Language | Language
Dec.16.2008
Every town has retail stores. Many have manufacturers. Some even have retail stores where you can buy directly from manufacturers. They’re called outlet stores. But one town is so special, so above all others, that it couldn’t stand to have its combination manufacturer-retailers clumped in with all...
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Dec.11.2008
I heard a new old expression the other day. The teacher of the economics class I'm watching via online video said that if you can identify an undervalued stock, you can get rich "in a cocaine heartbeat."
Now quick: Guess whether the instructor is in his late-30s, his early-50s, or his mid...
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Dec.08.2008
Spoiler altert: I discuss the full plot of the book and film Rebecca in this blog, as well as the ending of Denis Johnson’s “Emergency.”
I first saw Daphne Du Marier’s Rebecca as a film–Alfred Hitchcock’s amazing movie with Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier. I was just a kid; my babysitter, who...
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Dec.06.2008
How is it even possible? Haven't you ever wondered?
I'm making my money - at least part of it - by translation, or, more precisely, adaptation of commercial ads, and I'm still wondering.
Even the simplest, most common words have different etymologies in different languages.
For example, English...
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Dec.04.2008
Favorite Children's Stories
Every night we put Katieup on the big bed where Trish and I sleep. She gets her hair braided to keep it from tangling in the night. Billy lays across the end of the bed, and Stephanie comes in to sit at the foot of the bed. While Trish fixes Katie’s hair, I read her...
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Dec.02.2008
About once a quarter or so I sit down and update my personal cookbook, a thick polka-dotted binder full of random sheet-protected recipes I've begged, borrowed, stolen and occasionally invented over the years. Today when I woke up I decided, for no particular reason, that it was about time I got to...
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Nov.30.2008
In his interesting blog discussing the relationship of violence and language, Hammoudi Abdelwahab proposes a multi-lingual philosophy as a bridge to peace - and he has spoken elsewhere about how cultures are enriched when people are prepared to engage with 'foreigners' in their native tongue. No...
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Nov.29.2008
Red Room author Hammoudi Abdelwahab says that learning a language can be a powerful tool for more understanding and less violence in the world. I totally agree.
Languages are ways of existence. Speaking a language is a way of "being" in the world, and learning a second, third language is...
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Nov.27.2008
Imprint of Our Religion or Nationality
I have never left the Catholic Church, but I have searched for ways for an understanding of God from a Christian view, but not always Catholic Doctrine. Sometimes, I felt as though I was not being faithful to my church, family, or my...
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Nov.25.2008
By reading Language Log, I learned of a site called Typealyzer. There, you type in the URL of a blog (presumably your own) and the program analyzes your language to identify your "type."
I typed in the URL of my home blog, and in less than a second Typealyzer produced the following...
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