2005-04-22 15:20
�1. Det
brynigt var, och slidig m�v
p� v�garn muntert gyrade.
Slank var hvarenda borog�v,
och villa grunen hyrade.
We once had to memorize Jaberwocky for school, you know. We'd like to
say that we were never the same again, but we already weren't. (We
have a lousy memory for verse, also.)
[via Pedrito in Finlandia, tack!]
�2. Bad Pope, no biscuit!
Pope
Benedict XVI has responded firmly to the first challenge of his
papacy by condemning a Spanish government bill allowing marriage
between homosexuals.
That may may worked with Aznar, but Socialiste Prime Minister Jose
Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is well placed to call Papal bluff, and then
some:
Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero took office a
year ago making it clear he intended to remove what he called the
church's undeniable advantages and make Spain a secular state.
�3. One country divided my two (2) vair vair different langwidges!
It is Ukrainia!
The future status of the Russian language in Ukraine is the cause of
public and political debate. The BBC's Helen Fawkes speaks to
Russian-speakers who fear discrimination and Ukrainians who are proud
of their mother tongue.
These two (2) langwidges are so very different! Completely different,
and by no means pretty much the same! They even have different
words for some somethings!
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2005-04-22 13:04
�1. What's (slow) cookin'?
A sossage and onion casserole, that's what's (slow) cookin'!
We like cookning better now that we don't have to be there to do it,
for sure.
�2. Grauniad sends Forrener to cricket match; hilarity ensues
For very placid values of hilarity:
As a newcomer to England, I know more about cricket the insect than
cricket the sport - and all I know about the former is that they're
slightly embarrassed about being members of the locust family.
Yesterday, however, I watched my first game - at Lord's, of all
places, and I was hooked.
�3. Datening
In 1994, Brett Anderson and Bernard Butler's band Suede were the
biggest new act in Britain.
In 1994, then, when I was a mere slip of a twenty-something, I already
didn't bother to keep up with the indie scene. Of course, there was
an element of attitude in it in those days; these days I'm reduced to
ignoring things I've never even heard of.
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2005-04-22 09:41
Sigh. We have to study it (sociologically) and while the book was
bending over backwards not to acknowledge that it is a often if not
always a form of snake-oil whose current acceptance is the handiwork
of DIRTY, SMELLY HIPPIES, we realised that the emphasis on holistic
and individual factors and life-coaching meant that it was in fact a
commoditisation of the role of tribal/village elder.
Attention DIRTY SMELLY HIPPIES: you are by no means even remotely
fighting the power; you merely strengthen the bourgeois ideology of
transactionalisme ("Liberalisme").
As part of the defence of the holistique view, it was pointed out that
Somali and Bangladeshi immigrants in dreadful housing conditions were
in poor health, which promptly improved when they were rehoused
somewhere that didn't amount to a perpetual state of seige from
raciste neighbours.
Which is fair enough, but hardly a striking victory for
cephalo-colonic rebirthing therapy, it seems to us.
(Since this is not the FDRUSA, psychotherapy wasn't even mentioned.
It's a kind of reimagining of the pastoral functions of priesthood
along purely mercenary lines, as befits its once-great homeland.)
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2005-04-21 16:28
We (plural) spent a great deal of time on geometry this afternoon.
Not necessarily to much purpose, in the cosmic scheme of things, but
geometry, isn't it?
I can however reassure you, Varied Reader, that if a buncha new texts
by Archimedes or Euclid turn up, mathematics can confidently be
expected not to be revolutionized. Footnotes to Euclid, we very
definitely ain't.
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2005-04-21 13:30
�1. For Shame, Pope!
We look forward to the continued decline of the Catholique church on
our patch, for sure, so we join the Interweb in remarking on Benedict
XVI's remarks, in his cardinal days, "On the
Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons":
Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a
sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic
moral evil; and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an
objective disorder.
Therefore special concern and pastoral attention should be directed
toward those who have this condition, lest they be led to believe that
the living out of this orientation in homosexual activity is a morally
acceptable option. It is not.
Oh yes it is, silly Pope!
�2. My Will to Democracy, slightly geographical
So it turns out that I'm in Bristle
East for electoral purposes. ("2001 Result: Won by LAB, majority
33.2%")
So I'm pretty much limited to trying to get the Lib-Dems ahead of the
utterly contempible Tories in the much-closer race for second place.
�3. My Will to Democracy, slightly literate
Under the terms of our glorious Cash for Codices initiative, we would
rather pay cold, hard cash for printed and bound manifestos than put
ourselves and our recalcitrant printer through the ordeal of the
various parties' graphic design abominations.
So we asked nicely in Borders, but they're allegedly "in transit". As
publishing hices, they make great politicians, isn't it?
