The other day I tuned into our local public radio station and heard mention of the name “Fingal.” They weren’t talking about that little town north of Nome in our area but the name of an old Scottish hero. This was the name of the hero in James Macpherson's 1762 epic poem named “Fingal,” which he claimed to have based on early Gaelic legends.
Apparently the local North Dakota town was named and settled by immigrants from Fingal, Ontario, Canada. For what it’s worth, just three other communities in the U. S. have the name and are located in California, Idaho, and Kansas. The community in Ontario, Canada was named for a county within the Dublin Region of Ireland. In turn that name derives from the medieval territory of Fine Gall, the Viking settlement north of Dublin. It’s easy to see how Fine Gall converts to Fingal.
Granted, a reader of this might not find these facts particularly interesting, but I enjoy tracing the origin of a name or word. The epic poem named “Fingal” is interesting to read. I found it on the internet after this popped up: “Fingal: An Ancient Epic Poem in Six Books.” The poems talk of the deeds of mythic warriors and the spirits of their ancestors. Fingal was a warrior king who demonstrated valor in defending the oppressed. Something like Robin Hood perhaps?
There is a rhythm and beauty in Macpherson’s passages that remind literature lovers of Homer and his famous book-length poems The Iliad and The Odyssey. Here’s a random selection of a few: “Cuthullin sat by Tura's wall : by the tree of the rustling sound. His spear leaned against a rock. His shield lay on grass by his side… He spoke, like a wave on a rock… Now I behold the chiefs, in the pride of their former deeds! Their souls are kindled at the battles of old; at the actions of other times. Their eyes are flames of fire. They roll in search of the foes of the land. Their mighty hands are on their swords. Lightning pours from their sides of steel. They come like streams from the mountains ; each rushes roaring from his hill.” But we’ll set Fingal for now.
It’s not my nature to be serious all the time, and since I love a good joke I’m always on the lookout. I thought this one about a horse sitting down in a movie theater was pretty good when the woman next to him asks, “Excuse me… are you a horse?”
“Why yes, I am,” replies the horse.
“What are you doing at this movie?”
The horse says, “I really liked the book.”
Ole and Lena jokes can make me laugh or at least smile at their ridiculousness. In this one Ole was in trouble. He’d forgotten his wedding anniversary and his wife, Lena, was really angry.
She told him, "Tomorrow morning, I expect to find a gift in the driveway that goes from 0 to 200 PRETTY Darn FAST!
The next morning Ole got up early and left for work. When Lena woke up, she looked out the window and sure enough there was a gift-wrapped box in the middle of the driveway.
Confused, Lena put on her robe and ran out to the driveway and brought the box back in the house. She opened it and found a brand new bathroom scale.
Ole has been missing since Friday.
Time is relative when seen from the teller’s perspective. Here is a good example. A turtle is crossing the road when he’s mugged by two snails. When the police show up, they ask him what happened. The shaken turtle replies, “I don’t know. It all happened so fast.”
I found humor in all of the above, even though some will call them “groaners.” I recently found a variation on jokes called paraprosdokians. They are simply stated in a sentence or two and have a surprise ending, such as “If I agreed with you, then we’d both be wrong.” It’s this one that really hits home, “I'm supposed to respect my elders, but it's getting harder and harder for me to find someone older than me.”
My favorite comes from Winston Churchill who was at odds with a woman in the Parliament. She once said to him, “If you were my husband, I’d poison your tea.” He quickly retorted, “Madam, if you were my wife, I’d drink it.” So long for now.
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