just opens more questions.

[tree_and_leaf]

Yes, it's excellent!

Hold music from hell

[jesse_the_k]

Really having to listen to hold music at all is hellish.

However, why is it that both my clinic and my city use the same damn song and have been for 30 years. It even has the warbly atonal quality that made me glad to abandon cassette tapes.

Re: Hold music from hell

[sovay]

Really having to listen to hold music at all is hellish.

It's true. I have been informed that scientifically it reassures people that they haven't been cut off, but that doesn't make it an enjoyable experience.

However, why is it that both my clinic and my city use the same damn song and have been for 30 years. It even has the warbly atonal quality that made me glad to abandon cassette tapes.

The hold music I was stuck with was also warbly! It sounded like its boom box was running down, except unmercifully it never did.

[ashlyme]

*"The giant chalk dick has a date on it!"*

I really should have responded to that with "Thanks for the heads-up. So to speak." Or perhaps not. It's fascinating to pick up the story; the last I heard was about the medieval snails and I love the idea the Giant may've been forgotten and rediscovered over time.

[sovay]

I really should have responded to that with "Thanks for the heads-up. So to speak."

Hee.

It's fascinating to pick up the story; the last I heard was about the medieval snails and I love the idea the Giant may've been forgotten and rediscovered over time.

Yes! And now he's carefully maintained for reasons that have nothing to do with his original purpose, but are just as dedicated and additionally permit exchanges like this.

I also just like this photo of the chalk-dusted archaeologist. He looks like Colpeper with a thermos.

[ashlyme]

"Giant's erection to be polished by hand..." Who says the National Trust don't have a sense of humour. I like that photo too.

[ethelmay]

"I'm a tall white man with a great big dick/Sometimes I get a date, but it never sticks/I'm old enough I oughta have class/But you gotta admit, my ass is grass..."

[sovay]

"I'm a tall white man with a great big dick/Sometimes I get a date, but it never sticks/I'm old enough I oughta have class/But you gotta admit, my ass is grass..."

I would like to award you this internet.

[cmcmck]

So those early historians who thought he represented Helis may have been right after all! :o)

[sovay]

So those early historians who thought he represented Helis may have been right after all!

Helis?

[selkie]

I think it's entirely likely he vanished under the shrubbery for a good long while, and then the updating microclimates revealed his endowments to the locals once again. How interesting.

[sovay]

I think it's entirely likely he vanished under the shrubbery for a good long while, and then the updating microclimates revealed his endowments to the locals once again. How interesting.

Like cropmarks, only, er, ballsier.