Dear Jon, I think the word 'loo' is a corruption of 'l'eau' from the expression 'gardez l'eau' as the contents of the chamber-pot were thrown into the street! Happy New Year! Charles
-----Original Message----- From: Jon Murphy [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 28 December 2004 09:18 To: Vance Wood; lute list Subject: Re: Instrument Sounding Vance, I'm with you, I just mentioned the banjo finger picks as I know of them (tried 'em, hate 'em). But I wonder at what you say of the lute - I thought (from previous messages when I first joined the list) that lute players not only didn't use fingernails but also wanted soft flesh on their fingers. The instruments I know to "require" fingernails are classical guitar and wire strung harp. I don't play classical guitar, but I do play an equivalent to the wire harp and find my rather hardened fingertips are fine for that, yet not too hard for lute or nylon strung harp. I guess that one can't have perfection if one plays different instruments, but the best compromise is probably no fingernails. BTW, you spell the "loo" as "lew", not that I mean to pick nits. It just gives me the opportunity to bounce a thought off our UK brethren on the list. I have a theory on the origin of the word. The English word of some time back for the "john" is W.C. (water closet). Nineteenth C. England was noted for euphemisms and nicknames. England (with the Prussians) defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. Only a small step to convert water closet into Waterloo as a nickname, and then abbreviate it to "loo". Not lute related (unless you leave out the "t"), but I love words as well as music. Best, Jon To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
