In the Isle of Man there is something of a superstition whereby Manx people can’t say the name of one of those little furry things that were blamed for the Black Death, pestilence in general and a whole host of other nefarious things. The reasons for this have dissipated into the mists of time but the superstition remains and due to this quirk in Manx folklore there are a number of socially acceptable local alternatives which include joey, longtail, ringie, iron fella and roddan.
Recently young people have also begun saying ‘r-a-t’ owing to the influence of English immigrants but older people on the Isle of Man don’t tend to listen to those Jonny come-overs too much and certainly not on such serious subjects as these little buggers. There is a comparable taboo against uttering the word ‘rabbit’ on the Isle of Portland. Here ends the lesson.
Cheers
id-iom
Title: Mickey or a ringie?
Size: A2
Media: Acrylic and paint pen
Let’s take a trip down memory lane. The year is 1948 and most of the UK is looking for a good long sit down for a year or two. Twelve year old Tom Carruthers however has other ideas. After witnessing the ravages of war first hand he wants to create a noble protector so it won’t happen again. After some basic genetic tampering with a (what would now be highly illegal) chemistry set and some stuff he found in his dad’s shed he managed to embiggen his pet rat, Twinkles, by a factor of 2. Fearing he’d get in trouble from his dad for having a giant rat he did what he thought was the decent thing and let his now super-intelligent rat free into the London sewers. If we skip forward 50 years then Twinkles is still very much alive but now he’s still super-intelligent, has grown to over 200 foot in size and goes by the name Ro Don’t. If you have a problem… if no one else can help… and if you can find him… maybe you can hire… Ro Don’t.
If that isn’t the best B film you’d watch this year then I’ll eat my cheese shoes. It is A4 in size and made using Watercolour, acrylic and tipex. Drop us a line if interested.
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