*)
*) To a smiley generation this may look like a grin and a black eye. But this is a not a post on faces, but a note on footnotes. A note lacking context, an aside without dialogue.
(Wouldn’t it be wonderful to watch a play of nothing but asides.)
I remember the first time I encountered a footnote, and I remember it, because the fascination I then felt hasn’t gone away. In some children’s book (Dutch, 1930’s, probably, as a child I read a lot of very old stuff), the author explained an unusual word at the bottom of the page. I even think I remember what it was:
*) De motorfiets werd toen, heel zot, “schetenfiets” genoemd.
*) In those days the motorcycle was called, oddly, “farting cycle”.
There may be some involuntary fantasy in this (I have found no web traces of the word schetenfiets, which however deserves to be remembered — and will be, tagged with this post). Continue reading …