Footnotes -- Little dogs yapping at the heels of the text.1

 William James2

Will3 Cuppy4 was the master5 of the discursive6 footnote7.  

1 Dr. Mardy Grothe, 2008, I Never Metaphor I Didn't Like, Collins.  

This book also gives another great quote about footnotes from Noel Coward:   "Having to read a footnote resembles having to go downstairs to answer the door while in the midst of making love."  

And why didn't Mr. Coward use "whilst" as in "... whilst in the midst ..."? Authors' choices are mysterious.   

2 William James,  1842-1910, was an amazing man.  He spent his entire career at Harvard where he first taught medicine, then psychology, then philosophy, then occupied an important chair in psychology, and ended up in an important chair in philosophy.  The founder of American Pragmatism, he was also a very important contributor to modern psychology.  His writings are a pleasure to read.  His brother, Henry, was a famous novelist, and his sister, Alice, could write too.  The James's must have been an interesting family growing up.  I don't know if or how he might have been affected by having a name consisting of what might well be considered two first names.   

3 "Will" is the short form of "William", a name with an uncommon number of shortened forms or "nicknames."   Other common ones are "Bill," "Willie," and even "Liam."  It also one of those names that can be initialized as "Wm."  making those with this name a Period, as described inThe Gammage Cup, a fine children's story by Carol Kendall from the 1950's.  

 See also Shakespeare's sonnet CXXXV for a fuller treatment on "will."  Please note that this author believes firmly that Shakespeare is the author of Shakespeare's work; this sonnet alone proves it.   

4 William Jacob Cuppy, American humorist, lived from 1884 to 1949  and published several books of satire based on history and nature.  He published many short essays in magazines, including "The New Yorker," and made his living as a reviewer of detective stories.  

My favorite Cuppy book, a collection of essays more or less about housekeeping, is How to Be A Hermit,  1929.  However he is probably best known for the posthumously published The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody.   Both books are still in print and worth reading.  Curiously,How to Be A Hermit does not have footnotes!  

5 "Master" is a curious term isn't it?  It's a noun, adjective, and verb, with many subtle connotations and denotations.   "Mister" is derived from this word, which is why I'm careful about using it.  I like the Japanese term "sensei" which has some of the same meanings.  

6 By "discursive" I mean "rambling."  The word comes from "discourse."  However it always makes me think of "cursive" writing, which is another word for the (in English) style of writing where the letters are connected, as opposed to "printing."  When I took a course in italic handwriting, I learned that having to lift one's fountain pen to move from one letter to the next actually slows down the process considerably.  Therefore it's a little surprising that some languages, like Latin and Hebrew, have cursive scripts in which the letters are not joined!  Score one more for English!  

7 I'm quite impressed, actually, that Open Salon's word processor makes it so easy to do footnotes in this electronic format.  Well done!  

I have been unable to track down the first historical use of a footnote by an author or in a published work.  I do know that they were in use in 17th Century France.  And speaking of 17th Century France . . .  

"Salon" first appeared in French in the 17th Century and is based on an Italian word for the reception hall in a mansion.  The practice in France was for the salonniere, the woman who ran the salon, to hold it in the drawing room, a much more intimate space suitable for a gathering of witty people ready to discuss poetry, the arts, politics, and the meaning of life - very much indeed like the members of Open Salon.  As far as I can determine, the word "saloon" is not related.  Neither word is related to the name " Solon," the lawgiver of Athens in the sixth century BCE.  I don't know if he wrote his laws in cursive Greek or not.  

And that brings me to the end of this one sentence, nine-word, post.  I hope that sets some sort of record for brevity on Open Salon.