Hiya Skeleton Crew,

I checked out my ol’ shed, & guess what: the Airstream’s in halfway decent condition! I’m gonna spend the next day or two gettin it into ship-shape, then maybe I’ll go on a li’l vacay.

Trivia 1

The word voyageurs is French for “travelers”, & in Europe there’re a bunch of groups of itinerant folks who get called by the name “Travellers”. Like ya mighta heard of the Irish Travellers? There’re also Scottish Travellers & Dutch Travellers, & there’s even a group of Travellers in Flanders that literally go by the name Voyageurs.

These various groups of Travellers get lumped in together with the Roma, demographically speakin. But despite all sharin an itinerant lifestyle, these groups are ethnically distinct, with different languages & genetic backstories & whatnot.

Anyways, one person of Irish Traveller heritage who ya mighta heard of in the news lately is what fierce boxer, who’ll be fightin vs. his rival, Anthony Joshua, later this year? The New York Times calls it a $200 million “megafight” that’s been “years in the making” … so, uh, that sounds pretty excitin, I guess!!

Trivia 2

The Romani language has got lotsa varieties & spinoffs & NOT a whole ton of standardization. Part of that’s on account of how Romani speakers tend to be multilingual with whatever language is local where they live. So ya get lotsa loanwords & blendings & regional influences that make for a fun challenge for linguists who’re interested in makin sense of it all!

On the flipside, ya also get Romani influences in lotsa other languages – plus also in whatcha might call a crypto-language or secret language or cant (like in “thieves’ cant”). Can ya tell me what cant, which contains lotsa borrowed words from Romani, first sprung up in British fish markets, theatres, fairgrounds, & circuses in the 19th century, & eventually came to be ’sociated with the gay & queer community?