tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57325332011-12-08T10:33:28.509-05:00Thoughts on linguistics, languages (learning and teaching), traveling, books, and whatever else catches my attention.Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3661100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-21591284222828639912007-04-10T18:06:00.000-04:002007-04-10T18:09:49.030-04:00

Moving DayI have a new home! All future personal blogging will now be at:From My Wandering MindAll general audience intellectual rambling will continue at:Geek BuffetLinguistic Life will remain here, but static.See you over there!

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-74527393859229295282007-03-05T17:14:00.000-05:002007-03-05T17:21:34.261-05:00

Geek Buffet Now Serving!Like many people I know, if given the choice, I prefer to be lazy. But I also like thinking about things and commenting on them, and I don't really have a particularly unifying theme to talk about anymore. So what did I do? I started a group blog, where lots of smart people I know can be lazy and smart at the same time.Allow me to present... Geek Buffet!I invite you to

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-69585463006049685052007-03-01T11:47:00.000-05:002007-03-01T11:52:45.696-05:00

New and Interesting Dental TriviaIf I wanted to stretch and say that this post is relevant to the supposed linguistic focus of this blog, I'd point out that it has to do with teeth, which are important to speech as used in articulation, but the truth is, it's just interesting knowledge I picked up at the dentist office today, and I felt I should share, because who doesn't want random bits of

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-85732174944863635482007-02-26T16:15:00.000-05:002007-02-26T16:42:02.132-05:00

New Vocabulary Acquired Over the WeekendI suppose, technically, I acquired this new vocabulary item on Friday, which is not actually the weekend, but I had the day off work, so it counts. I had taken the day off to chauffeur* Mark to an interview in Charlotte, and thus found myself killing time for about 6 hours. I had intended to go to the Mint Museum of Craft + Design, but instead discovered

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1256587198695989272007-02-21T06:03:00.000-05:002007-02-21T18:45:25.708-05:00

Foreign English Teachers: Products or People?Earlier this week, a friend currently on the JET program wrote the following: I believe that the JET program is on it's way out. It won't happen for a couple years, but the beginnings of this are already evident in my city. JETs are hired by the national government, but then contracted out to local cities. Thus, the Board of Education (BOE) for each

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-73698966830352865812007-02-19T21:54:00.000-05:002007-02-19T22:26:28.850-05:00

Happy Year of the Pig!Yesterday was Chinese New Year, this year ringing in the Year of the Pig. I have enlisted my father's pig, Piggy Sue*, to help us get in the mood to celebrate.*Piggy Sue is a working barbecue grill. She was created by Joel Haas. Further information about her construction and features can be found here.

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-63433153798636038232007-02-16T17:17:00.000-05:002007-02-16T18:27:05.503-05:00

From Theory to PracticeSince about the beginning of the year, I've been thinking about the future, things I like to do, things I want to do, and so forth. Despite having not taught any classes since moving back to North Carolina, thinking about teaching seems to have become an ingrained habit, and it was because I liked thinking about language acquisition that I ended up in a TESOL program anyway

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-88955882933890836752007-02-14T20:49:00.000-05:002007-02-14T20:53:53.442-05:00

There Can Be No Truer Love...than that of a boy and his dog. I could think of no better expression of the sentiments of the day than this picture of my brother and his bestest girl.

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-80996548183048524892007-02-07T20:51:00.000-05:002007-02-07T20:59:04.159-05:00

A Geek MomentThe following IM conversation took place this morning, when a vaguely anti-war themed song came up on my computer playlist.Dana: I wonder how much of my feeling that we shouldn't really be trying to run other countries and interfering with their attempts to set up govts of their own has been influenced by growing up watching Star Trek, with its Prime Directive. Will: Except they

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-45104656452077303602006-12-21T17:56:00.000-05:002006-12-21T18:06:07.501-05:00

Horse Mackerel by Any Other Name Would Apparently Taste BetterA while ago, my aunt loaned me Karin Muller's book Japanland: A Year in Search of Wa, since it had reminded her somewhat of my year in Japan. It's an excellently written book, which you'd expect from someone who makes documentaries for PBS and National Geographic. I'm actually sort of in awe of Muller, since she is really able to go

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1166563053181742222006-12-19T16:00:00.000-05:002006-12-19T16:17:33.206-05:00

Those Pesky Homophones Will Get You Every TimeToday, we bookstore staff went out to lunch for our own version of a holiday party. We didn't go far, just to the shopping area across the street, where we went to a newish place called The Grape. As should be implied by the name, it's a wine bar that also happens to serve food. Despite lunch time customers like us, who did not drink at all, they

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1166220887211000902006-12-15T16:40:00.000-05:002006-12-15T17:14:47.230-05:00

Generational Differences in Viewing the Pinochet EraThis post is a little late, as I've been rendered lethargic for most of the week by a nasty cold, but since reading of Pinochet's death earlier this week, I have been thinking back on all the research I did on the Pinochet era in Chile while I was in college. My final project was a paper on the generational differences in how people in Chile

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1165550488944648652006-12-07T22:53:00.000-05:002006-12-07T23:01:28.956-05:00

Love as a Four Letter WordGiven all the linguistic blog coverage of taboo language lately, I was amused to hear this song on the radio on my way home tonight:"Love You"by Jack IngramDang the sun; dang this day An' I'm just tryin' to stay outta your danged ol' way To heck with this; to heck with us An' shoot if I'll ever look back on where I've been Shoot if I'll ever give away my heart again Love

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1165276707582511302006-12-04T18:40:00.000-05:002006-12-04T18:58:27.600-05:00

AAVE or not AAVE?or How Too Much Linguistic Knowledge Can Ruin an Otherwise Fun BookI like reading Robert Parker's Spenser mysteries. Really, I do. My father addicted me, and the books are all over my parents house, begging to be picked up in idle moments. But sometimes, I find his writing distracting.I've already mentioned his erratic use of the question mark. I'm working on moving beyond that.

