Back in December, I identified Lin Wood as the "alligator" in "The Battle of New Orleans," because he is an allegator (a maker of allegations), and because he is widely perceived to have "lost his mind." (Why did he lose his mind? Just as in the song, they filled his head with cannonballs. Cannon = QAnon, and balls = a colloquialism meaning either "rubbish" or "chutzpah.")
I have also noted that his name is the equivalent of "Wood Wood," because the Chinese surname Lin (林) means "wood, forest." In Mr. Wood's case, "Lin" is short for Lincoln -- which brings us back to wood by way of Lincoln Logs (a close cousin to Tinkertoys!). In fact, his name, Lincoln Wood, basically is Lincoln Logs.
Recent synchronicities involving doubled words and names -- Tintin, 50/50, Snow Snow, Never Never, Nix Nix -- brought "Wood Wood" back to mind, and I realized that "wooden" alligators are featured in Prisoners of the Sun.
The "trunks" that are not really trunks also makes me think of the old theme of fake elephant trunks discussed here: Fox sewing a hose on Slow Joe Crow's nose, and both Calvin and Ernie putting socks on their ears and noses. Calvin's purpose in so doing is to be "an elephant," while Ernie does it as part of a guessing game. The punchline of the Bert and Ernie sketch is the word "neck." Bert has been tricked into guessing "nose" when in fact the answer is "neck." You know what else neck means? Here's part of a Wikipedia disambiguation page:
Remember that nihhus, the Old High German cognate of nix and neck, also means "crocodile." Bert thought, because of the fake "trunk" Ernie was wearing, that he was thinking of the word nose -- but in fact he was thinking of neck. In Prisoners of the Sun, Tintin thinks he sees "trunks," but in fact they are those close cousins of the neck or nihhus -- alligators!
I suppose these free-association synchronicity posts of mine could themselves be called "linkin' logs," couldn't they?
5 comments:
"I suppose these free-association synchronicity posts of mine could themselves be called 'linkin' logs,' couldn't they?"
Or "loggin' links"
An older gentleman at my work still follows Lin Wood, though I'm not sure how or where. He assures me that Trump will be back in office any day now (We're in the double-or-nothing portion of our bet on the matter). The first time I heard Lin Wood I thought he was a bullshit artist. Ted Cruz vibes but with less of an *alien in human skin* feel.
He's a successful lawyer, nuff said.
Permethrin (Nix) was used in my missionary days in Brazil as a pre-treatment on bedsheets to prevent bites from mosquitos and similar insects.
The discussion of water-infesting crocodiles and LDS movies called to mind Spiritual Crocodiles, a video produced for high-school-age students in LDS Seminary classes, and based on an address by Boyd K. Packer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts59aInN2Q0. The message could be summarized as saying that we would have to be stiff-necked (heh) to ignore the warnings given by the Wise about spiritual dangers.
“Spiritual Crocodiles”! That brings back early-morning seminary memories.
Tying this in with the other thing you mentioned, in Taiwan we use Crocodile brand “incense” (sounds “spiritual,” right?) for mosquito control.
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