After commenting on one of Bruce’s blog entries, I was reminded of a poem called “The Flyting betwixt Montgomery and Polwart”. I tried to find a handy copy to refresh my memory, but instead I ran into an odd article in Folklore:
At all events the British Association has more than once taken note of them, and has not gone so far as the Russian Commissary of Education, who has announced that all mention of fairies, angels, or devils in fairy tales is to be supplanted by the words “scientists and technicians who have served humanity.” Whether these partake the nature of angels or of devils, or incline more to that of fairies, I leave you to judge.
I had not heard of a Triffid before someone started making fun of MiFID compliance.
The triffid is a highly venomous fictional species of plant that appears to have limited intelligence and survival instincts. It is the titular antagonist from the 1951 novel The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham and also later appears in Simon Clark’s novel The Night of the Triffids, a sequel set 25 years later, in which the triffid evolves into a more threatening form.
Evil attacking plants. But the best part in Wikipedia is how the “Evolution of the triffid threat” is described:
Despite their dangerous nature, it was determined that the value of a triffid outweighed the risks, and people began to cultivate them as a commercial crop. This resulted in triffid seeds being spread all over the world in a comparatively short space of time: within 20 years, triffids were a common crop in numerous countries.
It is written in a non-fiction tone and is believable until you get to the part where triffids take over all the urban spaces and force humans to live in “fortified farms” in the countryside. Plants taking over cities and forcing humans to hide in nature?