Seax Flitch

Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East of England.

It is a home county.

Ceremonial counties are areas of England to which are appointed a Lord Lieutenant.

Home counties are counties which border London.

The office of Lord Lieutenant can be considered viceregal but is certainly not equivalent to Governor-General. A very spiffy uniform is usually authorized, however. He or she has no official duties between parades that I could find.

The county's coat of arms contains three Saxon seax knives on a red background.

Essex was once a kingdom, but was subsumed into the Kingdom of England and later became just a county thereof.

Essex is home to the Dunmow Flitch Trials.

Famous people who were born in Essex include Dame Maggie Smith and Jamie Oliver, though at different times. Winston Churchill slept there once.

The motto of the county council is: "Essex Wonks".

That is all.

Correction: "Essex Works".

For extra credit, say the following really fast three times: The sixth sick sheik sucked on seven Saxon seax.

If anyone knows any other interesting things about Essex, or if you have any cute Essex anecdotes, please put them in comments. On soubriquet's blog, though.

First, tell me who you are

Yesterday's post opened up many unexpected avenues to explore, and I sense there are special words along each of those avenues. It occurs to me that before I start to make arguments about language and culture, I perhaps should know something about yours.

Just because I don't know this information would not necessarily stop me from spouting off, normally, but here I find that I have a strange genuine desire to learn more about those islands over there off the coast of France. So, why not argue from an informed perspective? I said to myself.

And here you are, just gagging to make a comment and share all your knowledge and experiences, right? Or was it just the Aussies who gag to do things? I forgot already.

I want to know about each—England, Wales, Scotland, and NI. Think that's all nowadays. I'm not going to be so anal as to take them each in turn (sorry A.), but instead you may talk about your own, or your favorite, or the one whose culture you feel familiar with, as you choose, all mixed up together.

As for England, I have discovered there are several distinct regions. Silly me, I thought only the U.S. came in distinct regions. So perhaps some of you can get rather specialized for me. Quickly, he adds, so as to avoid indignant unrelated comments, it is suspected that EACH comes in unique distinct regions, not just England.

I find that, as I scour my meager memory for information about the UK taught to me as a child in primary school, I can retrieve very little, I'm afraid. I don't know why they taught it so early on when I was in school, maybe 5th grade it was, but that's the way it was and now my ignorance is really showing. Help me out. Hell, it's probably all different now anyway, right?

Of course, judging from past quizzing, you folks know very little about my country either, so that makes me feel a little better.

All I can see in my mind's eye right now are snippets: mimeographed maps we had to put names of cities on. Draw boundary lines. Birmingham. Cutlery. Coal mining. Loch Ness. Loch Lomond. Loch being lake, I take it. Wee Bobby Burns. You take the high road. Comin' through the rye. Childhood songs. How Green Was My Valley. London Bridge is falling down (did it really, I wonder?)

It's all jumbled together in there. Need to sort it out again. Help me, he cries in desperation. Then I will come back and argue with you about the need for preservation of individual cultures.

Deal?