This week, A.Word.A.Day is doing not words but 2-word phrases of the pattern X’s Y.

Today’s phrase was curate’s egg, which is based on an 1895 cartoon from Punch magazine.

A.W.A.D’s email didn’t include the cartoon, but Wikipedia’s entry for “curate’s egg” did, so I provide them both here:

This week’s theme: whose what?

curate’s egg (KYOOR-itz eg) noun

Something having both good and bad parts.

[From a cartoon in Punch magazine (London, UK) in which a timid curate (a junior clergy member), when served a stale egg at a bishop's table, tries to assure his host that parts of the egg were edible:

Right Reverend Host: I'm afraid you've got a bad egg, Mr. Jones!

The Curate: Oh no, My Lord, I assure you! Parts of it are excellent!

The cartoon was drawn by George du Maurier and published in the Nov 9, 1895 issue of the magazine. That makes it one of the very few terms whose origin we can pin down to a specific date.]

-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

“One act of sportsmanship by London Irish and a moment’s opportunism by Saracens separated these two sides after a curate’s egg of a match.” David Llewellyn; Saracens 24 London Irish 20; The Independent (London, UK); Nov 25, 2007.

Apparently, the only way I’ll write about political candidates is when one of them endorses a comic book hero.

This was sent to me by my friend Clinton:

Mon Dec 10, 2007 — by Martha Thomases

Presidential candidate Ron Paul picks his super-hero favorite

Exclusive To ComicMix!

As part of the run-up to the presidential primaries next year, ComicMix asked Texas Congressman Ron Paul who his favorite comic book super-hero might be. We think this is at least as revealing as their favorite movies, favorite books, or favorite chocolate-chip cookie recipes.

Candidate Paul, running for the Republican nomination on a Libertarian platform, was happy to respond. From Congressman Paul:

“My favorite comic book superhero is Baruch Wane, otherwise known as Batman, in The Batman Chronicles. “The Berlin Batman,” #11 in the series by Paul Pope, details Batman’s attempts to rescue the confiscated works of persecuted Austrian economist, Ludwig von Mises, from Nazi Party hands.

“Batman’s assistant Robin writes in the memoirs, “[Mises] was an advocate of individual liberty, free speech, and free thinking… and so, should I add, the Berlin Batman.” Batman, a Jew in hiding in Nazi Austria, was willing to risk his life for the sake of the promulgation of freedom, and I find this to be super-heroic.”