Come on, you esoterics...

[venta]

I've just had the following email from my Mum (she's a journalist):

"The boss has had letter-to-editor from a d'Arcy Orders claiming to be archvist for the Ancient Order of Kalithumpians - a dining club founded in 1920 - may have Cambridge (?univ) connections. We're not sure if it's a wind-up."

Google turns up no hits for "Ancient Order of Kalithumpians".

Anyone have any light to shed?

Comments

First obvious thing

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

d'Arcy orders was apparently in the Footlights in 1947/48:

http://www.footlights.org/past/1947.html

Re: First obvious thing

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

And is the 1940-46 year rep for Trinity Hall:
http://www.trinhall.cam.ac.uk/alumni/year-rep-list.html

So it should be pretty straightforward to contact Mr. Orders (MBE) through the college to find out whether he is the real source of the letter.

However, if it's him perpetrating the hoax that won't help much.

the guy existed

[metame.livejournal.com]

Searching google for "d'Arcy Orders" shows he was at Cambridge - did the Footlights revue with them in '47. snippets below...

Of course, if I was hoaxing I'd pick a real name too, but it's a step.

"1947

May Week Revue

Company: David Eady, Kenneth Poolman, D'Arcy Orders, Ken Willis, Bernard Langley, John Boston, George David"...

Re: the guy existed

[metame.livejournal.com]

As a further thought - the President of the Footlights society is exactly the sort of person who'd perpetrate hoaxes, surely...

Re: the guy existed

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

Also, the names of real Cambridge University dining clubs are not in any way distinguishable from the names of imaginary Cambridge University dining clubs...

Re: the guy existed

[leathellin.livejournal.com]

I'm imagine ancient is a relative term as well.

Re: the guy existed

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

Heh, my Google is faster than your Google.

Re: the guy existed

[metame.livejournal.com]

I expect you just bubbled it up the cache for me...

(cf "loosened the jar")

Ancient Order of Kali... spells out "A OK", incidentally. A nice acronym for a bunch of chums, but one which apparently didn't hit circulation til the 1960s. Just a thought.

Re: the guy existed

[leathellin.livejournal.com]

Kalith is also a name.
Kalithump is where hits start dying...

Re: the guy existed

[venta.livejournal.com]

You can get a few hits for 'Calithumpian', but none look relevant at a glance. Haven't had chance of a proper read through, though.

Re: the guy existed

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

But Callithump(ian) are words.

Kaitha too

[metame.livejournal.com]

Not sure what generates the Latinised (sic) ending -thump, if anything. Never sure how Manchester gets to Mancunian or Liverpool to Liverpudlian either.

Re: Kaitha too

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

My dictionary thinks that the Latin name for Manchester is Mancunium. No idea if that's what it was ever called by any genuine Romans, though.

[verlaine.livejournal.com]

The Ancient Order of Kalithumpians was founded for the purposes of thumping the Monochrome user "kallisti" every time his opinions became too illogical or offensive (i.e. 6 to 10 times a day). It has since been disbanded due to "kallisti" leaving Mono. Apparently LJ users are moving to create an Ancient Order of Verlithumpians instead, though.

Oh, alright then, BLUFF.