Comments

  1. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Just the most awesome title for a Friday Cephalopod evah!

    We were just discussing MoQ rules in the context of a supreme court (of the US, these Canadians seem to believe that they can learn things useful in their own country by looking at what others in the world are doing – what’s with that?) decision yesterday. To my surprise, these Roundheads, Whigs, and Loyalists who refused to enlist in the noble struggle against the tyranny of the monarchy included several who **didn’t** get the reference.

    And I thought this country has a commitment to education and was proud of its connection to its feudal roots!

  2. JohnnieCanuck says

    To save anyone else the embarrassment, I looked at the title and thought it was wrong but just before commenting I looked it up.

    Marquess is a proper spelling of this title for a nobleman, also Marquis. For a woman, it would be Marchioness in the UK or Marquise on the continent.

    Imagine, a pedant almost hoist by his own petard.

  3. kittehserf says

    Put ’em up! What a great photo.

    The 9th Marquess of Queensberry for whom the rules are named (he didn’t write them, but he publicly endorsed them) was the father of Lord Alfred Douglas, and involved in Oscar Wilde’s downfall.

  4. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @Ibis3, #2:

    R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul includes a quote referencing the Marquess of Queensberry Rules authored by none other than Scalia, my least favorite Fantasist favorite Originalist. Pardon my momentary though unseemly display of less than deferential respect for an officer of the court and a Justice of the highest caprice intellect.

    Oops again!

    Apparently I need to take lessons from Erwin Chemerinsky

  5. Markita Lynda—threadrupt says

    “Put ’em up! Put up your dukes!”

    Would referring to fists as dukes have anything to do with the ninth Marquess of Queensbury’s rules?

  6. Acolyte of Sagan says

    9.
    Markita Lynda—threadrupt
    11 October 2013 at 6:40 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

    “Put ‘em up! Put up your dukes!”

    Would referring to fists as dukes have anything to do with the ninth Marquess of Queensbury’s rules?

    No, it comes from Cockney rhyming slang. ‘Forks’ was a London slang term for hands, possibly because the fingers look like the tines of a fork; in rhyming slang, in which ‘stairs’ became ‘apples and pears’, ‘feet’ became ‘plates of meat’, etc. ‘forks’ became ‘Dukes of York’.

  7. David Marjanović says

    or Marquise on the continent

    In French, not “on the continent”. In German, you have to resort to Markgräfin.