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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

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The willow is too close to the house.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

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You are here: Home / Nature & Respite / Friday Afternoon Respite

Friday Afternoon Respite

by Major Major Major Major|  November 19, 20213:25 pm| 112 Comments

This post is in: Nature & Respite

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I’m guessing we could use a thread for talking about things that don’t make us feel bad. Here, have some nifty sayings in other languages:

“See you later, alligator” equivalents in other languages:

5. Aju paraplu (Dutch) = bye umbrella
4. Agur yogur (Basque) = bye yoghurt
3. Čauky mňauky (Czech) = ciao miaow
2. Szervusz vízibusz (Hungarian) = cheerio waterbus
1. Me piro, vampiro (Spanish) = I’m outta here, vampire

— Adam Sharp (@AdamCSharp) November 16, 2021

I especially like the Czech one! Feel free to talk about more things you like about other languages–or anything else, except for you-know-what.

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Reader Interactions

112Comments

  1. 1.

    Yutsano

    November 19, 2021 at 3:30 pm

    Now I have to know what a waterbus is!

  2. 2.

    Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)

    November 19, 2021 at 3:32 pm

    It’s always good to know these things. I like the Spanish one best. When I lived in Honduras and before I spoke Spanish, I asked how to say a few phrases. One was, “Don’t put toads in my dessert!” and the other one was “Help! Bandits have stolen my pants!” You’d be amazed how often those came in handy.

  3. 3.

    SiubhanDuinne

    November 19, 2021 at 3:33 pm

    I dunno if this is going to work. “See you later, alligator” makes me think of crocodiles, and that makes me think of crocodile tears, and that makes me think of … well, you know.

  4. 4.

    Urza

    November 19, 2021 at 3:35 pm

    I was unaware that there were enough Spanish vampire myths to warrant such a saying.

  5. 5.

    WaterGirl

    November 19, 2021 at 3:35 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: The previous thread is still alive and kicking, you can always go back there.  :-)

  6. 6.

    Jeffro

    November 19, 2021 at 3:35 pm

    Those sayings are pretty funny to say aloud…I bet I can get Fro Jr to adopt “Me piro, vampiro” with me.  =)

  7. 7.

    Major Major Major Major

    November 19, 2021 at 3:39 pm

    @Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.): ¡Ay, dios mío!

  8. 8.

    mrmoshpotato

    November 19, 2021 at 3:40 pm

    @Yutsano: Budapest waterbus

  9. 9.

    H.E.Wolf

    November 19, 2021 at 3:43 pm

    @Yutsano:Now I have to know what a waterbus is!

    https://www.budapest.com/w/assignables/maxi/riverride_1-47001973963.jpg

  10. 10.

    H.E.Wolf

    November 19, 2021 at 3:44 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: ​
     The two of us are a mighty team!

    One might say that together, we make quite a splash.

  11. 11.

    WaterGirl

    November 19, 2021 at 3:45 pm

    @H.E.Wolf: Obligatory groan.  (of appreciation)

  12. 12.

    Major Major Major Major

    November 19, 2021 at 3:45 pm

    Neat!

    The black heron hunts with a method called canopy feeding, using its wings like an umbrella, creating shade that attracts fish. This video by @leedsbirder shows one filmed in Gambia [read more: https://t.co/wRilCurYGe] [video, HD: https://t.co/3wU6hvLYIA] pic.twitter.com/CsQ2GcOJUk

    — Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) November 19, 2021

  13. 13.

    oldster

    November 19, 2021 at 3:49 pm

    “Szervusz vízibusz” reminds us that Hungary used to be part of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

    “Servus,” Latin for “slave, servant” used to be a common greeting across Bavarian south Germany and Austria, though it’s getting a bit old-fashioned now. To greet someone with a cheerful, “servus!” is equivalent to saying “at your service!” or “your servant!”

    Another version of that was to say, “sclavus!” also from (late) Latin, meaning someone from Sclavonia, i.e. a Slavic person, which was a major source for the slave trade, ie the trade in Slavs.

    Given how the sounds changed as Italian emerged out of Latin, the word first lost an initial ‘s’, and then the ‘l’ was softened to an ‘i’ glide (as “flora” changed to “fiori”, “clarus” to “chiaro,” and many others.) Finally, the “-us” ending changed to the simpler “o”.

    And that’s how “sclavus!” turned into “ciao!” which also originally meant, “your servant! at your service!”

    So, two of these nifty rhyming goodbyes share a similar origin in Latin words for slaves.

  14. 14.

    mrmoshpotato

    November 19, 2021 at 3:52 pm

    @H.E.Wolf: ?

  15. 15.

    Scout211

    November 19, 2021 at 3:52 pm

    My internet has been super slow in the past few days. It was so slow that when I tried to download the updates to Office 365, it told me that it would take FIVE DAYS!  Now that’s slow internet.

    I called my internet service provider, Ron. He said he would look into it.

    I am hoping that the rural broadband money will reach this area. But in the meantime, we have Ron. ?

    It’s so bad that it’s kind of funny. Five days?

  16. 16.

    stinger

    November 19, 2021 at 3:52 pm

    All I had to do was read the headline below to know I’d rather talk about languages.

    I had a(n American) friend who had once lived next door to a French family with a young boy, who would lean out the window when my friend left home for work and call, “Au ‘voir, ca-ca!” Missing the little boy, my friend got me to repeat it to him whenever we parted, and he’d laugh hysterically. Eventually he admitted to me that “ca-ca” was slang for manure.

