“Three-car train for Fremont in three minutes.”
A bit tongue-twistery…and (if you say it right) trochaic pentameter.
November 29, 2006
November 28, 2006
Glad to see that The Daily Show has a linguistic expert in residence:
Stewart: 3000 Iraqis died just this month! To argue over what to call it seems like semantic quibbling.
Oliver: “Semantic quibbling?” Well, I wouldn’t call it that.
November 24, 2006
One of my GSIs wrote of her hometown: “While reading the letters to the editor in the local paper, you flip to the front page to make sure you didn’t pick up The Onion by mistake.”
Now while I usually do my best to avoid a similar experience, I accidentally stumbled upon today’s editorial page in The Enquirer. While the whining about Democrats was no surprise, I couldn’t help but be taken aback by the last opinion, which uses the brilliant tactic of employing racist assumptions to prove that racism doesn’t exist—except against privileged groups in society:
Regarding the article “Census shows racial inequalities persist in pay, schooling, homes” (Nov. 14) discussed racial gaps in success. The implication was that the gaps were tied to racism.
That premise seems highly questionable since the two most successful ethnic groups in America are Jews and Asians. Both are minorities and both have been victims of terrible persecution. How is this possible? One major reason is superior intelligence coupled with cultural emphasis on education to develop that superior intelligence.…
There is no question racism exists in our society, including racial discrimination against white people and Asian people in education. But the critical factors in success and failure seem to be intelligence and making intelligent decisions. [emphasis added]
As much as I’m looking forward to going home for winter break, there are some aspects of Cincinnati that I will never miss.
November 22, 2006
The Daily Show takes on conceptual metaphors and obscure etymologies:
CNN’s Glenn Beck, to Muslim Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN): What I feel like saying is, sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies, and I don’t—I know you’re not, I’m not accusing you of being an enemy, but that’s the way I feel, and I think a lot of Americans will feel that way.
Stewart: Finally, a guy who says what people who aren’t thinking are thinking.
November 17, 2006
And it was written on the whiteboard outside my room:
Hail, Citizen:
And your mother spread her legs, and there was light.
Naturally, I felt compelled to translate this into Biblical Hebrew:
ותפתח אמך את-רגליה, ויהי-אור.
| və-tiftaħ | ’em-χa | ’et | ragle-ha, | va-yəhi | ’or. |
| and-open.past.3.f.sg | mother-your.m.sg | part | leg.pl-her.f.sg.gen | and-there.was | light |
If I end up taking Biblical Hebrew next Fall, that will shed light on how accurate this translation is.
November 10, 2006
WE WON THE FREAKIN’ HOUSE! WE WON THE FREAKIN’ SENATE!
Maybe if I whisper this to myself every hour for the next week, it’ll start to feel like a reality.
Colbert gets hysterical:
Tomorrow, you’re all gonna wake up in a Brave New World, a world where the Constitution gets trampled by an army of terrorist clones, created in a stem cell research lab run by homosexual doctors, who sterilize their instruments over burning American flags. Where tax-and-spend Democrats take all your hard-earned money and use it to buy electric cars for National Public Radio, and teach evolution to illegal immigrants.
