230 Quiz Answer

Puck flies around the earth in 40 minutes; the astronaut takes more than twice that, about 90.

(Also for Three Word Wednesday and ABC Wednesday: "c" is for "conniver")

The prompt this week reminded me that nations and clans of all kinds have a tendency to create long stories of their history, legends of their glistening, glorious past.

These sagas usually tell the story of an early leader, a hero of supernatural power.  Sometimes such a legend will include a sidekick of the ruler, a character known as the “trickster,” an imp or sprite who enjoys fooling around.

 

In Shakespeare’s day, this sprite was Puck, well known in British folklore.  When a farmwife came down in the morning and learned that the milk had soured long before it should have, it was natural for her to think that some sort of creature, some mischievous elf – Puck, in other words – had been responsible.

In “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Puck plays an important part.  The best description of him would be: he's a conniver, always conniving, scheming, manipulating.  Officially he’s jester to the king, but he enjoys his remarkable powers for farce by screwing things up for people.

In the play there are several couples of young lovers; Puck gets a charge out of scrambling the arrangement so that the guys and the gals are no longer sure just who loves whom.  

Of course, one of Puck’s most famous achievements has to do with what he does to Nick Bottom, the weaver.  For Bottom it isn’t a fun job anyway - weaving stuff can be awful tedious – but it’s worse when a weird elfish prankster gives him the head of a jassack.

But he turns out to be lucky; the fact that this change somehow makes beautiful women fall madly in love with him makes up for it a bit.

 

Puck, as you might expect, brags a lot.  He claims he can fly around the world in a certain number of minutes.

Well, the folks over at NASA thought about this.  They had had astronauts circling the globe for years.  They knew, to a minute or so, just how long it took.  They wondered, would their guy win such a race, or would Puck?

So here’s your chance to win the huge cash award.  (Assuming I can find somebody to put up some cash – which doesn’t look likely.)

The question is, who would win, who would circumnavigate the globe faster?  Puck or the astronaut?

(The answer will be posted Friday)

 

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Magpie 32

I’m sure you’re familiar with the play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” You know, the one where the beautiful lady falls in love with a jassack. :-)

Shakespeare’s “Dream” is full of bizarre creatures, of all sizes and shapes. One of them – and I’m sure you’re familiar with him too – is named Puck. He’s responsible for the line, “What fools these mortals be!”
Who – or rather, what – is Puck? He’s a strange little creature, not really human. In fact, to come right out with it, he’s an elf.
(His favorite song is “What’s It All About, Elfie?”)
The above line is an attempt at humor and may be ignored.

Anyway, Puck’s boss, Oberon, has a chore for him. It involves travel. No problemo, says Puck; I love to travel. In fact, I can travel around the world in record time.
Great, says Oberon, get started.
Now this sequence from “Dream” has had a number of the greatest scientific minds of our time, including mine, wondering. If it were possible to set up a race between Puck and a modern astronaut, to see who would circle the earth fastest, who would win?
These are the types of things great scientific minds, including mine, waste time thinking about. (I have to work “time” in here somewhere, to fit this week’s prompt, or I’ll be voted out of the Magpie organization.)

Well, after very little effort and no expense at all, I have come up with the answer to this “time” question.
An astronaut takes about 90 minutes to circle the earth.
Puck says: “I’ll put a girdle round about the earth in forty minutes.”
Puck wins, hands down
At the end of Act Five, Puck apologizes to the audience for the general goofiness of this play (and this post): “If we shadows have offended, think but this and all is mended. That you have but slumber’d here.”