So, I taught the first Internet Orientation of the fall calendar tonight... boy, was I rusty. Bad enough that I'm getting over a cold, and for some reason, oration tends to make my throat fog up and my nose run. But on top of that, it just took me a bit to get into the swing of it, so the class lasted even longer than my long-winded usual. :( Still, it wasn't all my fault-- I had a group more to the "beginner" end of "beginner to intermediate," and so I took time to go over some computer basics that often I can skip right over... and they asked a good number of questions throughout, so I don't think I was making anyone glaze over, particularly. But it was the last pair of questions that really got me. I'd just finished going through search engines, and was wrapping up, and asked if there were any questions. One gentleman had two.
"What was the name of Sancho Panza's donkey in Don Quixote?"
(Dapple, says Google.)
and...
"What was the name of Torquemada's horse?"
(...)
Well, darn it. I wound up working on this one all night, bulldog librarian that I am. I told him to ask me again when I had more time to look (hey, the building was closing soon), but I don't think I've got an answer for him. Unless he meant Fray Juan de Torquemada, the early Spanish historian of colonial Mexico, instead of the inquisitor. But even that's a stretch, and I can't find any horses specifically linked to him. Hm. I'd think my leg was being pulled, but he really did seem to want the answer, and he wrote the *other* one down. I did recall a very nice list of famous horses from Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (yes, I know, looking up a print source online, sort of cheating ;) ), but that didn't have it either. Ah, vell. If anyone happens to stumble across the name, please ease my mind and let me know, will you? (And cite your source!)
Posted by gris at September 9, 2004 11:53 PM