(Untitled)

[janewt]

Viv is a big meanie

Comments

[vivian_shaw]

Mandragora spp are mandrakes. I am extremely fond of the mayapple, but calling a mayapple a mandrake is like calling grapes "greenie lumps." It is in one sense a perfectly accurate description but in a larger and more accurate sense irrational.

American robins are mutant thrushes and lousy parents. Which English robins may also be, but they do it while being actual robin robins. SO THERE.

[janewt]

IF I WANT TO CALL IT A MANDRAKE I'MA CALL IT A MANDRAKE

Because that's how common names work.

i'm not sure you deserve a Heinz products cookbook and you definitely don't deserve to see my Podophyllum

[vivian_shaw]

Can I call it a bloodroot, or a pachysandra, or a ground ivy?

Also: my engine compartment contained a rat's nest, your argument is invalid.

[janewt]

You can if you want but you'd be the only one. Lots of people call a Podphyllum a mandrake.

And I just looked it up online--if your engine compartment contained a rat's nest that means your argument is invalid.

[janewt]

or even a Podophyllum shut up i spell good

[vivian_shaw]

i was being nice and not pointing that out

[vivian_shaw]

Lots of people call caramel "carmel" and copiers "printers" but they are also wrong. So are people who call soda "pop." Or any soda other than Coke "coke."

Nnno, since it had the bone with ratty toothmarks in it it means I get the upper hand. Shit, I should've preserved that bone. IT CAME FROM MY CAR. MY CAR HAD BONES.

[janewt]

And you're the kind of non-bone-preserving non-bone-preserver who didn't preserve it, so your argument is invalid.

i'm definitely not showing you my mandrake

next time you visit i'm going to put a little tent over it so you can't see it

so there

i will have showed you

[janewt]

and when i say i will have showed you i mean i will have showed you by not showing you

[vivian_shaw]

I HAVE PLACED IN MOTION AN EXPEDITION TO RECOVER THIS BONE

and preserve it

as a memento mori for poor Martin

also I will laugh at your tent and the non-mandragora within it

[janewt]

Laugh all you want, Viv, if it helps you live with the knowledge that you've planted a seed of discontent in my relationship with this plant.

[vivian_shaw]

You know, it does. It really does.

Love your mayapple freely! Be glad of it, care for it, treat it well.

>:D

[janewt]

I will.

But I'll always know, deep in my heart, that my Podophyllum is a source of shame.

[vivian_shaw]

Then all is as it should be.

I just hope my bone can be located. I should tie it to Martin's hood, like a trophy.

[janewt]

Well, first you need to make it a reliquary. Preferably silver.

[janewt]

Or rock crystal.