Phoebe and Her Unicorn by Dana Simpson for May 27, 2012

Does your world, Marigold, come with Pegasuses?

My first horse’s favorite treat was chocolate frosted donuts with sprinkles, but she also liked butter-topped wheat bread, the brand name, not the store brand. And cookies, but not almond cookies. Peanut butter sandwiches and honey nut Cheerios, too

Mormon, that’s ‘pegasi’

War of the smarty pantses. Or is that panstii?

Maybe it’s like the plural of “octopus” and they’re properly “pegasodes”. Or, since it’s originally Greek, it’d be “pegasoi”.

I sense the makings of a story arc here, Marigold taking Phoebe on a visit to her home turf

technically speaking they do – since marigold is there. So they would also have that, or atleast A unicorn.

Hey! Do they have rhinocerocereses, or octopususes where Marigold comes from? Huh? Hah?

Ah so close!

Ah, there are unicorns here. Unless Marigold is lying and is just a horn with a horn glued on her head…she is a unicorn in our world

The correct term is NOT Pegasuses or Pegasi, it is “flying horses”. Pegasus is the name of a flying horse of Greek mythology, so the term is a proper noun. Pluralizing it to refer to all flying horses would be analogous to pluralizing George Washington (George Washingtons) and using that as a term to refer to all U.S. presidents.

Additionally (and just for fun), the correct plural of “octopus” is “octopodes” or “octopuses” (reference http://www.merriam-webster.com/video/0015-octopus.htm).

Have a fabulous day, all!

I love how Marigold says things with a fancy font to help them sound wondrous and magical. By the fifth panel, she’s about given up on it. I also enjoy the things she brings up as awesome, just the sort of things an equine would like. I see the magic in apples, too: their pale freckles are like stars and galaxies in a red sky.

If Marigold has apples, I wonder if her world has an Applejack as well.

Celery?? Why is that a special treat? I pick it out of my soup and anything else it’s in!

Peanuts aren’t nuts, your argument is invalid.

I like the idea that sugar lumps and celery make a world magical.

“Pegasuses”, actually, is the standard English plural. Or, if you insist on going back to the original language, “pegasoi”, because the word is Greek, not Latin. “Pegasi” belongs in English only with the meaning “of the constellation Pegasus”.

E.g., “The star named “Markab” is also known as “Alpha Pegasi”.

I love how Marigold is a pure, pure white everywhere, save for the light pink of her tongue.

(Well, I love an awful lot, so far, of everything, about this strip)

But the really interesting revelation here is that World M (“World” to be taken in the most general sense, in the lack of further information, and “M“ for “Marigold”) has carrots. Carrots are a modern product of cultivation—orange carrots, in particular, being the creation of Dutch patriots. This suggests that World M has humans, or something else with hands—or else has regular trade with the human world. The implications are tremendous.

According to medieval lore, unicorns were captured by having a young virgin sit quietly in the woods; a unicorn would be attracted by her purity and come and lay its head in her lap and hidden others could run out and capture it.

The reason why we no longer see unicorns? Well, it is not the unicorns that have become extinct…

@Rick Pikul:

Well, after I’ve finished cleansing both monitor and keyboard from a massive coffee spit-take, I must tell you, sir, that I’ve now a new sig line thanks to you (well, thanks, actually, to James Nicoll).

They don’t have humans there, though!