Sunday, August 22, 2010

Branding, undies and ancient sayings

This time around we see Cat play the hero - spiderCat or something lol, climbs like a Cat and does not fall (sing with me)- and go to Feetsie's rescue... the girl finally calls him by his proper name (probably afraid he might really look the other way!). It takes her a while to load the C though hahahahah.

What if the riggings hadn't broken? She surely could have managed to go up and down and be praised by everyone. Let's thank Tonno's poor maintenance for the romantic moment - round of applause.
Goooo Tonnooo! (Btw Tonno means tuna and it's used to describe big, sturdy guys: you're a big tuna!)
Jacopo's fans... wasn't it nice to see him actually work on crow's nest(the last time he was pooping) and give us his two cents on Cat's behavior?
Just how gossipy can pirates be?
You have no idea... and they love to tease each other too. You'll see.

Many of you had already noticed this from the very first chapters: Cat is branded on his forehead, that's why he wears a headband.
We talked about human branding in this particular post.

Foxy's branding is very different from Cat's. His branding is used as a punishment for criminals. Cat's branding refers more to the another category and he is branded on the forehead... so everybody can see he is branded, obviously.

Eventually he will tell you his story so you just have to wait a little longer.

Let's talk about... underwear now!
Many of you may know this already but I'll say it anyway: women did not wear underpants for many centuries and almost up to the Industrial Revolution.
I will not put links because the best place to get an idea is a Museum, trust me. Find a Museum of clothing or underwear and go visit. I managed to see a few exhibit and they are veeeery nice and enlightening! *ç* More than books.
Anyway, going back to our ladies: for many many centuries they would wear corsets, chemise, even stockings and other very unhealthy things like crazy baskets and petticoats but no undies. In fact when they had their period they merely bled in their clothing. Eew? I know!
For many reasons underwear/pants were considered unhealthy... they would not let genitals breathe and that area needs to breathe oh so much, so that the moisture gets absorbed, somehow, and there would be no smell of stockfish between a woman's legs. Yeah, right... how about washing it sometimes, ladies? Bah.

For many years underwear was considered a very naughty thing. It was worn by prostitutes, so a nice lady would never wear undies.

Bathing? Optional... people bathed with the chemise on.
But who's our doctor? That's right... and he comes from a total different culture so our girls wear underpants - the ones Cassandra washes daily for the whole crew - and definitely cannot go around bleeding in their clothes!!!!
Lucky Callista! If she were to be a "nice lady" the Heavenly Vision would have been the type you must censor (else google penalize you and Smack Jeeves would kick me out for not putting mature content to it)! Ha ha ha

But, oh poor girl, indeed. The moment of total embarrassment, with Pea, at the end of the chapter (when she is handed back her pants) says it all. Showing legs to men is such a "no no" thing for a pure maiden! No need for words, there!

And next is our final topic: ancient sayings.

First one: Outside of danger everyone acts smart! (Fuori dal pericolo ognuno è bravo).
This is very old, so old that Italians don't know it. It's to be used when someone acts cool when commenting other people tribulations. "If I were you I'd be so kewl about it, man..." of course outside of the dangerous situations everybody talks talks... then you put them in the actual position and God knows what happens, right? Ha ha ha
Well, you can say now that you've learned an Italian Proverb.

Second one: here comes the rescue from Pisa! (Arriva il soccorso di Pisa).
This one is super funny. You can also find it as: bring the rescue from Pisa.
It means, merely: your help comes too late.

It is not related to the leaning tower of Pisa... but to the history of Pisa itself.
You may notice from the Wikipage I linked that in 1099 a fleet from Pisa took part to the First Crusade. Well, even though they say that people from Pisa were fundamental to the take of Jerusalem... the proverb states otherwise.
The fleet was held back by opposite winds and the Pisans arrived to the Holy Land that all the games were closed.

Imagine them: we came to the rescue.
Crusaders: Gee, thanks, we're all done, already!

Did Cat's help come in too late? Well, he helped saver her neck... but the Heavenly Vision had already dropped from above... *_*

From the point of view of a girl, Kane is absolutely right. Cassandra, though, is right above rights: I am kidnapped by the pirates who would believe to my virtue anymore? Might as well find a husband here... Go girl!

Pirates were rapists, most of the times, if I were a man and a girl came to me saying: I still have my virtue...
I'd probably go: are you kidding me? Ha!

Final comment is on "hand over hand" (in Italian "andare a riva"). It's sailor lingo.
It's how you call the way sailor climb up the riggings, one hand after the other.

Now you can all climb up the riggings hand over hand, right? Ahr ahr ahr...

Ah, Fickles says: don't forget to vote <3> (<--- he is pouting, see?) click on the TWC button at the bottom of our page.
He wants to be popular, apparently. Pat Pat, Fickle.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I guess even for the validity then of the "virtue" excuse for Cassandra to alter her options for husband-hunting, I felt she ought to really do this because she wanted to, rather than that...

dedasaur said...

I'm afraid that, due to the circumstances, at that moment any other kind of thinking would be totally unrealistic and out of character... the anachronism would be enormous too.

Whatever the first choice was a character can always arc and change and that's what we need to follow and trust it will happen. :D

Starting a story with a character established as perfect and always making the right choices will bring the write to focus on the plot. That's bad writing and it's boring writing too. It's the opposite of "show don't tell" to the point that it only shows without telling... Plot driven stories are becoming more and more superficial and all the same... and they fail the characters at one point too, which is kind of sad.

People has forgotten that a character can be sympathetic without being perfect... and empathy is achieved through emotions.
Look at "stranger than fiction"... Harold is a very anonymous fellow... but by the end of the movie you want him in your life! :D