2009 — 7 February: Saturday
Christa derived enjoyment from just about anything, any time. Here, for example, she had a little test drive on our friend John's mobility scooter — he tends to burn through these at a rate of knots by tackling things like puddles at full speed in a "damn the torpedoes" kind of way. (He's also quite delightfully forthright [but usually accurate] in his opinions, too!)
Christa trying out one of John's scooters
This is a scan from a batch of half a dozen or so prints I discovered earlier in the evening. It's just gone midnight, and seems to be nasty and cold outside, so I was thinking of calling it a day, as it were. Trouble is, Mark Lamarr has just started one of his delightful music shows.
My hardy chum Mike is suggesting a walk later today! We shall see... G'night at 01:05 or thereabouts.
Brrr!
It's a mere minus 2C, the sun is shining, and we're off on a road walk. So, breakfast to munch, lunch to pack. I must, by the way, catch up with early episodes of this saga. ("a fleet of red herrings flapping majestically through space" — Nice!) See you later.
"Où sont les neiges d'Antan?"
I just had cause to pinpoint the origin of this line, (which I recall only from Heller's "Catch-22") for my subject heading in an email reply to Christa's friend Ute in the Canaries (who's worried about German news report of climate chaos in the UK), and stumbled across this timely footnote:
Since arriving in Minnesota I have read an amusing and persuasive piece by Geoffrey K. Pullum in Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 7, no. 2 (May 1989) titled "The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax." Pullum holds that the widely disseminated view that there are many words in Eskimo for snow is a myth, a myth for which questionable scholarship on the part of Benjamin Lee Worf, among others, is largely responsible. The conclusive evidence for Pullum's view point is found in an article by Laura Martin titled "Eskimo Words for 'Snow': A Case Study in the Genesis and Decay of an Anthropological Example," American Anthropologist 88, no. 2 (June 1986): 418-423. I am a bit disappointed with the imagination of Eskimos, but join with Pullum and Martin in the campaign to dampen down this fascinating falsehood.
I'm back after just over five miles of fresh air and astonishing visibility, plus the odd bit of semi-frozen mud, around Hinton Ampner, in time to catch most of "World Routes" and now, delightfully, a profile of one of my jazz heroes: Ian Carr. The laundry will have to wait. It's now 16:15 and the sky is largely blue.
Stats, lies, and politicians' promises
Guess which political party1 pushed this through my letterbox an hour or two ago?
There is, of course, an art to the asking of such questions. Consult "Yes, Minister" for more details. As for lies...
In later news...
... it's nearly time to catch the extended edition of QI. I prepared for it by watching the first half of the film about Alan Moore that I bought last September. One needs a clear head for this sort of thing.