“Trying to learn to use words”

“…And so each venture

Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate

With shabby equipment always deteriorating

In the general mess of imprecision of feeling,

Undisciplined squads of emotion. And what there is to conquer

By strength and submission, has already been discovered

Once or twice, or several times, by men whom one cannot hope

To emulate– but there is no competition–

There is only the fight to recover what has been lost

And found and lost again and aggain: and now, under conditions

That seem unpropitious. But perhaps neither gain nor loss.

For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.”

– T.S. Eliot, from East Coker

οι δενοι σαυροι

learning Greek, oftentimes all I can think about is dinosaurs.

Last Semester: δεινος, δεινη, δεινον

Deinonychus

And now, this semester: μεγας, μεγαλη, μεγα

Megalodon.

Candy.

This probably explains why I, too, had candy as a tasty lunch (and dinner) on Sunday.

Domesticity

Knitting:

the vest I’ve been making for Dad for his birthday– not quite done. Worked up the armholes last night, in a Girl-Talk-fueled, long-needed stretch.

Baking:

I am proud of this. The enticingly named “Fast White Bread” from the Joy of Cooking. I haven’t tried it yet; am resisting the urge to call everyone I know and invite them over to try some. (“You want me to come over to… what? Eat white bread?).

Mending:

Sewing on a button, sewing a ripped seam (the only possible outcome of biking in a dress– it’s going to happen, sooner or later).

Otherwise:

I will finish this precis on Winston Churchill before I go to work at 6.

Aereopagitica

I feel like I ought to read some Marx (and which other moderns?), just to see if I can resist the arguments.

Etymology learned from Hannah Arendt.

– Company, “men who eat bread together”

– Armut and Arbeit come from the same root, in German.

– Arendt references Kluge’s Etymologishes Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in a footnote, and now I am set upon Davis Library’s PF3580.K5 1989.

All I do in German class is ask, “Hat das Verb stimmen etwas mit die Stimme zu tun?” or “Wie schön ist das Unterschied zwischen Umwelt und Umfeld; wir sagen nur Environment!” or “Warum hat Geschlecter das Wort schlecht drin? Weil Sex ist immer etwas schlectes?”

“Unsere kleine Linguistin,” says Frau Christina, “dass weiss ich nicht, aber gute Frage.”

All this rain is killing me.

“Slyly Zeus created a thunderstorm, changed himself into a little cuckoo, and, pretending to be in distress, he flew into Hera’s arms for protection. She pitied the wet little bird and hugged it close to keep it warm, but all of a sudden she found herself holding mighty Zeus in her arms instead of the bird. Thus Zeus won Hera…”

– D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths

aeneid paper

“Confused by all these shifting images of ruin, Turnus stood astounded, staring and silent. In his deepest heart there surged tremendous shame and madness mixed with sorrow and love whipped on by frenzy and a courage aware of its own worth.” XII.886-891

collect.

- I came home with salt in my eyelashes,

- read the word “salivate” the imperative form (2nd person plural) of the made-up verb “salivo, salivare” (meaning remained unchanged),

- ate nutella for dinner.

Operation Otis, OR, Dad’s Birthday is March 21st.

or, that’s 21 days from now.

I’m rather ambitious.