Monument

(discussing wordplay)

Me; "So for example... if I was buying a fish, I could say something absolutely brill, just for the halibut, with the sole purpose of making you laugh. Sorry, I'd go on, but I'm starting to flounder."

Rio: "You really don't have a porpoise here, do you?"

Rio asked me whether Rupert Brooke was a racist, based on the lines

And Royston men in the far South
Are black and fierce and strange of mouth;
[…]
In Grantchester their skins are white;

wherein he is obviously saying that Royston folk are bad and Grantchester people are good.

This led into an interesting conversation.

We are on a train from Cambridge to Heathrow. Rio has just written a poem, and she says I can show it to you.

Have you seen a grucelow
walking through the woods?

Have you seen a minnague
purr as you pat its head?

Have you seen a sanika
hunting its wilful prey?

Have you seen a nakicon
running through the fields?

Have you seen me
watching all these things
do what they do when they're free?

Marn: You understand the idea of a volta in sonnet form, right?
Rio: Well, first you write about your mum.  Then you write about hot dogs.  Then you tell them your mum likes hot dogs.
Marn: ... Where did that come from?
Rio: I made it up.

(I hadn't realised Rio had grasped the dialectical idea of thesis-antithesis-synthesis, which is fundamental to the sonnet, well enough to express it that clearly.)

In heraldry, one person (the head of the family) owns the plain coat of arms, and their descendants mark their versions of the same design with "brisures". There are traditional symbols for the first to the ninth sons, and in Canada for the daughters as well. Here is a chart I made for Wikipedia.

For me this is quite straightforward: I use a label of five points. For Rio this is less obvious; if she had ever wanted to use a heraldic symbol of her own, I would have supposed she could mark things with a label of five points and a heart (at least, in the Canadian system), but it's not very satisfactory.

While walking in this morning, I passed the Ministry of Justice building, and on the front they have a statue of Hope. You can tell it's Hope because she's holding an anchor. (The symbolism is that hope holds fast to what is hoped for; without hope, in despair, you are thrown all over the place like a ship in a storm.)

It occurred to me that an anchor isn't one of the standard brisures, and that Riordon's name is Riordon Hope; so although the College of Arms possibly wouldn't think it was all in order, a reasonable unofficial emblem for Rio, should she ever be interested, would be my grandfather's arms defaced with an anchor:



(Possible precedent: Mary of Teck, whose use-name was May, used to use the Royal arms surrounded with may branches.)

When she wakes up, I'll ask her whether she likes the design. What do you think?

Gregory put the pistol slowly down, still staring at Syme as if he were a sea-monster.

“I don’t believe in immortality,” he said at last, “but if, after all this, you were to break your word, God would make a hell only for you, to howl in forever.”

Rio: "That's like saying 'I'm not racist, but...'"