I think that the plowdude is actually the brother of the bitch upstairs. I bet she gets a break on her rent AND a nice phone call before he gets here. She always acts like a saint because she shovels the sidewalk out front. Which, OK, but she's the only one who uses it, and if she waited for a few hours, the town would do it anyway.

I'm usually the quiet and meek tenant. I think I have repressed neighbor anger that the snow is bringing out.

The book I mentioned yesterday, Same Sex Unions in PreModern Europe, is a fascinating read. The first chapter, "The Vocabulary of Love and Marriage," is a little frustrating, though. He's trying to explain the differences in meaning between Greek terms and modern terms, and some sort of familiarity with non-English things is pretty necessary. He's not transliterating the Greek because the transliterations have assumptions tied to them, so the text has things in the Greek alphabet scattered through.

The discussion of the words "brother" and "brotherhood" is fascinating. In older times, your brother (male with same parents) frequently shared the same household with you because wealth belonged more to the families than to individuals. "Brother" therefore held connotations of interdependency that modern times don't share. My husband is reluctant to even call his sibling "brother" because there is such a lack of mutual support and respect between them. (Yes, the author mentions the lack of a female-specific term for these sorts of relationships, but, as he says, he's not going to create terms that don't exist. He mentions a feminist colleague of his who published an accusation that he had deliberately not produced documentation of female-female relationships--although he stated clearly that he found no such documentation. He says in a footnote that he'll refrain from naming either the collegue or the journal in which she published her accusation.)

There are apparently several examples of rituals in Greek and Latin that refer to two men "becoming brothers" to each other (I haven't gotten that far yet to find out the details). Before the High Middle Ages, it was typical to use words like "brother" and "sister" to stand for husbands and wives, to indicate the mutual respect and support aspects of the relationship. Being in a marriage also assumed a degree of physical attraction, and I think the book is going to explore the logical connection between a "brother-brother" relationship and the assumption of a physical relationship.

Damned fascinating. And I'd put good money down that this book is going to disappear from the shelves of the local library as soon as it comes to the notice of Certain People.

Bean boots laced. Furry hood on. Let the shovelling commence.

I just checked - that same book is at my library - so I just put in a request for it

Diet Dr. Pepper and Hershey's Kisses are a perfectly good breakfast, right? RIGHT?!?

It's better than my entire pot of French Toast coffee, robin. You are just plain healthy.

Sure, Robin, the Diet Dr. Pepper cancels out the calories in the Kisses.

BTW, dog! Yay! Congratulations (I know you announced in natter but I'm still catching up over there) Year-old housebroken dogs are awesome!

Thanks, t!

I just requested the book from my library, too.

Robin, yay for dog! Someday we are going to own a house with a yard and I am going to have a couple of dogs.

Timelies everyone!

I hate the fact that I'm too cowardly to have the book face-up on my desk, but I know my cow-orkers and would rather not have the discussions. It's not very pro-active and socially conscious, but there it is.