# Cim glowing *The Urth list — 3 messages, 3 voices, 31 Oct 1997* > Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright > in each message remains with the person who wrote it. > Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original > archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than > retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact. --- ### Peter Cash *31 Oct 1997, 10:13* > From: Jim Jordan >> Here's the Cim name quote (p 199 of the 1980 Timescape >> pb edition of IODDAOSAOS): >> >> When I was born my father wished to name me >> Seven Snows, which is a common name for girls >> amoung our people. But I was born while he >> was away in his boat; and before he returned, >> my mother had left her bed and seen the Cim >> blowing from tree to tree like a soft star in >> the air, and completed the naming. > I have nothing to go on except the passage itself, but I figured that cim > is snow. Notice that the naming is "completed," which implies (possibly) > that the mother did not completely change the father's desires. I hate to be always the contrarian (lie: I love it)...but I think "Cim" is an electrical phenomenon, like St. Elmo's Fire or ball lightning. Either could fit the description of a "soft star" moving from tree to tree. In addition there is Cim's weapon: perhaps the totemic naming conveys an analogous power on the named one, and thus Cim's weapon is electrical. Sgt. Rock --- ### m.driussi *31 Oct 1997, 17:36 · follows Peter Cash* Reply: Item #7198344 from URTH at LISTS.BEST.COM@INET00# Sgt. Rock, Hey, nice tie-in re: electicity and the weapon! How'bout Cim as "firefly"? "Glowing?" Check! "Star-like?" Check! "Softer than thunder?" Check! Random Latin: cimex (a bug). =mantis= --- ### Jim Jordan *03 Nov 1997, 21:06 · follows m.driussi* Mantis writes: > Hey, nice tie-in re: electicity and the weapon! > > How'bout Cim as "firefly"? "Glowing?" Check! "Star-like?" > Check! "Softer than thunder?" Check! > > Random Latin: cimex (a bug). Ya beat me to it, Mantis. After thinking more about snow, I settled on lightning bug/firefly, and was planning to post.... And, if "cim" is bug, then "cim glowing" is clearly firefly. I'll ride with this one until somebody gives a good reason to depart from it. Nutricious ---