Geek of the Week: Neil Armstrong, Cornelius Agrippa

Welcome to the inaugural "Geek of the Week" feature; here we honor one Muggle geek and one Wizard geek who embody Ravenclaw spirit...
when they succeed, they soar, and when they fail, they fail spectacularly!

Neil Armstrong (1930 - 2012)
“I am, and ever will be, a white socks, pocket protector, nerdy engineer,” he said in February 2000 in one of his rare public appearances. “And I take a substantial amount of pride in the accomplishments of my profession.”

HE WAS THE FIRST PERSON TO WALK ON THE MOON.  I don't really need to say more, I think, but I will.  Armstrong was only the second person in his family to attend college and he made the most of it, earning a 4.8 GPA at Purdue and obtaining degrees in aeronautical and aerospace engineering from USC.  After his famous moonpath moon walk, Armstrong accepted a teaching position at U Cincinnati and served on two spaceflight accident investigations.  Upon his death two weeks ago, Armstrong's family released this statement:

"For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request. Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink."

Find out more about Neil Armstrong on Wikipedia.
contribution props to Jayannell and Honeyspoon; #WinkAtTheMoon

Cornelius Agrippa (1486 - 1535)
His Chocolate Frog trading card reads "celebrated wizard imprisoned by Muggles for his writing, because they thought his books were evil."  What you may not know is that Muggles also keep a record of Agrippa as a magician, occult writer, theologian, astrologer, and alchemist.

He is known in the wizarding world for his treatises on elemental, celestial and intellectual magic; he is also the namesake of the potion ingredient Agrippa.

Read the Muggle version of Agrippa's life on Wikipedia.

Quiddy Challenge 1: Accepted!

Ravenclaws are rocking the first Quidditch challenge, sending out many more students for stretching and calisthenics than our nearest rival.  Let's keep up the awesome momentum -- one can never be too limber!

There is still time to sign up to be this term's Seeker; if you have video collage experience, you can earn extra points for RAVENCLAW!  Sign up here by tomorrow (AKA Wednesday, Sep 4, 2012)!

Things Every Ravenclaw Should Know: Your Middle Name is Frances (or Francis)

A Note from the Chief Archivist:

Dear Fellow Ravenclaws, I, Soprano1, your humble Chief Archivist, am here to report on events and lore both old and new that you need to know.  You may never have thought you needed to know these things... but I assure you, you will be happier knowing them.

Ravenclaw, of all the Houses, has a long and rich history, and because new people come in all the time, some of that history (though in Muggle years only 3 or fewer years old) has become rapidly ancient and even lost and forgotten.  And some of it was really fun, and gets recalled by the people who have been here for fourteen terms.  We don’t want it to be something that makes Ravenclaw an exclusive insiders club (though, remind me to tell you sometime about the Elite Oligarchy of the Underworld of Knitting... but, I digress)... so I’ve started to document some of these things so that when someone says, “What on earth is up with all the Cephalopods?” we can say, “Oh! That’s in the Archives! Go take a look!”  (In truth, Junior Archivist and Head of House Emerita IsisonEarth has claimed that story and will be bringing it to you sometime in October.)

If there is something you think should be in the Archives, please PM me or earburn me to a post.  It will go on a master list and it will be handled in time.  If there is something you want to document, PM me and we’ll talk! I do not look down my nose at offers of help.

So, weeklyish, usually on Saturdays, I will bring you a new article delineating the answer to those burning questions you didn’t even know you had about Ravenclaw History.  They will be published in the Ravenclaw Aerie and also linked more-or-less permanently (and definitely Magically) in the Tower Pages (AKA the Archives).  If you’re not sure where something is, ask around, and we’ll help you find it!
Now, on with our story.

The tale of why your middle name is Frances goes far back into the history, not just of the Tower, but of the House Cup itself.  Yes, O Best Beloved, there was a time when Ravenclaw Tower did not stand on its own, but was merely a … thread … in the tapestry of the Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup, also known as Hogwarts.  Students would gather together in the Great Hall and the Houses intermingled more than they do now, largely because, as we already know from our Archival research, there were only about a hundred House Cuppers in the fall of 2008 (28 of them Sorted to Ravenclaw) and so they gathered together for warmth and company.

The very first reference to things with the middle name Frances/is is actually not about people.  It is this post, from December 13, 2008, in which GazeboGal explains to new knitter (!) GoGoGirl84 that the stitches behave themselves better if you name them, and that all of hers have the middle name Frances (or Francis)  just in case she needs to speak sternly to them.  

The issue came up again a few days later, on December 31, 2008, in response to finding out that ScarlettB’s two apparent names (Scarlett Belladonna) are just a small percentage of her entire name.  GazeboGal explained her own many names as well.  Because you know, don’t you, that no one calls her “Gazebo” in her Muggle home, right? :-D  Oh, and just as a side note, GG? You need to send your HIGH SCHOOLER!!! to Auntie Julia for his lesson in avoiding Zombie Relationships.  It is time.  Goodness, he was just a touch older than D1 is now when this was written...

Onward.  In April 2009, in response to PrincessOnica (Our Founder!)’s post saying that she envisioned everyone’s age to be the same as hers (28 ½, the dear! I lost over a decade in that transaction!), GazeboGal responded, “Yeah, and everyone’s middle name is Frances.”  This is the very first record I can find in which this bit of history is plainly stated.

It is not until we were awaiting the arrival of HeadBaby Z, Onica’s first house-cup child, that GG fleshed out her idea that in her head, Frances is everyone’s middle name. On November 29, 2009, well into the betting pool but days and days before Z finally arrived, GG wrote,

I just sort of assume that since Frances is such a perfect middle name that it’s Everyone’s middle name

Onica Frances

Cattie Frances

Scarlett Frances

CrazyRed Frances

see how nice that sounds?

And it does! And replies to this post led directly to a personal moment for me, in which GG called me “Soprano Frances” for the very first time.  (Also, if you have time to putter around that page, it’s full of awesome).

Time went on, and several Frances discussions were had.  And then the Tower was rebuilt from its own rubble, and the Frances phenomenon was buried... and then resurfaced in this conversation.  Which was about middle names, and also somehow included PorcupineSnuggle’s workplace’s very odd definition of the word “between.” The names conversation is lengthy and curvaceous and is punctuated by a Corgi Video of Radar Sneezing.

I’m sure I could find more, but you wouldn’t read it.  So I’ll end by pointing you to the discussion in which, in response to SFCorgi’s lamenting that she’d passed several plant and floral names by Mr. Corgi, GazeboGal seems to have settled the matter.  And history was made.  And then, Isis knit Wee Corgi some Crabgrass, which ended up being her favorite toy.  Silly me, I just knit an elephant.

And that, O Best Beloved, is the story of why your middle name is Frances, and why Wee Corgi has eleventy-one Aunties who call her Crabgrass, much to the horror of her grandma.