Hazard to Shipping

[Nick]

. . . has signed up for this board . . .

I guess she won't post until Monday when she's back attending the Cooncil and bored . . .

[Nick]

. . . here's some things about red-headed women

Redheads "are deemed to be the emotional slaves of our colouring as no other group," writes redheaded Nicola Tyrer in the Daily Telegraph;

short temper and sexual fieriness are attributed to them. In France, to be redheaded is thought to be a fate so dire that some women have formed a Proud to be Red association.

Percentages of redheads in different countries range from single digits to a fraction of 1 per cent -- a recent estimate for France is 0.03 per cent of people. (A 1977 estimate for North America is 4 per cent.)

Redheads generally are more numerous in northern latitudes, but also turn up among Hungarians, Egyptians, Israelis and certain Nigerian tribes.

"In Denmark it is an honour to have a redheaded child. In Corsica, if you pass one in the street you spit and turn around. In Poland, if you pass three red-heads you'll win the state lottery," claims Sylvia Stevez, the Parisian founder of Association Francaise des Rousses.

Harvard dermatologist Madhu Pathak calls redheads "three-time losers" because their red pigment is an inadequate filter of sunlight and their skin is more susceptible to sunburn, skin cancer and wrinkling with age.

There are two kinds of redhead, says Mary Spillane, managing director of British image consultants Colour Me Beautiful. There's "the autumn type with hazel eyes," and the Celtic type with translucent skin, light eyes and carrot top -- leprechaun redness "that people have trouble with."

Redheads have always been thought untrustworthy. As a 17th-century Frenchman observed, "Judas, it is said, was red-haired."

Superstitions: red hair is unlucky; it's lucky to rub your hand on a redhead's head; bees sting redheads more readily. The Egyptians regarded the colour as so unlucky that they had a ceremony in which they burned red-headed maidens alive to wipe out the tint, says author Claudie De Lys.

In 1960, a contributor to the journal of the British Folklore Society wrote: "Before the ship was due to sail, I became aware of a muttering outside my door. I asked the captain what it was all about and... he replied that the [men in the] fo'castle did not want to sail with a strange red-haired woman aboard, especially as the cargo was iron ore."

All true of course, and all things to consider when offering a berth . . .

[hazard to shipping]

Ha surprise - I'm nae at the cooncil and I'm nae bored - just using someones computer instead.

"he replied that the [men in the] fo'castle did not want to sail with a strange red-haired woman aboard, especially as the cargo was iron ore."

Diz irn bru count?

[Silkie]

Couldn't quite understand the significance of the iron ore myself. The rest of it all made perfect sense of course.

[claymore]

I'm just wondering how she can get a fair trial wi a' tha nonsense posted aboot the hue o her hair - Ah dinnae remember ye goin tae sic legths when I signed up for this forum and so I have tae say et all soonds a bit sexist tae me - eith that or favouritism.

[Silkie]

Favouritism I suspect, remembering the carefully orchestrated (second) debut on YBW which also featured certain remarks concerning the hue of HTS's.. ermm.. hair.