Rob, you might have to be careful about this, you might turn into my
lady's brach. Remember, truth's a dog obeyed in office? Spokesphere
had something going for him, poetically.
Yours, with affection
mongrel
2008/6/20 Robin Hamilton <[log in to unmask]>:
>> That's droll Rob. Are you transforming from a rodent into a whippet?
>> This could make you living proof of evolution.
>
> If I were considering such a thing, I think I'd prefer to be a whiffet
> rather than a whippet.
>
> The creature is mentioned (along with blowens, naturally) by THE NAPOLEON OF
> BURGLARS in the course of his conversations with the wholly estimable Rev.
> Tefft in the Virginia State Penitentiary in 1848. (See the quotation from
> _The Ladies' Repository_ below.)
>
> The Whiffet Formerly Known As Rodent
>
> WHIFFET
>
> 1. (Also whiffet dog.) A small dog.
>
> 1801 Olio (Philad.) 41 (Thornton) Who heeds the Whiffit's bark, when
> tempests howl? 1848 Ladies' Repository VIII. 315 The best protection to a
> house, with a family in it that can be named--that is, a little, barking,
> noisy, cowardly, whiffet dog. 1879 J. BURROUGHS Locusts & Wild Honey 30 The
> king-bird will worry the hawk as a whiffet dog will worry a bear.
>
--
David Bircumshaw
Website and A Chide's Alphabet http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/
The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
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