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2005-04-21 10:45
So, seven (7) hours travelling, N talks on abstruse sums, one
(1) pleasant touristbummel through the many dormitories ("colleges")
of Oxbridge (East) under the guidance of an old lag and MA (Cantab)
holder, and I have decided I much prefer the West campus.
Seven (7) hours, Varied Reader, seven (7) hours.
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2005-04-19 15:13
Tomorrow I am going to the Newton Institute of Alchemy, Numismatisme
and Judicial Voyeurisme ("Mathematics") which is attached to Fenland
Special School AKA Oxbridge (East).
For the privilege of starting such a day trip before 0900, British
Rail (what was) offered to relieve us of 130 GBP per person.
So we're hiring a car. Obviously.
But we're setting off shortly after 0700, and won't be back till late,
and the odds of Interweb are far from good, so we won't, in
particular, be at the 'bladet.
Also, even if the students will insist on being back, and apparently
they do, is that really enough of an excuse for Sainsbury's to run out
of prunes? How are we supposed to make a nice rabbit and prune
casserole without any prunes, I ask (or enquire) of you?
[Permalink]
2005-04-19 12:03
It isn't easy being a whale!
Norge inledde p� m�ndagen �rets valf�ngst - med den st�rsta
f�ngstkvoten p� �ver tio �r.
On Monday the Norwegian whale-huntning season started - with the
biggest quota for over ten (10) years.
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2005-04-19 10:00
�1. #10 with a bullet!
For Google search on hate
wordsworth, which we certainly do.
�2. Literary status estimators sought
I keep coming across mentions of Robert Musil's The Man without
Qualities, which generally suggest it is a vair great
masterpiece. But is it famous? (In Anglophonia; Dutches presumably
know about it.) And how can I tell?
(And why did I think it was originally in Dutch?)
�3. Against Foundations, slightly Classical
Over at
the Timber I have been appointed phillistine-in-chief for my
indifference to the discovery of some more Old Greek Stuff.
(y81
froths, "What human being could be indifferent to the possibility
of more Sappho?"
Leaving aside the possible implications for contemporary lesboticisme
("Geez, goils, we'se been doin it ALL WRONG!"), Sappho's notorious
untranslatability inspires us to see y81's implicit nobody and raise
him/her a billion each of Chineses and Indians, and us.)
For all purposes I have the King James Bible scraps with the Vulgate
for "importance"; the Hebrew/Koin� version simply isn't in the
running, and the Dead Sea Scrolls would be just as significant for my
v�rlds�sk�dning ("Weltanschauung") if they didn't exist.
We hold, then, that: If we ain't read the books, we ain't no-how
footnotes to them, and anyone says we is is a DIRTY LIAR.
[Permalink]
2005-04-18 16:52
I have to print out some spare copies of my previous assignment for
my tutor groop, as examples of how it should be done.
Sadly, I cannot also show my Varied Reader, so you'll just have to
take my word for it.
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2005-04-18 13:57
�1. Gastronomic gastropod zeitgeist, slightly Balkan
Just a few years ago, there was not a single snail farm in Bosnia.
Now, it is estimated there are around 300.
�2. Intrawegian tactfest
Sydsvenskan is based in Malm�, Sweden, which is a stone's skim from
Shoppningharbour, Danmark. So they're especially well-placed for a
little
tact:
Sverige �r den politiskt korrekta storebrodern som alltid vet b�st,
Norge den rika lite distanserade systern, Finland den fattiga kusinen
p� v�g att komma upp sig och Island en avl�gsen sl�kting.
Danmark �r familjens fr�cka lillebror, uppstudsig, provocerande och
frispr�kig.
Sweden is the politically correct big brother who always knows best,
Norway is a rich, slightly standoffish sister, Finland is the poor
cousin on the way up and Island is a distant relative.
Danmark is the family's insolent little brother, recalcitrant,
provocative and outspoken.
�3. Those wacky Tories!
[via]
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2005-04-18 10:17
Kronprinsess Vickan of Sweden in motormadness:
Victorias f�rd p� Sri Lankas gator blev en mardr�m.
I vansinnesfart k�rde kronprinsessans chauff�r mot r�tt och h�ll p�
att krocka med en m�tande lastbil.
Victoria's journey on Sri Lankas streets turned into a nightmare.
The kronprinsess's chauffeur drove through a red light at crazyspeed
and almost crashed with an oncoming van.
But in fact, this such driver was quite possibly within local norms of
crazymadness:
Trafikolyckor �r vanliga i Sri Lanka. P� v�gen mellan st�derna Galle
och Colombo, d�r Victoria f�rdades, d�r omkring en person i veckan,
l�ngt fler skadas allvarligt.
Trafficaccidents are common in Sri Lanka. On the road between Galle
and Columbo, where Vickan was travelling, around one person dies a
week, along with several seriously injured.
Not crashing prolly doesn't make the Sri Lankan papers all that
much, then?
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