Friday, July 11, 2008

Radio English.


On the two PBS stations available locally I now regularly hear "large" pronounced the same as "larch" and "news" pronounced the same as "noose."

I hope I don't get a large noose when I'm expecting news about the larch.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Philosophical Relatives

Well bro, you don't have to be my age to understand this, but it might help.

When I was quite young I was pretty sure that I understood "I love you." better than I understood "A bushel and a peck." Then, for a time, I was sure that I understood "A bushel and a peck." better than I understood "I love you." Now, I think that I would benefit from knowing a whole lot more about both.

I may come to consider that "nothing matters very much and most things don't matter at all.

You think about things. You think about change. If everything is changing, what is a thing?
Everything is changing.
Thing is change.
Thing equals change.
Change is thing.
How are things, anyway?
Nice to have a little change.
What is the nature of change? Of thing?
Do questions like this keep you awake? Do the put you to sleep? They may be good for that.

Sunday, July 06, 2008

Magic Table

Imagine a beautiful table.
Large and low
Easily bearing gifts

Pedigree, My Foot!


Cranes Foot is more like it. Some centuries ago someone looked at the lines of a genealogical chart and thought it looked like the mark left by a cranes foot.

Genealogy and pedigree are not exactly the same. Going back to its Greek roots genealogy would seem to mean family studies. Like a pedigree a genealogy is a record of familial decent, but it may also refer to race study.

Looking at the genealogy of 'genealogy I find it belongs to one of the biggest most important word families. It goes back to pre-historic Indo-European bases like gen-, gon-, gn-, all denoting 'produce.' German offshoots include kin, kind, and king. Its Latin descendants seem to go on forever. I won't quote the Latin words here. I will mention a few of the related phrases and words in English: race, people, beget, be born, nature, nurture, gender, general, generate, generic, gentile, indigenous, genesis, genetic, gene, and a lot more!





About Me

My photo
Colombia
I discover, get understanding, enjoy myself, and take care of business.

My Blog List

Blog Archive