July, 2016 archive
Words Matter 0
During the time that English grammar was becoming a study, Latin was the language of the educated. I did not understand English grammar until I took two years of Latin, as traditional English grammar is based on trying to squeeze English into the Latin model. It has always been an uneasy fit, as English is fundamentally a language of word order and Latin an inflected language.
(The spurious injunction to never split an infinitive is a bastard offspring of that process, as Latin infinitives are single words and ipso facto cannot be split.)
For example, consider the ablative absolute.
Break Time 0
Off to drink liberally.
Zero Per Cent 0
Elie Mystal reads a poll and wonders where the coverage went.
Tell Me Again, Why Are They Called “Smart” Phones? Reprise 0
What’s a little breaking and entering when it can get you hit points*?
After one such ‘gym’ was discovered on the grounds of the Technical University of Denmark, where construction work is currently taking place, a number of people tried to break in.
The university has asked via its website that players refrain from trespassing on the building site.
We are an society of international stupid.
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*Do gamers still call them “hit points”?
Sentence Completion 0
Jonathan Capehart fills in the blanks for persons, such as Rudy Guiliani and Donald Trump, too stupid or too intentionally blind or too deeply invested in racism to get it. A snippet:
Folks, I’ve run out of things to say. The ignorance flowing out of the mouths of politicians has me reaching for words I’ve already written. So, let me restate some of them. The best way to understand the meaning of the phrase “Black Lives Matter” is to think of it as an incomplete sentence. To those African-Americans and other Americans marching to protest lives extinguished by law enforcement, the unspoken finish to the phrase “Black Lives Matter” is “as much as anyone else’s.”
Read the rest.
In related news, Kevin Riordan has an eye-opening moment.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Play politely.
Police are not releasing information about how the boys got a hold of the gun but they say the 13-year-old is expected to be okay, which Norwood said is a relief but she hopes others will be more careful.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
Still holding steady.
(snip)
The four-week average of claims declined to 259,000, the lowest since the end of April, from 264,750 in the prior period.
The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits rose by 32,000 to 2.15 million in the week ended July 2. The unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits increased to 1.6 percent from 1.5 percent. These data are reported with a one-week lag.
Philistines! 0
Jeeves, fetch me my fainting couch and my clutching pearls. I think I shall have the vapors.
How dare someone inject reality into a commercial cathedral to consumption!
Playing the Trump Card 0
Josh Marshall analyzes the double-deal.
QOTD 0
William Shakespeare (Troilus and Cressida, III.ii):
Fears make devils of cherubins; they never see clearly.
The Platform of the Pervy Party 0
The Republican Party is still preoccupied with sex.
Honestly, can’t they think of anything else?
Plus Ca Change 0
Dick Polman surveys the 2016 Republican platform and finds no surprises.
I would venture that the America to which they look back so fondly is not that of the 1950s.
It’s that of the 1850s.
Driving while Black, Reprise 0
Ron Sims, who has served as deputy secretary for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and as King County (Seattle) Executive, tells his story to the Seattle Times. Here’s a bit of it:
Four stops occurred in my neighborhood, two on Beacon Hill, and one near the intersection of Rainier Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way. I was never ticketed but was always asked, “Do you live in this neighborhood?” or “Where are you going?”
More tales of even-handed law enforcement at the link.
“Inflaming Passions,” Reprise 0
One more time: It’s not the deed. It’s the light shining upon the deed.