Linguā anglicā: “Key to renowned Quorans”
I have taken to cartooning Quorans I like and banter with. Both the cartoons and the banter feature jocular references that may not be immediately obvious to outsiders, who can only judge from the Quorans’ profile pic. (Often enough, the profile pic is all I have to go on to.)
Herewith, a key to my in-joke references, which gives me a good excuse to link-love Quorans some more. Depictions drawn from profile pics are not further explained.
To Jeremy M. Thompson (too tall to fit the frame; and I can’t draw someone sitting cross-legged); Mohammed Khateeb Kamran (Hansolophontes); Michael J. McFadden (I miss passive smoking); Alberto Yagos (whose third job is correcting my Latin conjugation); Habib Fanny (Habib le toubib qui rit); Curtis Lindsay (who has dragged me kicking and screaming to Chopin); Gareth Jones (the metricist of the North West); Steven de Guzman (the first of many Lazaruses); Scott Welch (my True Quora Master); Miguel Paraz (my next door neighbour); Edward Conway (the most polite Quoran conceivable); Steve Theodore (the Classical prestidigitator); Uri Granta (the Zarphatic mathemagician); Vladimir Menkov (Slavicist of Champions); Adam Mathias Bittlingmayer (expert in Four Homelands):
Jeremy Markeith Thompson: several things going on. He’s 6 foot lots, so he’s tall (and his profile pic is not very detailed); he’s wearing sunglasses, because apparently that’s how he shields his Male Gaze; he meditates, hence the hand position (but not the cross legged); he’s wearing a tux, because he’s a conservative (though likely not Nation Of Islam), and a Class Act.
Mohammed Khateeb Kamran: Khateeb complained that I hadn’t come up with a nickname for him, and undertook to perform a Perseid deed worthy of a nickname. Well, if he’s going to undertake a deed worthy of Perseus, how about Medusa-Slayer? Medusophontes in Homeric Greek. And Khateeb gets to carry Medusa’s head around.
Except, when I told him how I admired Robert Frost for coming up with Adam DiCaprio (when complaining about the lack of spoiler blocking), Khateeb admitted that he may have accidentally triggered Robert’s indignation, by blurting out a recent Star Wars film spoiler as a question. Hence, Hansolophontes, and updated head.
… It was only a day after posting this sketch that I realised: Oh shit. Decapitation. And Khateeb is Muslim.
But you know what? Fuck ISIS. I’m drawing Khateeb as Perseus, I know it, he knows it, and now you know it. The throwbacks of Raqqa may have blown up Palmyra, but they don’t get to own my country’s motherfucking mythology. And Khateeb is welcome to enjoy my country’s mythology too.
So. Having said that.
Michael J. McFadden: Smoking, of course.
Alberto Yagos: he teaches Latin in high school. Of course he’s wearing a toga. Don’t all Latin teachers?
Habib Fanny: Francophone. Habib le toubib qui rit: Habib, the laughing medico.
Gareth Jones: I first noticed him because he was posting about poetical metres. Proud Canadian, in that understated way Canadians are.
Steven de Guzman: First Quoran I know to have been banned, then unbanned: brought back from the dead, like Lazarus. (He has it on his bio; I think I came up with it.) That is meant to be Steven emerging from a coffin in a shroud, like icons depict Lazarus.
Scott Welch: Long term Quora critic, whom I have learned much from. Depicted throwing darts at Quora. NOT at Miguel Paraz wearing a Top Writer T-shirt.
Miguel Paraz: Works two blocks from my workplace.
Uri Granta: His bachelor name (i.e. pre-marriage) is Zarphaty. Zarphatic is the Hebrew word for French (originally the Biblical name of Sarepta in Lebanon). I don’t think Uri is French, but he is a mathemagician.
Adam Mathias Bittlingmayer: Knows an inordinate amount about the homelands of both himself (Germany, Serbia) and his wife (Armenia, Turkey).