Pub Names - The Monday Morning Memo

“Many pub names have been corrupted over the centuries. The Pig and Whistle is said to have its roots in peg (a drinking vessel) and wassail (a festive drink.) The Goat and Compasses is sometimes said to come from “God Encompasseth Us.” The Elephant and Castle, originally a pub and now a district of London, may have been the Infanta de Castile. The Old Bull and Bush, a famous pub on Hampstead Heath, is said to come from Boulogne Bouche and is to commemorate a battle in France. Some of these derivations may be fanciful, but there is solid evidence to show that the Dog and Bacon was once the Dorking Beacon, that the Cat and Fiddle was once the Caterine la Fidèle (at least it is recorded as such in the Domesday Book), and that the Ostrich Inn in Buckinghamshire began life as the Hospice Inn.”

– Bill Bryson,
The Mother Tongue, p. 200
(Caterine la Fidèle refers to “Catherine the Faithful” – Catherine of Aragorn – the first wife of King Henry VIII. Infanta de Castile means “Daughter of the King of Castile.”)

“The Orson Welles of 1936-42 worked 20 hours a day, ate double meals to keep going, pursued pretty young women like a demon and lived as if he had no tomorrow. He worked, all at once, in radio, on the stage and in preparation for his great film. He was a looming figure in American life: an offence to Hollywood in the way he achieved a carte blanche contract, and a boy wonder of such arrogance that it was said of him, ‘There but for the grace of God, goes God.’

If Orson Welles had never made Citizen Kane, he would be a phenomenon. But he did and that leaves us all his children. His real children might tell you that it was a difficult and sad life to be caught with. Alas.

But remember this: Orson died alone in 1985 and you can read the reports as signs of sadness. On the contrary, I suspect he was exhilarated at the end. Real sadness is being worth $5bn and not knowing what to do with it.

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- David S Thomson, The Guardian, Oct 22, 2009