Darwin had style!
Category: History
Posted on: July 10, 2007 3:39 PM, by PZ Myers
Uh-oh. The creationists are going to love Darwin's skull-topped walking stick — it's wicked.
I think I love it, too. Where can I get an imitation?
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Comments
Possibly in Paris-you could also get it with a sword inside to help creationists caught in thickets.
Posted by: Abe Lard | July 10, 2007 3:58 PM
Monsieur Gilbert SEGAS
Galerie 34
34, Passage Jouffroy
75009 PARIS
FRANCE
Tel.: 33 (0)1 47 70 89 65
Fax: 33 (0)1 48 00 08 24
Mobile: 33 (0)6 85 55 69 82
http://www.canesegas.com
mgwsegas@club-internert.fr
Try this chap-he knows everything to be known about canes of the variety that interest you.
Posted by: Abe Lard | July 10, 2007 4:03 PM
You may not get a prescise imitation but the skull style for walking canes has been around for a while and is pretty popular as evidenced by the following links. You may be able to get someone to craft an imitation for you if these styles don't appeal to you.
http://www.bonesandblades.co.uk/catalog/index.php?cPath=36
http://www.swordsdirect.com/sword_canes.html
Also an ebay search reveals even more varities. Just use the keywords: skull, walking, cane
Posted by: anonymous | July 10, 2007 4:04 PM
I'm sure that the skull was meant as a memento mori. I wonder if he got it for himself, out of morbidity and/or melancholy, or some well-meaning Christian friend or relative got it for him so as to suggest to him that he ought to begin preparing for "the world to come".
"As you are, I once was. As I am, so you shall become."
Posted by: Owlmirror | July 10, 2007 4:30 PM
I own this little fellow. http://www.mantisswords.com/skull_sword_cane.htm
Not exactly the same, but I love going out on the town with it. My girlfriend less so.
Posted by: Rich | July 10, 2007 4:58 PM
Pedantic quibble: What you want is a reproduction, not an imitation.
I mean, if you're going to contact a Parisian bespoke-canemaker, you don't want to say something embarrassing.
Posted by: HP | July 10, 2007 5:27 PM
Also looks like it's made from bone. Coooool.
Posted by: Deepsix | July 10, 2007 5:32 PM
Rich wrote, "Not exactly the same, but I love going out on the town with it. My girlfriend less so."
You'd rather go out on the town with your cane than with your girlfriend?
Posted by: Glenn | July 10, 2007 5:50 PM
I'm sure that picking his girlfriend up by the head and wacking her feet down against the sidewalk with each step is far more unwieldy than using a cane. Unless she's very petite.
Posted by: PZ Myers | July 10, 2007 5:53 PM
You could totally use that walking stick with black robes and a cowl. Make sure that they are inscribed with some sort eldritch runes. Just think of the fear/respect you will garner from your students.
Posted by: commissarjs | July 10, 2007 5:58 PM
Either that, or they'll just think, "Oh my dear Ed, he's gotten into LARPing."
Posted by: Bronze Dog | July 10, 2007 6:01 PM
You could ask Dembski for his skull...since it's empty and he clearly won't miss it.
Posted by: Karl Rove II | July 10, 2007 6:35 PM
Not true! It's holding up his face.
Posted by: PZ Myers | July 10, 2007 6:37 PM
Note to self. Be more careful with syntax in the future. :p
Posted by: rich | July 10, 2007 6:51 PM
Is it just me, or does that look like a huge human sperm cell?
Spermy or not, I would definitely like to have one.
Posted by: The_d | July 10, 2007 7:22 PM
Oh goodie!
Can I get one with an australopithicine skull?
Posted by: chiropetra | July 10, 2007 7:37 PM
Eh, vertebrates are way overrated. How about a really long skinny horn coral? ;^)
Posted by: Mena | July 10, 2007 9:27 PM
The curious fact that Dembski's skull apparently is holding his face up, despite being obviously empty, is the strongest case for divine intervention the DI will ever come up with.
Posted by: forsen | July 10, 2007 10:04 PM
Now that is what Hugh Laurie should have replaced his cane with on House..
Posted by: eisenreich | July 11, 2007 7:17 AM
Well, Darwin was a Mason, and skulls are prominent in their symbology...
Posted by: mojojojo | July 11, 2007 10:57 AM
Darwin was a Mason??
Posted by: Keith Douglas | July 11, 2007 1:55 PM
Darwin was a Goth??!
Posted by: horrobin | July 11, 2007 2:55 PM
Darwin was a Mason??
Well... maybe. Charles' name does not appear on the official rolls of any lodge. But in his family and the scientific community of the time, Masonic membership was very common.
For example, his grandfather Erasmus Darwin was made a Mason in the Time Immemorial Lodge of Cannongate Kilwinning, No. 2, before coming to Derby 1788.
Uncle Sir Francis Darwin was made a Mason in Tyrian Lodge, No. 253, at Derby, in 1807 or 1808. Uncle Reginald was made a Mason in Tyrian Lodge in 1804. Father Robert was reportedly also a member of a Masonic lodge.
One of Charles Darwin's most vocal proponents, T.H. Huxley, was also member of a Masonic Lodge.
So who knows, maybe Charles' lovely cane has some Masonic significance, maybe not...no telling where he got it, eh?
Posted by: mojojojo | July 11, 2007 4:08 PM
Ironic how little the Pimp Cane has evolved in all that time:)
Posted by: Springheel | July 11, 2007 4:34 PM
You should almost certainly get one from the preserved (The exterior of the building is Grade I listed ) walking-stick and Umberella shop in Lonond, at the junction of New Oxford and Bloomsbury Streets
It says, on the outside: "James Smith and Son" and among other declarations "Whip-makers to the King" (Meaning Edward VII )
HERE is their web-site, with a pcture of the outside of the building:
http://www.james-smith.co.uk/
They supply everything in that sort of line - except swordsticks, which you can no longer obtain in the UK.
Posted by: G. Tingey | July 12, 2007 8:54 AM