Today's Daily Dispatch

ELEPHANT INFO

Posted August 29, 2010

Your ‘elephant’ paper, answers were pretty vague so you asked anyone with more info to write in… so here’s what I know.  Elephant size paper is classed under Old English Paper Sizes. Mostly used as drawing (often cold pressed) or book paper and measures 28 X 23ins. There is also Double Elephant measuring 39 X 26 ins.  The most famous usage of the Double Elephant size was by John James Audubon who produced Birds of America with more than 700 species of North American birds drawn from life and hand colored in aquatint. He drew life size which is why he needed the very large paper! Note the bigger long necked birds, flamingos, geese and swans etc, were shown with their necks folding back and down, so that they would fit onto the paper!

Judith Loft of Tumwater, WA

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‘RAMP’ PARSE

Posted December 12, 2011

I listened to today’s show and the question about ‘ramp up.’ But the correct answer isn’t the one anyone gave: The word ‘ramp’ comes from the French verb ‘ramper’--to crawl. When you see a lion ‘rampant’, he is ‘crawling’ in the air with his feet. A ramp for someone who crawls rather than walks. A ramp rises gradually and gave us the word for raising or ‘stepping up’ an effort.

Deborah Warren of Andover, MA

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WE RUE OUR ANSWER

Posted November 15, 2011

I love “Says You,” so it pains me to say that you got an answer slightly wrong on the November 13 broadcast. The murderer in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” is not a gorilla, as you would have it, but an orangutan, or “Ourang-Outang” Poe refers to the animal. The species of the offending creature is essential to the story, so I hope you will revisit and correct this question in a future show.

Thanks for your wonderful show!

Deborah Robbins of San Francisco, CA

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