Initiative.
April 14, 2009
inanimum est enim omne, quod pulsu agitatur externo; quod autem est animal, id motu interiore et suo
Indeed, that is completely dead which moves by external compulsion; but that is alive, which moves by its own interior motion.
– Cicero, Somnium Scipionis
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Initium ut esset, creatus est homo.
That there might be a beginning, man was created.
– St. Augustine, City of God (as pointed out by, who else, Hannah Arendt).
Etymology learned from Hannah Arendt.
March 20, 2009
– 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.”
Don’t Disrespect.
February 10, 2009
“I had to check to see if disrespect was indeed a real verb, instead of this new hip-hop usage. The answer is yes!”
- Mom, in an email.
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Completely Albus Dumbledore (Sorcerer’s Stone, Chapter 1).
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etymology of device: dividere, to divide. something by which something is divided.
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“I know it seems like ‘how many angels can dance on the head of this piece of grammar,’ but, it’s important.”
- Peter Smith, on the Accusative of Respect vs. the Dative of Respect.
Tuesday, the Best Day in A While
January 20, 2009
Barack Obama becoming President of the United States
plus a couple of inches of snow, is more than I’m entitled to ask for.
a conversation i actually heard today in Graham Memorial
October 31, 2008
Lady: “I’ve been DJ-ing a lot more, lately – you see, we just started this club.”
Guy: “Yeah?”
Lady: “Yeah, when they started it, they wanted to have, well, actual, real, hipsters – not these fake ones.”
Guy: “Yeah, I know what you mean.”
Politics III
October 15, 2008
listening to Aaron Copeland’s Lincoln Portrait, as performed by the UNC Symphony, last night, was struck by a feeling of American liberty-loving patriotism usually only felt when: watching Ken Burns’ The Civil War, reading Milton’s Areopagitica, or hiking in the Appalachians.
People I’d like to hear performing it:
- James Earl Jones (Mufasa/Darth Vader, as Lincoln? Yes!)
- Barack Obama (naturally)
- Dr. Miller
stuck it to the refridgerator.
October 15, 2008
To continue in the political/classical-antiquity vein of the day, the enemy’s standard was captured, at great personal risk, this past weekend.
likelihood of having to pay the price of 50 Obama signs: unlikely.
likelihood that I belong in Iran: unlikely.
I hope I’m not caught: I’d better.
what a vision of me oh my, or, serendipity is:
September 18, 2008
Walking into a meeting about an hour late, and finding two people in the room discussing, “what are we going to do with these five pizzas? and all these bottles of soda?”
“Hi. Perhaps I could help?”
