you should read the novel in any case - it's one of the funniest books ever
written. In short, Lord Copper, owner of The Beast newspaper mistakenly
sends William Boot, who writes Nature Notes for the paper, to cover the war
in Ishmaelia, a fly-blown forgotten corner of East Africa. In preparing to
go there, Boot equips himself at a store on Piccadilly from which he emerges
with a preposterous amount of useless equipment, including cleft sticks.
They were included in Boot's kit because it was said that he would need them
to convey his despatches back to England. Ishmaelian runners were said to
carry message in cleft sticks.
As a result of this, any packing list can be made absurd with little
difficulty by the inclusion of cleft sticks.
When Boot asked at the department store for cleft sticks he was told that
they didn't have any. "But we can have some cloven for you", which is
extremely funny in context but probably doesn't quite hit the spot in
isolation.
The full list can be found in an earlier post to the PDML:
<http://www.mail-archive.com/pdml@pdml.net/msg341712.html>
Bob
OK... so somebody have mercy on me. I'm not going to read the novel,
I surfed the web for 20 minutes trying to understand the connection
between cleft sticks and the novel... lots of references but could not
find an explanation... :-)
What's the relevance to camping at GFM?
Tom C.
On Mon, May 31, 2010 at 5:24 PM, Bob W <p...@web-options.com> wrote:
read Scoop by Evelyn Waugh to understand why cleft sticks are the
essential
part of any expedition's equipment.
Bob
Had to look that one up. I still don't get it... (dumbing down of
America no doubt)
On Mon, May 31, 2010 at 2:36 PM, Mark Roberts <m...@robertstech.com>
wrote:
Tom C wrote:
so maybe we can cover a picnic table and gather
there during the inevitable rain. I'll throw some extension cords
and
power strips, too.
Don't forget the camp fuel, gunpowder, and dynamite.
...and cleft sticks.
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