2019 - Day 128/237 - Wednesday...Foolscap...

As you may or may not be aware, I have never proclaimed to be an expert in the world of meteorological expertise. That means (I think) that I could never be a weather prognosticator, since I have issues with being rejected. I cannot think of a profession where people would have more opinions about what one does, and what odds are given as to whether they should plan on a pic-nic or not on any given day. For example, the forecast is for heavy rain this Sunday, which also happens to be Mother's Day, much to the dismay of fathers and pre-pubescent children from here to yonder. Another thing I am pretty sure of is, it was not 102 degrees outside when this picture was documented for the ages. Lower 70s maybe, but certainly not 102, even if it were directly in the sun. An hour or so after the picture was taken, it is registering 92 degrees, so maybe it was in direct sun, and the register was accurate. Not sure. What I am sure of it, it rained today. A lot! Nothing too much over night on the Edge of Nowhere, but like crazy in Austin, and over an inch at the Edge of Nowhere. I am flying to McAllen tomorrow, so it looks like things will be clear, so I am really not expecting the flight to be cancelled. Time will tell!

Foolscap -- Noun. 1. a cap or hood usually with bells worn by jesters. 2. a conical cap for slow or lazy students. 3. a size of paper formerly standard in Great Britain. The exhibit includes a number of early legal documents written on foolscap with quill and ink.

Did You Know? These days, we are most likely to encounter foolscap as a reference to a sheet of paper or, more especially, to a sheet of paper that is similar in size to a sheet of legal paper. In the mid-1600s, however, when the use of foolscap was first attested to in English, it referred to an actual fool's cap -- the cap, often with bells, worn as a part of a jester's motley. How did we get from this colorful cap to a sheet of paper? The connection is attributable to the former use of a watermark depicting a fool's cap that was used on long sheets of writing or printing paper. There are various explanations for the introduction of this watermark -- including the claim that a 1648 British parliamentary group substituted it for the royal arms during exceptionally turbulent times -- but such explanations remain unsupported by historical facts.