ASCII Art Fart for Mon, 2007 Jan 8: #2755 PALIMPSEST

  To: Faux_Tran
Faux_Tran wrote:
> From Newsgroup: alt.ascii-art
> 
>  #2755 PALIMPSEST

In case anyone was wondering what that was, I just looked it up on M-W.com:

Main Entry: pa�limp�sest
Pronunciation: 'pa-l&m(p)-"sest, p&-'lim(p)-
Function: noun
Etymology: Latin palimpsestus, from Greek palimpsEstos scraped again,
from palin + psEn to rub, scrape; akin to Sanskrit psAti, babhasti he chews
1 : writing material (as a parchment or tablet) used one or more times
after earlier writing has been erased
2 : something having usually diverse layers or aspects apparent beneath
the surface <Canada...is a palimpsest, an overlay of classes and
generations -- Margaret Atwood>

-Dan
--- Synchronet 3.13a-Win32 NewsLink 1.83
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                .-~~~~~~~~~-._       _.-~~~~~~~~~-.
            __.' .......      ~.   .~  ........... `.__
          .'//  ......  I'M     \./  LIMPSEST .....  \\`.
        .'//   .........    A    |  A ..............   \\`.
      .'// .-~~~~~~~~~~~~-._     | P   _,-~~~~~~~~~~~~-. \\`.
    .'//.-"                 `-.  |  .-'                 "-.\\`.
  .'//______.============-..   \ | /   ..-============.______\\`.
.'______________________________\|/______________________________`.

--

       _
     _| |___        =================================================
   _|  _|  _|_        Bill Taylor    W.T...@math.canterbury.ac.nz
  |___|_  |  _|___  =================================================
        |_| |_   _|        Text tiles make very poor textiles.
          |___| |   =================================================
  W F C T     |_|

In article <45A...@x-bit.org>, Dan Q wrote:
> In case anyone was wondering what that was, I just looked it up on M-W.com:
> 
> Main Entry: pa�limp�sest
> Pronunciation: 'pa-l&m(p)-"sest, p&-'lim(p)-
> Function: noun
> Etymology: Latin palimpsestus, from Greek palimpsEstos scraped again,
> from palin + psEn to rub, scrape; akin to Sanskrit psAti, babhasti he chews
> 1 : writing material (as a parchment or tablet) used one or more times
> after earlier writing has been erased
> 2 : something having usually diverse layers or aspects apparent beneath
> the surface <Canada...is a palimpsest, an overlay of classes and
> generations -- Margaret Atwood>
>
       Well, if we're going to get detailed - many (but not all) palimpsests 
in archeology are one set of scripts overlaid on another, at something 
approaching right angles. That high angular offset makes it relatively easy 
to read one text without (with minimal) interference from the other 
orthogonal text. Palimpsests may be from different times ( hence the 
"scraping" derivation of the word, applied to papyrus), but a very 
illuminating range come from near-present letters written by "Joe Soap" 
because you can effectively pack twice the letter onto a single sheet of 
paper. Which is great for weight-controlled letters, and particularly for the 
single-sheet "onion skin" air mail letters popular for sending to people in 
"The Forces" abroad.
       
-- 
 Aidan in Scotland
 Written at Fri, 12 Jan 2007 22:06 GMT, but posted later.