[Glastonbury] Mandrake

[Andrew M.A. Cater]

On Wed, Mar 02, 2005 at 12:44:40PM +0000, info at wccl.co.uk wrote:
> 
> 
> I read yesterday an article about a garden specifically of poisonous plants 
> that is being opened to the public and therein is mentioned the Mandrake 
> plant, which screams when pulled up or cut or something, I forget the exact 
> detail. 
> 
Mandrake: Poisonous plant. Used as a hypnotic / to induce trance, in
love potions etc. etc. Root is man shaped / woman shaped. [Mediaeval and
earlier legend: Plant screams when pulled up. Scream fatal to the
hearer: put wax in your ears, loosen soil round plant, tie (hungry) dog
to plant, drive dog away. Plant pulled up, dog takes the hit and dies.]
I first read about this when I was about 8 :) Lots of nice illustrations
of this from mediaeval fables and bestiaries, especially those available
from the Bibliotheque Nationale in France.

> (Sounds like an intresting place to visit. But is in North of England.)
> 
> I presume the Linux Mandrake is that cute Duck I like to have travelling 
> across the screen sometimes in the screensaver. Did they take into account 
> the plant?
> 
There is a comic book hero Mandrake the Magician. Mandrake have actually
had problems with the name: now that they've merged with the Brazilian
distribution Connectiva it is possible they may change the name of the
new company. Earlier versions had a Tux type penguin with a wand: now I
think it's just the wand or stars that you see as the background.

> How many times have you been asked this?!
> 
Only once so far: this is my opportunity to show off more useless
knowledge :)

Take care,

Andy
> Ros
> 
> Wells Computer Consultants Ltd 
> Systems that Count
> 
If the systems can count: are they free of the various Intel division
bugs? "We are Pentium of Borg: division is futile, you will be
approximated" :)