Success!

Four days after launching this blog, it has received 220 hits (as of 8:30 a.m. today) and has 22 subscribers.

But perhaps the most noteworthy success so far is that the content of Tuesday's blog entry ("Adage: rats abandoning a sinking ship?") made it onto Page 2A of the Mooresville Tribune today. Since it's not the front page, I'm not sure if the Tribune's webpage will have a link to the article. But if it does, I will link it here as soon as it's posted.

Thanks to all of you who have been reading ... and for your encouraging e-mails.

Until my next "meaty" post, here's some light reading for you, from one of my subscribers who responded to my question about the specific wording of the "rat" adage:

If people leave a company because they know that it's about to have serious problems, or turn their back on a person about to be in a similar situation, they are said to be like rats deserting a sinking ship. http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/like+a+rat+deserting+a+sinking+ship.html


Q. What's the Latin for Rats Deserting a Sinking Ship?

A. Pliny the Elder, in his Natural History, wrote about mice deserting a building when it was in imminent danger of collapse:

Ruinis inminentibus musculi praemigrant.
When ruin is imminent, the little rodents move away beforehand.

Book VIII.103 PROGNOSTICS OF DANGER DERIVED FROM ANIMALS http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/quotes/f/020908Rats.htm