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1165176684864567622006-12-03T14:22:00.000-05:002006-12-03T15:11:25.713-05:00

Two Linguistics Short StoriesThe other day, I found myself looking through some old issues of Fantasy & Science Fiction, trying to find a story I vaguely remembered the plot of, but nothing else. It turns out that search was in vain, but I did find two other short stories featuring linguists. They were both about women working as interpretors and translators, though very different in their

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1164913352047004212006-11-30T13:38:00.000-05:002006-11-30T18:00:35.893-05:00

Forbidden Words: An In-Depth Look at How We Censor Our LanguageI was waiting to post about the Allan & Burridge book Forbidden Words: Taboo and the Censoring of Language until it came out in the more affordable paperback form, which it did a week and half ago, but I was distracted by actually reading the book, so now I'm slightly late. But now I have more to say!The interesting thing about the

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1164833253193728642006-11-29T15:34:00.000-05:002006-11-29T15:51:20.756-05:00

Learning to Breathe AgainNo, this is not a post about an emotional breakthrough or learning to relax, it is about breathing. Literally. My acupuncturist has been trying to convert me to joys of abdominal breathing. This is, essentially, allowing your stomach to expand when you inhale and thinking about letting your lungs fill up from the bottom up instead of the top down. He tells me this is the

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1163804017216898012006-11-17T17:36:00.000-05:002006-11-17T17:53:37.230-05:00

Another Take on the News: Al Jazeera Goes EnglishOn Wednesday, Al Jazeera launched their new English language news channel. I happened to be near a TV that night and caught CNN's little blurb of coverage about it. Unsurprisingly, aside from giving the basics about the new channel, with visuals of their multiethnic anchors and lovely studios, the rest of the story from CNN's point of view was

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1163464149149454942006-11-13T19:20:00.000-05:002006-11-13T19:29:09.166-05:00

Michiga-what?I just got back from spending the holiday weekend in Michigan, and I have discovered another not-right sounding word for people from that state.Previous terms I had heard were: Michigander Michigoonie But when we drove past the UMich student publications building, I discovered that their yearbook is "The Michiganenian." The what now? Too many syllables. I have no idea if it is just

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1163028090472785942006-11-08T18:02:00.000-05:002006-11-08T18:21:30.493-05:00

Another Mixed World EnglishNow joining the ranks of Spanglish, Engrish, Chinglish, and Konglish, among others, the BBC presents Hinglish. The article is no real revelation for anyone who has, say, seen "Bend it Like Beckham," or perhaps even talked to a real live Indian-British-type person. But it offers some amusement nonetheless, such as: The exporting of words into English has also caught the

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1162425624230724892006-11-01T18:41:00.000-05:002006-11-01T19:00:24.246-05:00

Milton on BooksI'm currently reading a book (which I'll talk more about later, I'm sure) that quotes extensively from John Milton's Areopagitica in the section about censorship. Two of the fantastic and erudite (it is Milton, after all) passages that caught my eye: For books are not absolutely dead things, but doe contain a potencie of life in them to be as active as that soule was whose progeny

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1161825154450828752006-10-25T20:45:00.000-04:002006-10-25T21:12:34.470-04:00

Deaf Culture and Language PoliticsI've been following the NPR coverage of the student protests at Gallaudet University with interest. For those who haven't, or have no idea why Gallaudet is unique, well, the opening blurb of the most recent story sums it up nicely: In Washington, at Gallaudet University, the nation's only liberal arts school for the deaf, many students, faculty and alumni

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1161700901431622022006-10-24T10:35:00.000-04:002006-10-24T10:41:41.446-04:00

Tatami FernI am in the process of killing another plant, a fern this time. The woman I bought it from said that I could put it the shower and let it enjoy some pretend rain. So I did, and then my entire apartment smelled like wet fern. I became confused, though, when I realized that the smell was making me feel rather disconnected, like I was in the wrong place, the wrong apartment.And then I

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1161125372929866302006-10-17T18:04:00.000-04:002006-10-17T18:49:33.083-04:00

Pragmatics Cause Split Personalities!For no particular reason the other day, I found myself mulling over the effects of pragmatics on speech in multiple languages, or rather, its effects on the speaker. Then David Beaver at Langauge Log posted about a study on the apparent change in personality that happens when bilingual speakers answer a questionnaire in one language and then the other.As

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1161042122603831922006-10-16T19:25:00.000-04:002006-10-16T19:42:02.636-04:00

Inspiration from Margaret SangerI just came across Margaret Sanger's "This I Believe" recording from 1953. Sanger's work and life is inspiring enough, as a person dedicated to contraceptive rights and the founder of (what eventually became) Planned Parenthood, but hearing her talk about it, and what in turn inspired her, is amazing. From her speech: There is an old Indian proverb which has

