The good doctor asked me this morning if I knew the chemical symbol for tungsten. Not offhand, I had to admit, though I'd probably seen it at some point. Well, it's "W." Had I heard this story before? Why, no, I hadn't.
Tungsten's symbol is "W" because its old name was "wolfram." It was so named by alchemists, back in the day. They had discovered that if you added chromium and whatnot to iron, you got this lovely lively springy steel--but if you added even a bit of tungsten, it would become very brittle. It sucked the life right out of steel, just like a werewolf sucked the life out of people. Hence the name "wolfram."
He told me this story because of our poor local dragon. I've been on a dragon-drawing kick, as you know, but was utterly unsuccessful at convincing Amelia to draw them with me. No; she went home and sculpted one, and brought it back to keep watch over our front desk. We named him Wulfric, and as I was discussing with a young patient of ours, he was definitely not a Hungarian Horntail, nor a Norwegian Ridgeback, nor even a Welsh Green, due to a preponderance of red and gold about his person. We eventually classed him as a Welsh Red.
Wulfric put the good doctor in mind of wolfram, because he shares certain of its qualities. He's a rather brittle dragon. I was holding him on my shoulder when he tumbled off and broke both his ears. Amelia took him home for repairs, and he has not yet resumed his duties.
Murgatroyd is neither a metal nor a dragon. Murgatroyd is our new piece of office equipment. It's got a monitor like a head, and a long pole, and a basket for a brisket, and a lovely splay-footed rolley base. I'm actually not sure what Murgatroyd does, but I get the impression he monitors vital signs or something. He's quite personable, just like a Pixar creature, and therefore needed a name. So far we really do refer to him as "Murgatroyd," which is a good sign.
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