Elaine Morgan RIIP; A for Aquatic Ape

I can't believe it... Elaine Morgan just passed away!!

Elain was/is my hero.  I had posted about her in my March 30, 2010 post made in my blog, Toumai, re:http://toumaiocean.blogspot.ca/search?q=Elain+Morgan.  I even had an email conversation with her even.  I've decided to repost it here:

Velum Synchronicity in the Nick of Time

This is a muli-faceted synchronicity.  

This morning I was doing the happy dance-- I recieved an email from a woman I admire -- Elaine Morgan.  Yes that's right, the famous author Elaine Morgan.  Actually, unless you're a Anthropologist/feminist buff you're not likely to have heard of her.  Butt in a nutshell, she has basically gone where no man would dare--spearheading the success of a controvercial new theory regarding the evolution of mankind, re: the Aquatic Ape Hypothesis.  Of course, for a long time, she was kept on the "lunatic fringe" by so called "professionals", butt she perservered so as far those who considered her "nuts", the only characteristic she possess in that regard is her tenacity-- hard to crack!! 

;-)(-;. 

On March 13 and 14 I posted two stories/synchronicities that concern Elaine Morgan : http://toumaiocean.blogspot.com/2010/03/synchro-ape.html  http://toumaiocean.blogspot.com/2010/03/lunatic-fringe.html

Actually, Elain was responding to an email that I had sent her yesterday.  The first picture inset shows my email withe second one being her response.  First off,  I had thanked her for being so brave and then I proceed to talk about the Aquatic Ape Hypothesis and made mention of another human characteristic which I think is a "key" support to the hypothesis, butt which has not been mention to date-- the muscle behind the palate, the one that many humans are able to raise up and hold in place, so, effectively plugging off the nostrils while swimming and diving.  The question is, why would nature have evolved such a unique ability except that we had spent a great length of time evolving and taking sustenance from the water via swimming and diving.

Elaine wrote:

Dear May,

Thank you for your letter.

Yes I know what you mean. I even know the name of it - I believe it is called the velum.
What I don't know -but will now try to find out - is how many other species have got it.I can't think why I never thought of asking that question before!

All best wishes,

Elaine 

I am so glad that I wrote to her.  I hadn't really expected her to read let alone respond to my email-- who am I after all?

Of course, I had to call Cathy right away to tell her.  She was excited too and would tell me about something that happened just the day before concerning one of our friends who loves to joke around with odd little words-- just throwing them into conversations so that people would do a "what the heck"double take.  Apparently our friend had referred to the "velum"... it was probably in a context like: "Hey, don't get your velum in a knot!", which of course would get many a puzzled look to which she would probably reply, "What... you don't know (sigh)? Velum-- the soft palate behind the hard palate!"  Of course people would get a good laugh.  

Now here's something interesting, when checking out the etymology dictionary for the word  "velum" it references  "veil".
veil : early 13c., from Anglo-Fr. and O.N.Fr. veil (O.Fr. voile) "a head-covering," also "a sail," from L. vela, pl. of velum "sail, curtain, covering," from PIE base *weg- "to weave." . The verb (1382) is from O.Fr. veler, voiller, from L. velare "to cover, veil," from velum. Figurative sense of "to conceal"

So, what to make of it all?! And it's peculiar don't you think... that the "velum" would have been "veiled" to Elaine Morgan and other researchers in the field.  So, what's up  with that?

Perhaps revealing the velum is equivilant to "removing the veil".

(update, I was talking with the friend referred to above -- sent her an email with a link to this post and come to find out the word she had used and Cathy mistook as "velum", was actually "uvula" which is actually that pendulum shape that hangs down from the velum-- closely tied to the velum, but not the actual word, uvula means "little grape"...  getting your uvula tied in a know would be interesting too).

;-/\/\-;