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1160689818313119022006-10-12T17:31:00.000-04:002006-10-12T17:50:18.330-04:00

Is Cheap Housing Really Cheap?Yesterday, Marketplace covered an issue that is becoming a bigger problem in the US, but which not many people seem to be thinking about: Housing costs vs. costly commutes.When I moved back to North Carolina, I ended up in an envious position. I have a reasonably priced apartment in a very convenient semi-urban location, only a mile from my 30-hour-per-week job (with

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1160518718061236322006-10-10T18:02:00.000-04:002006-10-10T18:18:38.076-04:00

Book Recommendations from the LiteratiI've been interested to note a sort of pro-books and reading, anti-airport-literature trend going on in the parts of the media world I am willing to expose myself to. I doubt this should be much of a surprise, but I'm interested in the way it's being structured so similarly, but from two different, seemingly unrelated places.Last year, a publisher sent me a

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1160437840963805872006-10-09T19:44:00.000-04:002006-10-09T19:50:40.976-04:00

Fort of Knowledge Under ConstructionI noticed I'm going through one of those stay in my house and read all the time with little social interaction phases again. It's rather fun. I'll probably come out of the fort once I feel sufficiently knowledgable again. Or I find something fascinating I have to share.(Yay, Sinfest!)

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1160175054658981532006-10-06T18:35:00.000-04:002006-10-06T18:50:54.673-04:00

"Ignore Your Rights and They'll Go Away"Today, one of the people on an email discussion list I'm a part of posed the following question: I was listening to NPR interviewing rural voters this morning and they were all talking about how, despite the controversy that the Republicans have been getting into, they consider themselves pro-life, and thus they will continue to vote Republican. So my

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1159989360091337052006-10-04T14:55:00.000-04:002006-10-04T15:16:00.106-04:00

A Rolling Stone Attracts No AllergensThere is a distinct danger in my living in one place for very long. You see, this is the first month of my lease renewal, marking the beginning of the first time I will have lived in one dwelling for more than a year since I graduated from high school. And indeed, the danger has come to pass: the allergens have found me.I haven't had allergies this bad in

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1159398936470611722006-09-27T18:43:00.000-04:002006-09-27T19:17:03.203-04:00

The Curse of the GeekI am cursed by intellectual curiosity. There are just too many things I want to know about, and I am finding all of a sudden that even though I have more truly free time now than possibly ever before, I can't concentrate on one thing at a time for long enough to learn all I want. It occurred to me today that part of the reason I like taking actual classes is because then I

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1159136490627299632006-09-24T18:01:00.000-04:002006-09-24T18:21:30.643-04:00

A Japanese Perspective on the New PrinceFor everyone who hasn't been living in a complete media blackout for the past month, you undoubtedly know that Japan's imperial family has a new prince. This was momentous news, because it looked like there weren't going to be any boys in the latest generation, and they had gone so far, in the past several years, as to discuss changing the succession laws

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1158801247158641422006-09-20T21:02:00.000-04:002006-09-20T21:14:07.173-04:00

Linguists are Funny(Or maybe just punny, but it suits my familial sense of humor.)I came across the following passage in Bilingualism in Development (33,) in a discussion about the differences between formalist and functionalist theories of language acquistion, and theories that try to bridge the gap. An early acknowledgement of the need to approach language acquisition from both sides was

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1158509510930624462006-09-17T11:50:00.000-04:002006-09-17T12:11:50.946-04:00

Scientists Out of History, Available for FreeVia Carl Zimmer at The Loom, I see that the Royal Society of London is making its entire archives available for free. Why is this exciting to me? Well, first, for anyone who doesn't know what the Royal Society is, Carl explains: In 1665, a group of natural philosophers in England got together and decided to publish what is arguably the first scientific

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1157986912735035262006-09-11T10:48:00.000-04:002006-09-11T11:01:52.766-04:00

Tea and Hibernating BearsFor my birthday when I lived in Japan, my friend Sharon decided I needed to be more British, so she gave me tea. One tin was Earl Grey, the other was Muscat. I had no idea what Muscat was, but it smelled nice, and it tasted good, so I figured I just hadn't heard of it before, and maybe it was a British thing imported to Japan.This morning, I was trying to describe what

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1157157179948461542006-09-08T16:27:00.000-04:002006-09-08T16:34:34.010-04:00

Inside as an OutsiderI was listening to the This American Life episode ("Americans in Paris") about what exactly it is that Americans see in Paris. For the last part, Glass interviewed an African-American lawyer who now lives in Paris. She talked about what a relief it had been for her to move to France, because there, she wasn't the girl in the projects who spoke too white, or the girl in the

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1157593899646653092006-09-06T21:15:00.000-04:002006-09-06T21:55:30.226-04:00

Older Fathers and Autistic KidsI'm sure many people heard about this yesterday, as I did when I woke up, but both the BBC (read) and NPR (listen) were reporting on the study that came out in this months Archives of General Psychiatry* showing a possible link between paternal age and the likelihood of having a child born with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It was, of course, all the buzz at

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1157513214393281432006-09-05T22:23:00.000-04:002006-09-05T23:26:54.486-04:00

