I was looking up ancestry on the web today for my son's 2nd-grade project (first emigrant to the U.S. on my side-- time to hit the databases!). I worked back from one of the most distinctive ancestor names (usually a good place to start), and found the line back that I needed. But this particular cataloguer's comment on that ancestor was "Married a disgraceful number of times" followed by the particulars. And while this is true, there is the question of "Lady, did you not realize this was one of the founding fathers of the Mormon church? When they still practiced polygamy?" I mean, what did she think was going on? Ex-wives in a dungeon? Bodies across half the country?

This reminds me, oddly, of a Welsh-langue class I took in college. We ran across the idiomatic phrase for "It's raining," which is (if I remember correctly) "Mae hi'n bwrw glaw." That translates to "She is casting water." Another student asked why that was the idiom, and I said, "Probably just what it sounds like. They probably believed a goddess was throwing water at the Earth when it rained." The teacher responded with "Dydw i ddim yn credu." "What?" "Dwi ddim yn credu." "What do you mean you don't believe me?" The teacher was entirely serious. Occam's Razor being what it is, and the ancient Welsh being pantheists, I still wonder if he simply thought that was too far-fetched or if he entirely rejected the idea of the Welsh not always having been Christians, because that offended his modern-day Mormon sensibilities. What. Ever. :\

In other news, people are now replying to other people's comments on some of the posts where I'm behind in responding to comments! And I'm getting a cold. Give me strength!