Geek's Corner (1)

Welcome to the inagural post in what I hope will become a recurring feature of this new blog. Though I realise its appeal is unlikely to be as broad as that of, say, Operation Baked Goods, I am confident that it will appeal to at least some small fraction of my readers. You know who you are.

Vocabulary lesson

Croque-monsieur: a toasted ham and cheese sandwich.
Croque-madame: a toasted ham and cheese sandwich topped by a fried or poached egg.



Croque-à-cheval: the name for a croque-madame in certain parts of Normandy.
Croque-mort: an undertaker.

Given that one sees the first items on the list above regularly abbreviated as "crocs", it is hard not to conjure up an image of an undertaker as the crocodile of death.

Yesterday I finally figured out that "le Marais" means "the marsh". As a Corkman, I am ashamed not to have figured this out sooner. (The Irish name for Cork, "Corcaigh", also means "marshy place".)

Finally, you may be interested to know that the character Tom Marvolo Riddle from the Harry Potter books is known in French as Tom Elvis Jedusor. This is, of course, to preserve the anagram:

I am Lord Voldemort = Je suis Voldemort

Jedusor is also a phonetical play of words on the French "jeu du sort", a game of chance.