The Mountains (and Rivers) of Western North CarolinaThis past weekend, I went with my parents and grandparents to see my brother in the far western part of the state. He's attending Western Carolina University, in Parks and Rec Management, which seems like an excellent choice for him. I got to do a lot of window tourism, since we did a lot of driving around. This is not my preferred method of

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1157158573727513562006-09-01T20:33:00.000-04:002006-09-01T20:56:13.743-04:00

Native Literacy as a Basis for Learning is Not a Liberal ConceptOn NPR this afternoon, there was this story, "Spanish Classes for Latino Immigrants," on a program based in Durham County here in North Carolina, teaching literacy skills, in Spanish, to Latino immigrants. They pointed out at the beginning of the story that this is because most of these students have tried ESL classes and failed

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1156479627430806192006-08-28T21:09:00.000-04:002006-08-28T21:14:33.813-04:00

The Mysterious World of the "Oranda-Tsuuji"I've been reading James Stanlaw's Japanese English: Language and Culture Contact, and I just recently finished the chapter in which he gave an overview of Japan's historical contact with Western languages. The most interesting thing to me was that I had never realized the influence the Dutch had in Japan. When, in 1633, Tokugawa Hidetada banned

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1156548572086917422006-08-25T19:23:00.000-04:002006-08-25T20:27:32.346-04:00

More Shiny DistractionsI have decided my readers don't have enough to keep them entertained, and I should therefore addict them all to online comics, if they aren't already. I do this out of the goodness of my heart. It is not at all an attempt to keep them placated on those frequent days when I haven't updated. Not at all. I don't know why you would say such a thing. You have such a suspicious

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1156456211415208452006-08-24T17:26:00.000-04:002006-08-24T17:50:11.436-04:00

Additions, Subtractions, Shiny DistractionsAs my no doubt utterly devoted and extremely observant, some might even say obsessive, readers have already noted, I've done some housekeeping on my sidebar. It had gotten rather dusty over there amongst the links, so I blew away the poor blogs that hadn't been updated in more than a year. I also added some new things...Amongst the blogs of people I

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1155848630886382702006-08-17T16:48:00.000-04:002006-08-17T17:03:50.906-04:00

Eye-Catching Grammar AwarenessLast weekend, I had my first chance to wear my new "Good grammar costs nothing!" shirt, and for the first time in recent memory,* I had two strangers comment on my clothing. The first one was an older man in the local coffee shop my family frequents most Saturdays. He told me that he liked my shirt, because too many people today don't take school and the things they

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1155760938175799452006-08-16T16:18:00.000-04:002006-08-16T16:42:18.196-04:00

Mothers of the "Cured"Maybe there's something about the upcoming alignment of the planets or a phase of the moon, but for the past two days, we at the bookstore have had run-ins with customers (or not-customers, as the case may be) claiming their children have been "cured" of autism. One woman called to complain that our latest catalog was doing the community a great disservice by only listing

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1155604525757885232006-08-14T21:08:00.000-04:002006-08-14T21:15:25.780-04:00

What Do You Want To Be?A while ago, I was sitting outside eating lunch, and a trio of high school girls were sitting on a nearby bench. I overheard one of them ask the others, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" and this time, my brain came up with the best answer I've ever found to that question. In the silence of my own skull, it said plainly, Rich enough that I don't have to choose.

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1155336071977793062006-08-11T18:29:00.000-04:002006-08-11T18:41:11.990-04:00

Parking Garage Numbers In Many LanguagesEarlier this week, as well as over the weekend, I was in Michigan for a wedding. I went out to dinner in downtown Ann Arbor, and when we were returning to the car in the parking garage, I saw a plaque showing the numerals 1-7 in modern Arabic, Egyptian, Mayan, Roman, Ancient Chinese, Ethiopian script, and Hindu. (At least, according to the sign. I'm not

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1155259479940450712006-08-10T20:50:00.000-04:002006-08-10T21:24:39.956-04:00

Science Writing Takes on AnimeI have discovered an interesting trend. If I wander around a Barnes & Noble for long enough while killing time, especially in the science section, I will eventually find something extremely interesting, but which I never would have considered looking for on purpose. This past weekend's discovery was The Science of Anime, by Lois H. Gresh and Robert Weinberg. I

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1154478379704394862006-08-01T20:17:00.000-04:002006-08-01T20:26:19.760-04:00

Definite or Indefinite Dance Styles?I just started reading National Rhythms, African Roots: A Deep History of Latin American Popular Dance tonight, and a paragraph from the "A Word on Language" section at the beginning of the book caught my eye: In Spanish, people always say el tango and la salsa, in Portuguese o samba and a valsa - using definite articles. In English, I have left definite

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1154381597659263242006-07-31T17:20:00.000-04:002006-07-31T17:33:20.516-04:00

How Did This Happen?This morning, as I caught up on my internet reading over breakfast, I found myself reading Roger Shuy's Language Log post about how much most linguists seem to love their jobs, which left me feeling a bit wistful about my own life. Then, this afternoon, I filled in the last 15 otherwise mostly dead minutes of my time at work writing a quick and dirty explanation of grammatical

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1154307285293059462006-07-30T20:28:00.000-04:002006-07-30T20:54:45.383-04:00

Linguistic Ignorance Undermines Victorian PretentionQ: When is a diphthong not a diphthong?A: When it is a consonant sound that happens to be represented by a digraph in English.I've become somewhat obsessed with reading the Amelia Peabody mysteries in order, now that I'm back in a place with a fabulous and easily accessible public library. They are set in the Victorian and post-Victorian era,

