The Archer Pelican

Blaise Pascal, Apparently Familiar With Adult ADD | quotables

All man's troubles come from not knowing how to sit still in one room.

- Blaise Pascal, in the online-readable Pensées, quoted by my friend Erika L.

Babel Fish Translation Help L'oignon

Jacques Derrida 'Dies'

-- The Onion, 20 October 2004, courtesy of Glenn C.

Dean Smith and the Seniors

Photo by Christine T. Nguyen, Herald-Sun

Dean Smith visited the Orange County Senior Center in Hillsborough yesterday. Dad thought it was pretty cool.

Mistinguette on a Kiss | quotables

A kiss can be a comma, a question mark or an exclamation point. That's basic spelling that every woman ought to know.

-- French actress Mistinguette (1875 - 1956), quoted in Have Some Sand -- the gritty side of love.

Aaron Lansky quoting somebody on language | quotables

This week I heard part of a wonderful radio interview with Aaron Lansky of the National Yiddish Book Center. In discussing the difference between a dialect and a language, he quoted the saying, "a language is a dialect with an army."

This quote is often attributed to Max Weinreich, who is cited writing in Yiddish, "A shprakh iz a diyalekt mit an armey un a flot".

However, as I tried to verify the source, I came across this interesting post on the Educational Cyber Playground:

Date: Thu, 9 Mar 2000 17:16:47 +0100 From: david sutcliffe Subject: Re: Endangerment of Creole Languages

----snip----
though Catalan is a language without a state (without an army or navy as John Holm once put it) ...
---end snip----

When I read this I seemed to remember some kind of short note on this saying on language / dialect, and army & navy -- and just now I came across a copy of this note.

I'll quote in full, from:

Language in Society 26:3 (1997), p.469
[by WB -- must be William Bright -- AB]

"A LANGUAGE IS A DIALECT WITH AN ARMY AND A NAVY." This saying, long part of oral tradition among sociolinguists, was quoted in a review by Alan Kaye in _LiS_ 26:484 (1996). In his manuscript, Kaye had attributed the quote to Max Weinreich; the editor of this journal changed the attribution to Uriel Weinreich [from whom I first heard it in 1957 -- WB]. However, it has also been attributed to Joshua Fishman. Recent e-mail correspondence involving Christina Paulston and Ellen Prince, as well as Kaye and Fishman, has brought out the following points:

(a) Some scholars believe that the saying is an expansion of a quote from Antoine Meillet, to the effect that a language is a dialect with an army.
Up to now the source has not been found in the works of Meillet. Can any readers provide information on this?
(b) The earliest documentation of the saying is in a publication in Yiddish by Max Weinreich. The following is a translation (by Ellen Prince) of a posting on "Mendele", a Yiddish e-mail list, by Yoshua Fishman on Oct. 28, 1996:

Avrohom Novershtern (Jerusalem) found for me the source of Max Weinreich's saying that _A shprakh iz a diyalekt mit an armey un a flot_ ['A language is a dialect with an army and a navy.'] This is found in Weinreich's "YIVO and the problems of our time," _Yivo-bleter_, 1945, vol. 25, no. 1, p. 13.
Weinreich attributes this formulation to a young man who came to his
lectures, and he decided, "I must bring to a large audience this wonderful formulation of the social fate of Yiddish." Congratulations to our good friend Novershtern and to all Mendele-subscribers who helped look for the largely forgotten source of a famous saying that is relevant to Yiddish and to all "one-down" languages.

(c) Joshua Fishman believes that he may have been the young man who, as a student of Max Weinreich, originated the saying. It is clear, in any case, that the dictum derives from the tradition of Yiddish linguistics, and that it was made familiar by the Weinreichs and by Fishman. Further information from readers will be welcome.
[end of quote]

Outer Banks

Currituck Lighthouse and Dave

Guess who's going to the Outer Banks this weekend? :-)

archy on insects and man | quotables

one thing that
shows that
insects are
superior to men
is the fact that
insects run their
affairs without
political campaigns
elections and so forth

from "random thoughts by archy" in archys life of mehitabel by don marquis

Sno Globes, Hurricanes, and the Messiah | links of note

Click here for link to the story, the video, and more.

Above, my friend Amandeep Jawa. Who is, shall we say, more than most people would ever dream or want to be. Fortunately, he does a fantastic job of being his active self: iMusic professional by day, San Francisco environmental activist by afternoon, and entertainer o' friends by evening.

These days, he's on a mission to save Florida from himself. Yep, he's gone canvassing for Kerry in Chadland, with the League of Conservation Voters' Environmental Victory Project. He'll be providing updates from his new DeepTrouble blog, which I'll encourage you to visit all the damned time. See also his very useful blog on the recent USOFTWEBSYS credit card scam that has nailed several of our friends for $9.95.

Please join me in welcoming Deep to blogland.

Wedding Contra Dance

Photo by Jeff Folkins, yoinked from Folkins.net*

On Sunday, Lea Ray and Tracy Feldman were joyfully married at the Forest Theatre in Chapel Hill. The ceremony was so wonderful. Lea was radiant throughout. Tracy, dressed in a cutaway coat which had been owned by an older member of his family, occasionally bounced up and down like a pogo stick, overwhelmed with happiness. As for me, I was glad I brought a handkerchief.

Now as it happens, Tracy and Lea first met at a contra dance at the Carrboro Century Center. So of course it made sense to throw another dance in that same place for their wedding reception. We had much much fun. And are so very pleased to celebrate Lea and Tracy's wedding.

*Note: I've never met Jeff but found this pic via a Google Search. I was delighted to find that (a) Jeff takes some great contra dance pics and (b) his website features pics of David Kaynor, who wrote the chapter on harmony for The Waltz Book by Bill Matthiessen. Jeff, if you're reading this, "hi!"

