Member names inspired by POB

Am I the only one!?

Are you sure you are one? I'm pretty sure the "lesser of two weevils" joke also appeared in one of the C.S. Forester books: no doubt it's been current in the navy since time immemorial...

I didn't know it was an old joke! -- but I've not read any Hornblower (though I've got a few titles on my shelves).

I'm tempted to name a couple of cats Killick and Bonden. But I don't have any cats just yet.

I think Awkward Davies would be a good name for a pet...

So is Maturin's pun about the dog-watch being curtailed also an old nautical joke? That's pretty good, if so: O'Brian working in traditional humour for us lubbers.

Those are excellent pet names! My friend did have hermit crabs while in college named Jack, Stephen, and Babbington, and her car is Sophy :)

>2 thorold: "Are you sure you are one? I'm pretty sure the "lesser of two weevils" joke also appeared in one of the C.S. Forester books..."

i don't recall seeing that in Hornblower. can you point out where it was?

>3 elenchus: "I didn't know it was an old joke! -- but I've not read any Hornblower (though I've got a few titles on my shelves)."

READ THEM!
one cannot fully appreciate O'Brian until one has read Forrester, imo. you might even recognise a few themes which O'Brian 'borrowed'.

It is intriguing to think PO'B borrowed some themes. After running through Aubrey-Maturin, perhaps I will read some Forrester and some Pope. Certainly my dear Granddad liked them all, and he's a guiding light for me in these matters.

I might be wrong - I thought it was in the scene in The commodore where Hornblower entertains the Czar to dinner on board, but that doesn't seem to be it. (Weevils, but no lesser...) Perhaps I was imagining it, but I did have a strong feeling I'd seen it before when I came across it in POB.

This exchange takes place in Book 6 "The Fortune of War" and the scene is replicated in the fine movie "Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World". If POB "borrowed" the joke from C.S. Forester I think I have some more seafaring reading to do! (LO2W)

Dinner in the officers' mess. The captain is inebriated, but asks apparently seriously
Capt. Jack Aubrey: Do you see those two weevils doctor?
Dr. Stephen Maturin: I do.
Capt. Jack Aubrey: Which would you choose?
Dr. Stephen Maturin: sighs annoyed Neither; there is not a scrap a difference between them. They are the same species of Curculio.
Capt. Jack Aubrey: If you had to choose. If you were forced to make a choice. If there was no other response...
Dr. Stephen Maturin: Exasperated Well then if you are going to *push* me...
the doctor studies the weevils briefly
Dr. Stephen Maturin: ...I would choose the right hand weevil; it has... significant advantage in both length and breadth.
the captain thumps his fist in the table
Capt. Jack Aubrey: There, I have you! You're completely dished! Do you not know that in the service...
pauses
Capt. Jack Aubrey: ...one must always choose the lesser of two weevils.
the officers burst out in laughter

such a great series, i wish he had lived forever to write