And, then, there's "Barney Google," with the goog-goog-googly eyes!"
----- Forwarded Message
From: Stan Kelly-Bootle <skb@bootle.biz>
Date: Mon, 27 Mar 2006 15:31:12 +0100
To: Stan Kelly-Bootle <skb@bootle.biz>
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] Google, googols, Gogol: DN
I now see that VN used the word “googley” (or “googly”) in the cricket
(game!) sense in Mary Chap. 2 (see
http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/teach/mglos2.htm
I assume the Russian term used by VN was a simple transliteration of
the English “googl[e]y?”
Also, a glossary for Ada states that “googled” is derived from the
cricketing curve-ball “googly”
(http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/ada3.html)
BTW: the “dangers” of googling: there was a match for “Nabokov +
Cricket” in VN’s autobio where he speaks of “the cricket—mad dusk.”
This is the insect, not the crowds at Lords celebrating England’s
famous Ashes victory as bad light stopped play.
skb
[Re: "VN may have had this in mind when describing
the sudden swerve of the bicycle? We may never know for sure!" --Stan
Kelly-Bootle]
No -- that's a lemniscate.
DN