Stan K-Bootle: "
Just in case some readers shared my brief confusion with
the quoted mix of scripts in
Nuss heisst deutsch îđĺő
[ ]The last word is Cyrillic (the Russian for “nut”
[botanical]), “which the Germans call [die] Nuss.”
The English words
“nut/nuts/nutty” have many informal flavours, but “nut case” and “nuthouse”
point unambiguously to “madness,” as explained in BB’s canonical
annotations:7.15: nusshaus: Aqua's jocular German for "nuthouse." This is
Aqua's "first bout with insanity" (20.11). MOTIF: insanity.http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/ada11ann.htm
Jansy
Mello: Indeed, "Gott gibt die Nüsse aber er
beißt sie nicht auf" (God gives us the nuts but He doesn't bite them
open for us) and we are either invited to keep on cracking
VN's knackle of puzzles (PF) or to wonder why madness is
associated to nuttyness in English*.
Curious quotations, those A.S selected related to "
'sanastoria' at Centaur, Arizona... The astorium in St Taurus, or whatever it
was called..." According to A. Sklyarenko "Astoria
is a luxurious hotel in St. Petersburg, in the Bolshaya Morskaya street." I
find that Astoria is also associated to cigars and tobacco, whereas
homophonous Centaur/Saint Taurus marks a certain insistent wordplay in
"ADA": I supose it indicates a hidden personal meaning related to
Astor.
Thanks to internet I
learned that Astor, in Greek, means star and bright. Its variantes are
Asta. Astira, Astra, Astrea, Esther, Hester. Also that Centaur appears in the
novel by John Updike (The Centaur, 1963), in which the "author depicts a rural
Pennsylvanian town as seen through the optics of the myth of Centaur. An unknown
and marginalized local school teacher, just like the mythological Chiron did for
Prometheus, gave up his life for the future of his son who had chosen to be an
independent artist in New York."
From Wikipedia, I
searched for Astraea Redux, which I remembered in association to John Dryden
(the free encyclopedia) and Celadon (while I worked on RLSK's
mysterious "cat with celadon eyes" and the theme of English restoration).
Here it is:
"Astraea Redux," "written by John Dryden in 1660, is a
full-blown royalist panegyric in which Dryden welcomes the new regime of King
Charles II. It is a vivid emotional display that overshadows the cautious
Heroique Stanzas that Dryden composed for Oliver Cromwell’s death. In the
former, Dryden apologizes for his allegiance with the Cromwellian government,
and Dryden was later excused by Samuel Johnson for his change in allegiance when
he wrote, ‘if he changed, he changed with the nation.’ The period between
Cromwell and the Restoration is illustrated as a time of chaos in Astraea, and
Charles is greeted as a restorer of peace. In the traditional form of the
panegyric, Charles is praised for qualities which it is hoped he will attain as
much as for those he already possesses, and Dryden recommends that Charles adopt
a policy of toleration.As well as hinting that Dryden was looking for a royal
patron, this poem is one which best demonstrates Dryden’s lifelong commitment to
peace and political stability. Read the poem at :
http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/27359/
The Nuttall Encyclopaedia
defines Astraea Redux as 'the name given to an era which piques itself on the
return of the reign of justice to the earth.' This article incorporates text
from a publication now in the public domain: Wood, James, ed. (1907)." I enjoyed
the coincidence related to the "Nuttall Encyclopaedia" but, on the whole
(and in part!) I found nothing relevant in relation to the significant
"Astor".
..............................................................................
*- Stan, the first
time I heard about "nuts/nutty," was in America, in the early sixties, when a
friend sent me a card with an image of a Brazil-nut cum squirrel, with
the accompanying words: "You are my favorite kind of nut."