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1153699675216735532006-07-23T19:07:00.000-04:002006-07-23T20:47:59.443-04:00

Men of Steel: Hollywood vs. Bollywoodor Comparative Cultural Anthropology for $12A few weeks ago, I embarked on a cultural anthropology project without having to go more than a few miles from home. I was house-sitting for a family friend, and found myself located much closer than I normally am to the local Indian-owned movie theater. In checking the listings, I discovered that they were playing

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1153256618272312362006-07-18T16:48:00.000-04:002006-07-18T17:05:43.546-04:00

Howl's Moving Castle: Book vs. MovieWhile I was at the aforementioned conference in Rhode Island, I found myself with a bit more time to read than I had anticipated. (The convention center was attached to a mall. Vendor's hall business was, to put it mildly, slow.) After having read the two books I brought with me, and cursing myself for not bringing the third because the second one ended on a

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1153185416245686522006-07-17T21:01:00.000-04:002006-07-17T21:16:56.346-04:00

The Multilingual MilitaryLate Saturday night, I finally got back from being a vendor at the Autism Society of America National Conference in Rhode Island for most of the week. My flight back was, of course, delayed by several hours, since my flight up had been completely on time. My very extended layover in Philadelphia and the subsequent flight were enlivened, though, by my striking up

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1152565235560369812006-07-10T16:01:00.000-04:002006-07-10T17:00:35.676-04:00

Betty la Fea in EnglishWhen I lived in Chile, my host family and the entire rest of the country was addicted to a Colombian telenovela called "Betty la Fea," about a pitifully unattractive and shy young woman working at a fashion industry company. The show took all of the Latin American world by storm, winning a bunch of awards in the TV industry down there, and becoming the obsession of pretty

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1152307446834857792006-07-07T17:04:00.000-04:002006-07-07T17:24:06.943-04:00

Sign of the GeekHow do you know you are a certifiable language geek? You find yourself leaving the house with a handful of dictionaries. On purpose. At least, that's what happened to me earlier this week. Granted, two of them, the Spanish-English and Spanish-Spanish ones, were for the purpose of translating a Mexican air permit for my dad, but the other one was for... fun.And fun it was! I had

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1152137290577437132006-07-05T17:45:00.000-04:002006-07-05T18:08:10.686-04:00

Proper Fireworks!Last night, for the first time in 7 years, I got to see a proper fireworks display on the 4th of July. For many years of my childhood, my family always saw the fireworks in Manteo, on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and these occasions became the standard against which I measure all other 4th of Julys. Last night, I sat on the grassy area behind the art museum in Raleigh, and

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1150928046964339452006-06-21T17:44:00.000-04:002006-06-21T18:14:07.033-04:00

Japanese and Social PositioningGoogle Scholar is an evil, horrible, addictive timesink, and I did indeed recently get sucked in. All of which is just by way of introduction for how I came to be reading an article on learner subjectivity here in my supposedly post-academic life. The article, The Role of Learner Subjectivity in Language Sociolinguistic Competence: Western Women Learning Japanese,

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1150756500858926452006-06-19T17:40:00.000-04:002006-06-19T18:41:14.730-04:00

Controversy over The Speed of DarkI recently got to read Elizabeth Moon's novel The Speed of Dark for work, and I found it fascinating. I almost feel sorry for people who read it who aren't very aware of the autism community, because I'm not sure they'd grasp how controversial it is, and how masterfully Moon deals with the question of whether high-functioning autism is something to be irrevocably

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1150322249655914702006-06-14T16:55:00.000-04:002006-06-14T17:57:29.746-04:00

Firefly DialectologyI found myself needing to catch up on some Language Log reading earlier this week, and I noticed a post by Arnold Zwicky on sci-fi inspired slang. This reminded me that I had a related blog post idea more than a year ago, but which never got posted because it turned into an academic paper for my pidgins and creoles sociolinguistics class. However, it is time to rectify this

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1149959281350042642006-06-10T13:03:00.000-04:002006-06-10T13:08:01.350-04:00

Word Appropriation AlertI have just become aware of the fact that German possesses a word that English desperately needs. Please take note and use the word on all future appropriate occasions. Ohrwurm, (tr. "ear worm"): a song that gets stuck in your head We now return you to your regularly scheduled English usage.

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1149958636439346982006-06-10T12:47:00.000-04:002006-06-10T12:57:18.950-04:00

Role ModelLast night, I got a visit from the Ethical Werewolf, who I've known since high school. At some point, the conversation got around to reporting on what's been going on with our various siblings. Neil told me his younger sister has recently gone through the college search and acceptance process, and had asked him for advice on how to figure out what she wanted to do. Since she wasn't

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1149816013566324512006-06-08T21:13:00.000-04:002006-06-08T21:20:13.576-04:00

A Long Time/Not Long EnoughI'm doing some data entry for my dad's company in the mornings this week, and today I remembered to bring my headphones so I could listen to music. Interestingly, data entry (with music) serves much the same purpose as cross-stitching and solitaire, in that it occupies my body in a mostly mindless way, and frees up my brain for thinking without wanting to kill itself

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1149457131760006962006-06-04T17:31:00.000-04:002006-06-04T17:38:51.760-04:00

Halloween in JuneToday I went to a neighborhood bagel place for lunch with my dad. As we sat down, I noticed that one of the women behind him was dressed in a skirt, blouse, and jacket of matching leopard print design. Then I noticed her shoes matched, too, which was kind of impressive. And then I noticed she had a matching tail attached to her rear end. Neither of the other people with her were

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1149456704256249262006-06-04T17:30:00.000-04:002006-06-04T17:31:44.266-04:00

Spam Subject Line #3Another gem: 100,000 lemmings can't be wrong I'm not sure this person really understands about lemmings.

