Hammond organ recital

Mr Hammond is looking for sponsors for his 24-hour (church) organ marathon (with webcam) next Tuesday at St Edmund’s (that’s the king), Northwood, Middlesex. Lohengrin is somewhere after three in the morning, Italy at five, and fortunately there’s no Spanish repertoire. A month ago he was having the odd problem with Widor.

Catalan etymology of paper? Probably not

Xavi Caballé mentions an oft-cited Catalan etymology of paper: 1249; del ll. papyrus, i aquest, del gr. pápyros ‘papir’, adaptat per via semiculta a una terminació catalana, d’on passà a les altres llengües europees AFAIK the Enciclopèdia Catalana has never substantiated this. The Dictionnaire de l’Académie francaise says: PAPIER n. m. XIIIe siècle. Issu, par…