(Mostly about penguins rather than language.)
From Chris Ambidge in Canada, a package cover for Brownies — brownie-like cookies in penguin shapes (shown at about half actual size).
I wonder how Brownies is pronounced in Canadian French.
In other penguin-related household news, back on February 28th, I got a postcard from my friends Mike Jankulak and Sim Aberson (aka the Aberlaks) with a familiar photo of a pair of king penguins:
What was exciting was that the card came from South Georgia (as in the British overseas territory South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, in the Southern Atlantic). Among other places, they visited the largest king penguin colony on South Georgia — an estimated 500,000 penguins.
The South Georgia stamp on the postcard showed an elephant seal, also common in those parts. (I haven’t been able to find a good image of the stamp.)
[Added at the request of Mark Mandel, a small image of the stamp;
]
Then on April 4th, Max Vasilatos paid me a visit, bringing with her various presents: the TitanMen postcards I have since amended with captions; a book of male photography, Besame Mucho, by Pedro Usabiaga; and the April 8th issue of Time, with a photo essay “In the Beginnings” (text by Richard Lacayo, photos by Sebastião Salgado) on South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, with hordes of penguins in one of he photos:
On South Georgia, a barren island in the far South Atlantic, a pair of southern elephant seal calves beckon before a colony of king penguins. “The male seals can grow to almost five tons,” says Salgado, “but these are just babies. This one looked at me with beautiful eyes.”
And that’s the news for penguins (and elephant seals).