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1149031031388210292006-05-30T19:03:00.000-04:002006-05-30T19:17:12.046-04:00

4 Years and CountingLittle more than a week ago, Grinnell, my undergraduate school once again held graduation, and I realized that I have now been out of college for as long as I was in it. Inspired by one of my friends, a list of what I have done in those 4 years in the outside world, not necessarily in order: Lived in Japan for a year Visited Germany, France, China, and South Africa Taught

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1149031218972434772006-05-30T18:50:00.000-04:002006-05-30T19:20:18.973-04:00

More Spam FunMy spammers are on a roll. A few days after I got the aforementioned subject line, I got this gem, dedicated to all my friends who are programmers, in grad school, or just plain coffee addicts:"SLEEP: A poor substitute for caffeine"

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1148341875582006932006-05-22T19:43:00.000-04:002006-05-22T19:51:15.680-04:00

A Special Kind of StupidThis is too funny not to share, even though I should probably be insulted. This morning I checked the email account associated with this blog, which was, as usual, all in the Bulk Mail folder. Sometimes Yahoo's spam filter gets overzealous, so I at least scan through. That is how I discovered that either spammers are taking much more personal pride in their work, or they

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1148139810450019632006-05-20T11:22:00.000-04:002006-05-20T11:43:30.546-04:00

The High Art of "Cooking"I have a strange relationship with food. I'm never particularly ravenously hungry, and when I do feel hungry, it's sort of a toss-up as to whether I'll feel like actually getting any food or just continuing with what I'm doing and ignoring it until the feeling goes away. In times of high stress, I'm never hungry. During that second year at MSU, I was down to eating maybe

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1147814992625282012006-05-16T16:53:00.000-04:002006-05-16T17:29:52.763-04:00

Geographic GeekeryWhat do geeks do when on the phone late at night? They compare the details of small islands on their giant world maps, of course. This past weekend's educational exploration led to the following interesting discovery: the island of Bouvetøya. It's in the middle of the South Atlantic, surrounded in all directions by miles and miles of ocean. All the islands to its west to South

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1147297506140771372006-05-10T16:48:00.000-04:002006-05-10T17:48:23.953-04:00

Nu shu and Other Women's Writing SystemsA week or so ago, I finished reading Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. It's a good, quick read, not-too-dense historical fiction, set in nineteenth century China. The story is one woman's tale of her arranged lifelong friendship with another woman, her "old same." Really, though, it's the story of a writing system. The focus throughout the book is on the

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1147128243430458092006-05-08T18:02:00.000-04:002006-05-08T18:44:03.533-04:00

Mutants and Specials, Minorities of the FutureMy last comic book review, as a return to blogging after a week of vacation. (Sorry, no exciting travel tales; I stayed home this time.)The last series I got introduced to during the great comic book splurge of '05 was J. Michael Straczynski's Rising Stars. I admit, I already have a noted fondness for Straczynski's work, what with my recent

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1146254724094422132006-04-28T15:36:00.000-04:002006-04-28T16:05:24.203-04:00

More Modern ComicsJust for my dad, who you may note from the previous post's comments I have also addicted to reading comics, I will now talk about the other two comic series my dear friend Erik has hooked us on, like some sort of intellectual crack dealer.The first is The Adventures of Barry Ween, Boy Genius. Barry is sort of like Calvin, if Calvin had actually been a super genius outside of his

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1145994713334122182006-04-25T15:08:00.000-04:002006-04-25T15:51:53.423-04:00

Fairy Tales of a More Modern SortIn my efforts to explore hobbies that had fallen by the wayside during the grad school years, several of my friends have undertaken to addict me to comic books/graphic novels. They've done an excellent job, darn them.Before I went to Taiwan, Daniel sent me the completed all-in-one volume edition of Bone, which our friend Will had addicted everyone in our crew to

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1145400238149931732006-04-18T18:24:00.000-04:002006-04-18T18:43:58.260-04:00

Fast and Fun Autism Pop ScienceYesterday, I came across a reference in the book I was reading at work to an Autism Quotient quiz in Wired's online archive. I took it, and scored an 11. The instructions claim that 32 is supposed to be the marker after which autism spectrum disorder could be suspected. Interesting. So then I posted it in Grinnell's online community for other people to take. I

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1144879913488383132006-04-12T17:56:00.000-04:002006-04-12T18:11:53.583-04:00

Walking to WorkOne of the main things I appreciate about my current job is that it is located close enough to my apartment that I can walk there. Walking to work is probably my favorite part of the day, given that I go to work at a low-traffic time of day. Right now, the sun is usually shining, the weather is warmed up to nearly its high for the day, and all the trees are blooming.In general,

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1144512481228615922006-04-08T11:58:00.000-04:002006-04-08T12:08:01.283-04:00

