Grammar Moses: There will be no swearing in this column
I had a friend during the 1980s, whose identity I will not divulge, who was fond of the film "Henry V," starring Kenneth Branagh as Henry, Prince of Wales.
I loved it, too.
Branagh, who cut his teeth on Shakespeare on stage, took on a big, sweeping production for his first Hollywood directorial effort.
My friend was so enthralled by the battle scenes and a young Branagh that she asked me whether we could rent the prequels.
(cough)
Unless you're a student of Shakespeare, you might scoff at this request. No, it's not like "Rocky II," "Rocky III," "Rocky IV" and "Rocky V," all of which were sequels to "Rocky." Same guy, different BMI.
"Henry V" is a historical play about Henry the Fifth, rather than the fifth movie about a guy named Henry.
What I didn't know then but learned since is the Bard did write two plays about Henry IV, a trilogy about Henry VI and one about Henry VIII - six plays about three other kings.
All of them are among his least frequently staged plays, so it's understandable if you've never seen, read or heard of them.
And now you know.
The little things
In my Christmas column, I wrote about how the little things matter - not the glimmer in a child's eye or when a stranger hails you with "Merry Christmas" little things, mind you, but commas and esses and that sort of thing.
I had an American literature teaching assistant in college whose doctoral thesis, I believe, was all about why Mark Twain titled his book "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" instead of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."
Check out a first edition and tell me I'm wrong.
In short, the TA's argument was, the wee book details only some of Huckleberry's adventures, not ALL of them, as a title including "The" suggests.
Pretty thin for a doctoral thesis, if you ask me, but a good point that he made in every class for a few weeks. Clearly, it stuck with me.
Double dog dare
Judging by his personality and not his talent, Daily Herald Director of Visuals Jeff Knox, our director of visuals at the Daily Herald, is still in sixth grade.
He challenged me to include a mention of the Netflix series "History of Swear Words" in this column. I believe there was a modest reward if I dared to do it.
I watched the first three episodes, which explore the etymology of three words I cannot publish in a general circulation newspaper without fear of this being my final correspondence with you.
In one episode, it dispels the long-told story that manure was "shipped high in transit" on sailing vessels and through this mode of delivery derived its four-letter acronym that even the most genteel of us utter under our breath.
Who would ship manure across the ocean, when its domestic supply is never ending? the narrator posits.
That's as close as I can get to describing the nature of this show, other than it traces the changing uses of "swear" words through the centuries and talks about how - at least in these three cases - none of them started out as taboo,
If you're a fan of lexicography and etymology, as I am, you might enjoy it. But it's definitely not for everyone.
Pay up, Jeff.
Write carefully!
• Jim Baumann is vice president/managing editor of the Daily Herald. Write him at jbaumann@dailyherald.com. Put Grammar Moses in the subject line. You also can friend or follow Jim at facebook.com/baumannjim.