Malcolm Gladwell on Personality Tests | quotables

“Once, for fun, a friend and I devised our own personality test. Like the M.B.T.I., it has four dimensions. The first is Canine/Feline. In romantic relationships, are you the pursuer, who runs happily to the door, tail wagging? Or are you the pursued? The second is More/Different. Is it your intellectual style to gather and master as much information as you can or to make imaginative use of a discrete amount of information? The third is Insider/Outsider. Do you get along with your parents or do you define yourself outside your relationship with your mother and father? And, finally, there is Nibbler/Gobbler. Do you work steadily, in small increments, or do everything at once, in a big gulp? I’m quite pleased with the personality inventory we devised. It directly touches on four aspects of life and temperament—romance, cognition, family, and work style—that are only hinted at by Myers-Briggs. And it can be completed in under a minute, nineteen minutes faster than Myers-Briggs, an advantage not to be dismissed in today’s fast-paced business environment. Of course, the four traits it measures are utterly arbitrary, based on what my friend and I came up with over the course of a phone call. But then again surely all universal dichotomous typing systems are arbitrary.”

—Malcolm Gladwell in “Personality Plus – Employers love personality tests. But what do they really reveal?”, The New Yorker, September 20, 2004. Gladwell is also the author The Tipping Point). If I recall correctly, my friend Glenn has slept in his bed.

Shaking the Meeting House

Back in April, we cut and installed cedar shakes at the new meeting house.

That's Daryl in the back -- I worried about his hammering because he does nearly all the calligraphy for meeting events like weddings and births. Gail is in the front -- she's the meeting house scheduler, the woman who knows everything about what's happening when. They're nice people to work with. Did I mention that I wished I had a better camera?

Triple Lindy

Image from Rodney.com, a funky little website with an interesting Flash (?) trick on the splash page.  Move your cursor to move the spotlight.

Below, an excerpt from CNN's report:

As a comic, Dangerfield -- clad in a black suit, red tie and white shirt with collar that seemed too tight -- convulsed audiences with lines such as: "When I was born, I was so ugly that the doctor slapped my mother"; "When I started in show business, I played one club that was so far out my act was reviewed in Field and Stream"; and "Every time I get in an elevator, the operator says the same thing to me: 'Basement?' "

In a 1986 interview, he explained the origin of his "respect" trademark:

"I had this joke: 'I played hide and seek; they wouldn't even look for me.' To make it work better, you look for something to put in front of it: I was so poor, I was so dumb, so this, so that. I thought, 'Now what fits that joke?' Well, 'No one liked me' was all right. But then I thought, a more profound thing would be, 'I get no respect.' "

He tried it at a New York club, and the joke drew a bigger response than ever. He kept the phrase in the act, and it seemed to establish a bond with his audience. After hearing him perform years later, Jack Benny remarked: "Me, I get laughs because I'm cheap and 39.

I was never a big Dangerfield fan (Caddyshack bored me), but I did enjoy much of the brilliantly adolescent Back to School, especially the Vietnam/Korean war scene professor Sam Kinison*, and the cameo from Kurt Vonnegut.  In reviewing that movie, Roger Ebert (whom I generally think is an idiot and whom I have quoted to my surprise on another occasion) gave an interesting commentary on Dangerfield as man and actor.

Speaking of Back to School, did Rebecky know that most of the outdoor scenes were filmed at the University of Wisconsin - Madison?

---------

*Hey -- I just found the scene at Script-O-Rama. 

PROFESSOR TURGESON (SAM KINISON):

Welcome to Contemporary American history.

I'm Professor Turgeson. I know a lot of people think history is just facts...                
just information about the past, but not me.

I hold history very sacred. Sacred.

The way a farmer looks at the Earth and holds it sacred.

The way a Christian takes the Bible...and he holds it sacred.

The way a lot of people hold their marriage sacred.

That's how I feel about it. So why don't we dive right in... by interpreting
one of the easiest events... in the last twenty years of American history.

Now, can someone tell me...   why, in 1973 we pulled our troops out of Vietnam?

FEMALE STUDENT:

The failure of Vietnamization to win popular support... caused an ongoing erosion
of confidence... in the various American...but illegal... Saigon regimes.

PROFESSOR TURGESON (Sam Kinison):

Is she right?

'Cause I know that's the popular version...of what went on there.

I know a lot of people like to believe that.

I wish I could, but I was there.

I wasn't here in a classroom... hoping I was right, thinking about it.

I was up to my knees in rice paddies...with guns that didn't work,
going up against Charlie... slugging it out with him, while pussies like you...                  
were back here partyin', puttin' headbands on...
doin' drugs, listening to the goddamn Beatles albums!

THORNTON MELON (Dangerfield):

Hey, Professor, take it easy, will ya?

These kids were in grade school at the time.

And me, I'm not a fighter, I'm a lover.

PROFESSOR TURGESON:

Well, I didn't know you wanted to get involved with the discussion,
Mr. Helper.

But since you want to help, maybe you can help me, OK?

You remember that thing we had about thirty years ago...
called the Korean conflict?

Yeah. Where we failed to achieve victory.

How come we didn't cross the 38th parallel...                
and push those rice-eaters back
to the Great Wall of China...
and take it apart
brick by brick...            
and nuke them back into
the fuckin' stone age forever?

How come? Tell me?
Why? Say it! Say it!

THORNTON MELON:

All right, I'll say it.

'Cause Truman was too much of a pussy wimp...
to let MacArthur go in and blow
out those commie bastards!

   

PROFESSOR TURGESON:

Good answer. Good answer.

I like the way you think.

I'm gonna be watching you.

THORNTON MELON:   

Good teacher.
He really seems to care. 

About what, I have no idea.

Love is the Drug