Who wants to live forever?I will never die. At least, according to this article from the BBC, I won't. As the opening paragraphs state: Scientists have found tangible signs that a low-calorie diet could reverse signs of ageing in the body.A six-month study showed cutting calories lowered insulin levels and core body temperatures. Given that I often have to count calories to ensure I've broken

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1144272020165206482006-04-05T16:59:00.000-04:002006-04-05T17:20:20.263-04:00

Who Are You and What Do You Want?I recently came to a realization. For 5 years or more, I lived with my brain in overdrive. Things were interesting, mind-expanding in so many directions at once, challenging. All through college, I took classes in multiple things that were interesting to me; when I got tired of one, I switched to another, and I could explore the connections I saw between

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1143065409368944142006-03-22T17:04:00.000-05:002006-03-22T17:10:09.386-05:00

The Arrival of the CardI know it's my birthday, because this year's official birthday card from my card-making aunt and calligrapher uncle arrived in the mail today. I figured I'd share. Happy birthday to me!

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1142998702761994472006-03-21T22:21:00.000-05:002006-03-21T22:38:22.783-05:00

The Day That I Got Asked Out in the Post Office(titling convention stolen from Amanda at Everyday Evidence)Who knew tax time could be so enticing? This morning, I had to get up early to go get my taxes done. (No, I did not do them myself; I'm being taxed in 2 states and 3 separate tax areas. It is totally worth my hard earned money to have someone else earn theirs doing my taxes for me.) Anyway,

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1142466989249516072006-03-17T00:14:00.000-05:002006-03-17T12:15:01.293-05:00

When I Was a VirginWhen Colloquialisms Strike!I was thinking some more about using colloquial language, and it occurred to me that the flip side of purposefully using a colloquialism to sound more natural, and then failing, is using them inadvertantly, usually via overly direct translation. Direct translations often unintentionally stumble into the realm of euphemisms, leading the innocent

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1142463269621180992006-03-15T17:18:00.000-05:002006-03-15T17:54:29.686-05:00

Colloquial English, Scourge of the ESL SeaFor the past week or so, this Chinese menu has been making the internet rounds. It is so hilariously mistranslated some people declared it had to be a hoax. Fortunately, the friendly linguists at Language Log were all over that, with Ben Zimmer's post, Engrish Explained. Zimmer cites a comment left by an anonymous Chinese prof in defense of the

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1142265755562584092006-03-13T10:48:00.000-05:002006-03-13T11:02:35.716-05:00

Two Days in the Life of an Autism Bookstore Booth BabeI spent the end of last week helping supervise the bookstore booth at a conference for homeschooling children with special needs. While I was there, I had a number of... interesting conversations, which were, if nothing else, at least somewhat revelatory about the assumptions and beliefs some people hold on music, language, and social customs.

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1141874773219739252006-03-08T21:59:00.000-05:002006-03-08T22:28:30.256-05:00

What the World Needs Now Is...To heck with love sweet love, we need more trained interpreters.Despite the glibness of the title, I'm entirely serious. Bill Poser's Language Log entry, "Not Me" talks about the distressing inadequacies of courtroom interpreting in the US. He writes: In the United States, there are standards for interpreters in Federal court, but not in State courts, where the

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1141753050892654422006-03-07T12:14:00.000-05:002006-03-07T12:37:30.963-05:00

What the Cool Kids Are SayingYesterday I was catching up on my blog reading, and I came across a link in a Language Log post to a Daily Mainichi article on Japanese youth slang: Getting 'yuusu' lingo 'peki-peki' a real chore for adults. The main gist of the article is that the police in Tokyo have taken to compiling a dictionary of youth slang so they can understand their interrogations with

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1140558136815779092006-02-21T16:21:00.000-05:002006-02-21T16:42:16.886-05:00

No Child Left Behind Killing School ProgramsAt work, I just finished reading two books on homeschooling children with Asperger Syndrome (in preparation for a conference.) My immediate, and I admit, strange and undoubtedly misguided reaction to this was to think, "I should have children, just so I could educate them properly!" The idea of homeschooling has fascinated me since I was small, and

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1140017129727709052006-02-15T17:20:00.000-05:002006-02-15T17:23:44.213-05:00

Something WickedYesterday afternoon, I was startled to hear this NPR story, "US is Losing that Small Business Feeling." It isn't so much a news story as a personal commentary, despite the dry title. The commentator, Angeli Primlani, begins by talking about her interesting childhood, growing up in her family's motel, helping out and feeling a sense of community with all the varied travelers that

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1139938968156634832006-02-14T12:33:00.000-05:002006-02-14T12:42:48.186-05:00

A Non-Standard English Tale of RomanceNeil emailed me a link to this romantic tale, apparently originally published in The New Yorker in July, 1994.How I Met My Wife, by Jack WinterIt had been a rough day, so when I walked into the party I was very chalant, despite my efforts to appear gruntled and consolate. I was furling my wieldy umbrella for the coat check when I saw her standing alone in a

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1139347654820610302006-02-07T15:22:00.000-05:002006-02-07T16:38:38.616-05:00

The Most Beautiful Place on EarthI've been reading Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire lately, which opens with the following passage: This is the most beautiful place on earth.There are many such places. Every man, every woman, carries in heart and mind the image of the ideal place, the right place, the one true home, known or unknown, actual or visionary. A houseboat in Kashmir, a view down

