ANSTHRLD - Opinions Please

[Timothy A. McDaniel]

Darius suggested:
> semy [of] pheons

You don't mind, then, if the recipient of the award looks like an
inmate in Her Majesty's prisons?  I think the US has abandoned the
striped prison garb (if ever we had it outside cartoons), but the UK
may still use "semy of broadarrow [heads]" on theirs.

I can't find anything about prison clothing.  I only find
http://www.royal-navy.mod.uk/history/coveycrump/alpha/resource/b_content.htm
, a fine Web page of Royal Navy slang,

   THE BROAD ARROW

     The Government mark formerly put on all solid material used in HM
     ships and dockyards to denote their Government ownership -similar
     to the Rogue's Yarn laid up in cordage. See ROGUE.

     The origin of the mark is obscure. Some say it was the seal of
     the Earls of Leicester who, in the days of Queen Elizabeth I, was
     responsible for all the Queen's stores.  Others say it was the
     badge of Lord de l'isle, First Commissioner of the Ordnance at
     that time.  An act of 1687 describes it as "His Majesty's Mark"
     (to be put on boundary houses in the Tower of London).  An act of
     1698 authorised penalties for persons found in possession of
     articles marked with this mark.

There's a further problem: how does one put "semy of pheons"
recognizably on a dangly that's maybe an inch in diameter?

Daniel de Lincolia
-- 
Tim McDaniel is tmcd at jump.net; if that fail,
    tmcd at us.ibm.com is my work account.
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