mús

I own a French musette bag. It is small and, as befits military surplus articles, olive drab canvas. The flap can be fixed down in either of two positions using the buckles on the front of the bag. The space inside is divided only by a double thickness of canvas joined in the middle vertically by a line of heavy stitching. This musette bag is the perfect size for carrying either (in the main compartment) six bottles of beer or (slid into the two pouches of the canvas divider) two bottles of wine, though not all eight bottles at once.

Musing on this article today, because I have had it slung over my shoulder for large portions of the afternoon, once while toting beer and once while transporting wine. It is apparently named for the French bagpipe, also called the musette, it clearly named for music, and music is named for the muses, and so I feel my idle thoughts are justified.

With all this hoisting (and yet more to come - oho), I expect to see more of the mús, but an unrelated, homophonic mús, not muse but mouse: the muscle in the bicep named after the lively rodent. How pleasing that the Latin and the Icelandic are in agreement here. I'm smiling at it now, feeling my cheeks twitch upward as I do.

Ah, but that muscle is a fish, a kinnfiskur.