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1139256050181068762006-02-06T14:54:00.000-05:002006-02-06T15:00:55.806-05:00

DisemvowelingMy friend Will has introduced me to a fabulous new word, "disemvoweling." As this Wikipedia entry explains, it is a process used to discourage troll postings on forums and in comments. Disemvoweling (also spelled disemvowelling) is a technique used by forum moderators to suppress trolling, vandalism, and other rude behavior in online discourse by removing all the vowels from the

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1138316026070411442006-02-01T13:00:00.000-05:002006-02-01T13:00:01.400-05:00

Who's a Blogger?One of my friends is a reporter for a smallish newspaper at an undisclosed location in the Pacific Northwest. He noticed an interesting word-meaning phenomenon, which I shall allow him to report in his own words, (though with names obscured, since the person being talked about is unaware that what he has done is either interesting or being blogged about.) Last year, my current

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1138652899174694342006-01-30T17:25:00.000-05:002006-01-31T14:08:25.970-05:00

Ancient Chinese Gossip Confirmed Picture: Me and Liz "flying" down the steps of the emperor's tomb. Perhaps not the most reverent activity.A few months ago, I mentioned I had been to the First Emperor's tomb in China, and talked about the legend of what is supposed to be inside it: The written plans and descriptions they have found for the tomb say that the emperor called for a jeweled

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1138231701170990822006-01-29T19:07:00.000-05:002006-01-30T01:39:57.173-05:00

Meditating on NeuroscienceI happened to pick up my dad's February copy of Wired last week, and my eye fell on this article about the furor that erupted over the Dalai Lama being invited to speak at the Society for Neuroscience's annual conference. As a quick background on why the Dalai Lama would have anything to do with a bunch of neuroscientists: Over the past few years, he has supplied about a

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1138315717569919782006-01-27T15:15:00.000-05:002006-01-27T15:17:28.533-05:00

More Required ChineseThis time in Zimbabwe. As the BBC reports, the government of Zimbabwe plans to institute offerings of Chinese classes in all the Zimbabwean universities. However, they report heavy criticism of the plan: The Zimbabwe National Association of Student Unions criticised the government's plans. "It seems they are trying every political gimmick to lure the Chinese into this country

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1138308311448042862006-01-26T15:43:00.000-05:002006-02-01T10:07:58.576-05:00

Notice on CommentsI apologize to anyone who had left me comments recently via the old Haloscan commenting system, but they are now lost. I noticed that any comments older than a few months had disappeared into the ether on that system anyway, so I am now attempting to implement Blogger's own commenting system.

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1138221789276197972006-01-26T15:03:00.000-05:002006-01-26T15:04:01.246-05:00

Taiwan Debacle Follow-UpSome interesting news on the whole Taiwan horror has come in. Earlier this week, I got an email from the other person who was supposed to be working at the same school as me in Taiwan. She stayed to see what it would be like once she was actually transferred to the regular school, instead of doing the summer camps. According to her, I didn't miss a thing.She reports that

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1138220824146099302006-01-25T15:11:00.000-05:002006-01-25T15:27:04.200-05:00

Walt Wolfram: Dialectologist ExtraordinaireEnvy me! I got to meet Walt Wolfram! These are the special perks I get by knowing Grinnellians far and wide and, um, right down the street from me. Sarah, who was in many of my Spanish classes at Grinnell, is now doing her PhD under Wolfram, and invited me to go see a presentation of the latest North Carolina Language and Life Project documentary. Given

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1137545754399921382006-01-17T19:25:00.000-05:002006-01-17T19:55:54.460-05:00

Zhongwen: Language of the FutureThe BBC reports here that Brighton College, an independent college, (otherwise known in the US as a senior high school,) in Britain, has added Chinese to its required foreign language curriculum. It joins French, Spanish, and Latin.Given the recent craze in the US and other parts of the Western world for all news of China, receiving it either joyously or with

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1137187675042647992006-01-13T16:08:00.000-05:002006-01-13T16:27:55.090-05:00

Eastern vs. Western Robots: Good vs. EvilOne of my friends sent me a link to this article in The Economist: Better Than People: Japan's Humanoid Robots. In and of itself, the article is interesting, but what struck me was the part comparing Eastern and Western societal views of robots. Few Japanese have the fear of robots that seems to haunt westerners in seminars and Hollywood films. In western

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1136680184843423982006-01-07T19:27:00.000-05:002006-01-07T19:29:44.853-05:00

On Neal StephensonI finished reading the last of Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle books today. Though I know a lot of people, whom I know to be quite avid readers and in many cases admirers of Mr. Stephenson's other work, who will disagree with me, I found the trilogy fascinating. One complaint I heard was that the Baroque Cycle broke from the more sci-fi elements of his previous writing, and was

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732533.post-1136560607854736212006-01-06T10:10:00.000-05:002006-01-06T10:16:47.866-05:00

Spread the WordLast weekend, at church, I had one of those, "Excuse me, where's the rewind button for life? I don't think I heard that right." We had a Polish woman as a visitor who stood up at the microphone for Joys and Concerns to say how happy she was to be there, how interesting she thought our Japanese New Year's service was, that she was trying to visit every UU church in the US, and it

Dana Watsonnoreply@blogger.com0