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You say Aztec, I say Uzbek
Jan. 4th, 2007 03:16 amJust received a poctsarcd from Marc Schirmeister. The front is a movie poster for La momia azteca. On the back, the English title is given as Attack of the Mayan Mummy.
Si usted no tiene electricidad
Dec. 20th, 2006 06:29 pmHas anybody else seen today's Seattle Times? Top of the fold on the first page is a warning in six different languages for people who still don't have electricity in their homes. The warning? In English: "Do not burn charcoal or use gasoline generators indoors, including in the garage. Never use gas ovens to heat your home. Do not use gas or kerosene heaters in closed rooms. These things produce deadly carbon monoxide, which has killed several people since Thursday's storm. For more information, call 1-800-222-1222."
The other languages? Vietnamese, Russian, Chinese, Somali, and Spanish.
Meanwhile, another storm is expected tonight, although it's isn't expected to be as strong as last week's. Nonetheless, that tree that I saw leaning on power lines yesterday could well be a problem if there's more strong wind. Stay safe out there, y'all!
The other languages? Vietnamese, Russian, Chinese, Somali, and Spanish.
Meanwhile, another storm is expected tonight, although it's isn't expected to be as strong as last week's. Nonetheless, that tree that I saw leaning on power lines yesterday could well be a problem if there's more strong wind. Stay safe out there, y'all!
The colour of a squashed flea
Nov. 21st, 2006 06:53 pmA friend told me in e-mail today that his condo association was threatening to make him paint his walls puce, and it got me to thinking about why "puce" is such a funny word. Is it because it sounds like "puke"? Maybe, but then I idly googled it, as you do, and of course quickly arrived at the Wikipedia entry. I had no idea, for instance, that "puce" derives from the French word for flea. "It is speculated that it refers to the colour of a squashed flea or the colour of a flea full of blood."
Hm. Paint your walls in squashed fleas? I'm afraid the very suggestion turns me positively chartreuse.
Hm. Paint your walls in squashed fleas? I'm afraid the very suggestion turns me positively chartreuse.
Over-elated
Nov. 10th, 2006 05:59 pmIn a New York Times story headlined "Man in the News: Harry Reid, an Infighter With a Sharp Jab," Mark Leibovich writes of the future Senate Majority Leader on Election Night:
He and Senator Charles E. Schumer, the New Yorker who leads the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, kept whacking each other like kids. “Remember, Chuck, when they said Sherrod was too liberal?” Mr. Reid said of Sherrod Brown, the newly elected senator from Ohio.
Mr. Schumer said nothing, but gave Mr. Reid something between a pat on the head and a noogie.
Later he observes of Reid:
His makeup could not hide the bags and crags on his un-Botoxed face.
Is it just me, or is this "reporting" vaguely surreal? The Bags and Crags on His un-Botoxed Face sounds like some kind of postmodern jazz-noise-groove ensemble, doesn't it? Okay, maybe not.
Update: Actually, I think the word I was looking for wasn't "surreal" so much as "sycophantic". And nothing vaguely about it.
He and Senator Charles E. Schumer, the New Yorker who leads the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, kept whacking each other like kids. “Remember, Chuck, when they said Sherrod was too liberal?” Mr. Reid said of Sherrod Brown, the newly elected senator from Ohio.
Mr. Schumer said nothing, but gave Mr. Reid something between a pat on the head and a noogie.
Later he observes of Reid:
His makeup could not hide the bags and crags on his un-Botoxed face.
Is it just me, or is this "reporting" vaguely surreal? The Bags and Crags on His un-Botoxed Face sounds like some kind of postmodern jazz-noise-groove ensemble, doesn't it? Okay, maybe not.
Update: Actually, I think the word I was looking for wasn't "surreal" so much as "sycophantic". And nothing vaguely about it.
From a Seattle Times article yesterday headlined "Area poll workers report good turnout":
In this historically Republican neighborhood [in Bellevue], the war in Iraq seemed to be pushing some people to vote for Democrats. "The administration is clueless," said Tony Grills. "And you can't 'Control-Z' and go backwards."
The national results of the election are very satisfactory, but so are the local results. In fact, I have yet to see anything I voted on go the other way. Susan Owens crushed right wing nutjob Stephen Johnson for the state Supreme Court; the city has had its hands tied on subsidizing a new arena for the professional basketball team (when we still owe tens of millions of dollars on renovating the existing arena); the state estate tax was not repealed; there's more money for buses in the county; there's more money to fix potholes in the city; and the lap in lap dances was not defined as being four feet from any actual lap. Could the city's bizarre war against strip clubs finally be over? Well, probably not, but while we can't Control-Z Iraq, maybe we can head in a new direction on a number of different fronts.
In this historically Republican neighborhood [in Bellevue], the war in Iraq seemed to be pushing some people to vote for Democrats. "The administration is clueless," said Tony Grills. "And you can't 'Control-Z' and go backwards."
The national results of the election are very satisfactory, but so are the local results. In fact, I have yet to see anything I voted on go the other way. Susan Owens crushed right wing nutjob Stephen Johnson for the state Supreme Court; the city has had its hands tied on subsidizing a new arena for the professional basketball team (when we still owe tens of millions of dollars on renovating the existing arena); the state estate tax was not repealed; there's more money for buses in the county; there's more money to fix potholes in the city; and the lap in lap dances was not defined as being four feet from any actual lap. Could the city's bizarre war against strip clubs finally be over? Well, probably not, but while we can't Control-Z Iraq, maybe we can head in a new direction on a number of different fronts.
Pineapple express
Nov. 6th, 2006 08:50 pmOne of the great local weather terms is "pineapple express," which is the type of rain storm we are having right now. It's caused by warm, moist air streaming up here from the vicinity of Hawaii, thus the pineapple. I told my Indian co-worker that today felt tropical, and she said, "Yeah, it reminds me of the monsoons, except not quite so warm." Well, it's in the mid-60s, which is plenty warm for here, and it feels damned muggy inside. I was definitely getting flashes of Yap on the walk to work this morning.
The registrar called it a "Chinook wind," which was a term I'd never heard before. According to this wikipedia entry, it has different meanings west and east of the Rockies, with the meaning in the west being identical to pineapple express.
So how many names for rain do we have around here?
The registrar called it a "Chinook wind," which was a term I'd never heard before. According to this wikipedia entry, it has different meanings west and east of the Rockies, with the meaning in the west being identical to pineapple express.
So how many names for rain do we have around here?
Son of a gun
Nov. 2nd, 2006 05:35 pmThe New York Times reported today that when Vice President Dick Cheney said that Representative Charles Rangel, D-NY, knew nothing about the economy and would raise taxes as chair of the Ways and Means Committee, "Mr. Rangel responded by using a profanity to question Mr. Cheney’s parentage." The dog!
Problems in textual scholarship
Oct. 24th, 2006 12:57 pmChuang Tzu, as I have said, rejects all conventional values, and as a result, like so many mystical writers, he rejects the conventional values of words as well, deliberately employing them to mean the opposite of what they ordinarily mean in order to demonstrate their essential meaninglessness. When a writer does this, he of course invites misunderstanding, no matter how dazzling the literary effects he achieves. This is what has happened to Chuang Tzu. His grammar is regular enough; his sentence patterns are for the most part like those of other writers of the period; but, because what he says is so often the direct opposite of what anyone else would say, commentators have again and again been led to wonder if he really does not mean something other than what he says, or if the text is perhaps corrupt.
-- Burton Watson, Introduction to Chuang Tzu -- Basic Writings
-- Burton Watson, Introduction to Chuang Tzu -- Basic Writings
