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Saturday, May 2, 2009

payment in sherry

Carol Ann Duffy is now officially the Poet Laureate--the first woman, first dyke. She gets paid--£5,750 a year for ten years, and a butt of sack. Sack is white fortified wine, these days usually sherry. According to Wikipedia, a butt is 2 hogsheads, or 3 tierces, or 4 barrels, or 7 rundlets in volume--about 105 imperial gallons (bigger than American gallons) i.e. 477.3 litres. That's a lot of sherry...

I think it's cool that, finally, the Poet Laureate, is a woman. Sadly, this week another poet, another dyke, U.A. Fanthorpe, died just before Duffy got her news.

A huge week for lesbian poetry. Tonight I think I'll drink a glass of sherry to them both.

This blog has moved. My blog now lives here: http://nicolagriffith.com/blog/

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