from pillar to polecat, pacing

[asakiyume]

You have heard of polecats? (They're actually ferrets--or the word can also be used to refer to skunks.) Well this is a postcat:



From pole to post --like pillar to post--driven from pillar to post--it's like pacing, pacing back and forth . . . and where better to pace than a widow's walk, with its view out to the harbor and the sea. Is that a ship's mast appearing over the horizon? Has the sea returned your beloved to you? A hurricane wind will push anchored ships ashore, and a really, really monstrous wind will fling a widow's walk far inland, into the trees. . .

Comments

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

When I lived in Nashville, we called skunks polecats.

I saw a cat on a wall post today, just sitting there, watching two other cats that were hanging around.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I never have used the term in real life; I've only ever come across it in stories or old movies--so I was never sure exactly *what* it was. Everyone responding here who used it says that for them it meant skunk, so I think that must definitely be the more common meaning in the United States.

I remember once in Japan seeing a cat sitting on a stump with a whole *circle* of other cats around it--like a king holding court.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

If it's a ghost ship with ghostly sails that brings your beloved home, perhaps something as inconsequential as a shoreline wouldn't matter?

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Indeed! What does mere geography matter? The ship will find its way home, wherever home has gone to.

[yamamanama.livejournal.com]

I've heard of polecats, but since most of them are old world mammals and the new world one has a very tiny range, I've never actually interacted with them.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

It seems to be a folk name--like "fisher cat" for martins--and folk names are flexible. People use them in different ways.

[yamamanama.livejournal.com]

That's true. It certainly explains the overlap.

Skunks probably reminded settlers of the polecats back home.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

That's what I'm guessing, yeah.

[duccio.livejournal.com]

That shape-shifting polecat is dreaming of being an hoot owl, one hoo looks into the dark curtained widows of l'inverno.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Doesn't he look like an owl. A day-owl.

[sovay]

Is that a ship's mast appearing over the horizon? Has the sea returned your beloved to you? A hurricane wind will push anchored ships ashore, and a really, really monstrous wind will fling a widow's walk far inland, into the trees. . .

Prrrrrrt.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

What if the watcher is the ghost and the seafarer is the living one? What if it's home that's been overcome by the sea, and the ship that's survived? Then, if the seafarer's sworn goal is to return home, they've doomed themself.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Jiji! Sentinal cat.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Lord of all he surveys.

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

I remember when I learned that the polecat in Saki was a skunk. I was horribly disappointed. I tried not to have it be a skunk. I had imagined something like a lynx. I'm not sure why it was such a disappointment.

Your polecat is lovely.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

*was* it a skunk in Saki? I ask because isn't Saki an English writer? And they don't have skunks in England. I'm hypothesizing that the reason polecat got used in this country to mean skunk is because in England, the creature known as polecat (a ferret) was known to be smelly, and skunks are also known to be smelly.

I don't know though--maybe Saki absolutely was meaning skunk (like, if the story in question took place in America).

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

I'm probably not remembering it properly-- I was eleven if I'm remembering that part right. And likely I just looked at some USian dictionary!

The story was definitely set in England, with a continental hunter being involved.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

It would be great if "polecat" actually meant some kind of Simeon Stylites of the animal kingdom--that's what Jiji kind of reminded me of.

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

*LAUGH* That would indeed be awesome. :)

Going by Peter Brown the pillars were of pretty substantial circumference, large enough for a resident saint to lie down and have a snooze. Which was definitely different from the image I had.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Same here! I always pictured him as basically having standing room, or sitting room if he let his legs dangle, and that's it!

[judo100.livejournal.com]

Around here I think polecat generally means skunk, though I'm sure it has other meanings elsewhere. Nice pics!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I'm interested to find out that the term is actually used in places, because I've never heard it in real life--only come across it in literature and movies and things. And thanks :-)