    Bye-bye, poo-poo!

  17. 17.

    HeleninEire

    November 19, 2021 at 3:52 pm

    I promise this is a good thing. Today is the 47th anniversary of my mother’s death. She was 37 years old at the time. I was 12. Stay with me here… I took a sick day from work. One of the very few sick days I’ve taken in my life. I’m sitting at the bar in a sushi restaurant and just had the best lunch I’ve ever had. Wine too. I’m now 59 years old. Life is good.

  18. 18.

    mrmoshpotato

    November 19, 2021 at 3:54 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: Clever girl.

  19. 19.

    Miss Bianca

    November 19, 2021 at 3:54 pm

    @oldster: “What a fascinating modern age we live in!” (J. Aubrey)

  20. 20.

    trollhattan

    November 19, 2021 at 3:55 pm

    @Scout211: ​
    Ron Burgundy or Ron Swanson? Depending on which Ron, the outcome will be very different.

  21. 21.

    Fair Economist

    November 19, 2021 at 3:56 pm

    I agree the Czech one sounds cutest. Even more fun to have a rhyming translation into English.

  22. 22.

    stinger

    November 19, 2021 at 3:56 pm

    @oldster: How interesting!

    At what point did the ci-sound in that word become a chi-sound? (“chow”)

  23. 23.

    trollhattan

    November 19, 2021 at 3:58 pm

    @HeleninEire:
    Sláinte to you, in your mother’s memory.

  24. 24.

    SiubhanDuinne

    November 19, 2021 at 3:59 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    I checked it out. Beginning to get repetitive.

  25. 25.

    HeleninEire

    November 19, 2021 at 4:00 pm

    @trollhattan: Thank you.

  26. 26.

    JoyceH

    November 19, 2021 at 4:00 pm

    Today confirms my decision not to pursue a career in public service. I remember the day I got a colonoscopy, and I would not have wanted to come right back afterwards and pardon a couple turkeys.

  27. 27.

    stinger

    November 19, 2021 at 4:02 pm

    @HeleninEire: It can be hard to realize you’re older than your mother was when she died. (Same for men and their fathers.)

    I think you honored her appropriately. And she’d be so happy that you’ve had a good life, lived in Ireland, seldom been sick, and know a great lunch when you eat one!

  28. 28.

    Alison Rose

    November 19, 2021 at 4:03 pm

    I will now be saying “I’m outta here, vampire” instead of goodbye on the phone.

    (I don’t go anywhere, so I am never actually “outta” anywhere.)

  29. 29.

    Betty Cracker

    November 19, 2021 at 4:04 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: That’s awesome. :) I recently learned on Twitter that Great Blue Herons will snag bread chucks that people throw at ducks and use it as bait to catch fish. Very clever birds!

    @HeleninEire: Sláinte!

  30. 30.

    Ladyracterinok

    November 19, 2021 at 4:05 pm

    Fingerhut…Finger is German for English finger, Hut is German for English hat. So Fingerhut in English is thimble

    Baumwolle…Baum is German for English tree Wolle is German for English wool. So Baumwolle in English is cotton

  31. 31.

    Scout211

    November 19, 2021 at 4:06 pm

    As expected, the CDC advisory group okays boosters for all adults 6 months after a second mRNA vaccination. Next step is the CDC director.  Her final approval should be soon, maybe even later today. Good news. ?

  32. 32.

    Scout211

    November 19, 2021 at 4:09 pm

    @Betty Cracker:
    We have a resident Great Blue Heron who hangs out on our property eating random rodents and looking very regal.  

  33. 33.

    SiubhanDuinne

    November 19, 2021 at 4:10 pm

    @oldster:

    That is super-fascinating, and I thank you for that etymological excursion.

  34. 34.

    Major Major Major Major

    November 19, 2021 at 4:12 pm

    @Betty Cracker: nice!

  35. 35.

    Major Major Major Major

    November 19, 2021 at 4:13 pm

    @Ladyracterinok: my favorite silly german compound is Handschuh, hand+shoe—glove.

  36. 36.

    delk

    November 19, 2021 at 4:13 pm

    Gdzie jest biblioteka? Just in case you are ever in Poland and need to know where the library is located.

  37. 37.

    sab

    November 19, 2021 at 4:15 pm

    @Ladyracterinok: Thanks. I did not know that. Do you think various Fingerhuts had tailor ancestors?

  38. 38.

    HeleninEire

    November 19, 2021 at 4:16 pm

    @stinger: Thank you for seeing everything I was trying to say.

    When we were at 38 years my sister said “She’s been dead longer than she was alive.”

    Wow.

  39. 39.

    Origuy

    November 19, 2021 at 4:17 pm

    I know very little Czech but shouldn’t the pronunciation be chiouky meowky?

  40. 40.

    Nutmeg again

    November 19, 2021 at 4:18 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: Mine, and possibly my favorite German word, is Gluhbirne.

    Gluh=glow   birne (Birne)=pear.

    Gluhbirne=glowpear, aka lightbulb.  love that!

  41. 41.

    HeleninEire

    November 19, 2021 at 4:19 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Thank you.

  42. 42.

    Brachiator

    November 19, 2021 at 4:24 pm

    Words and language. I always liked this bit of WC Fields nonsense about Carl LaFong.

  43. 43.

    prostratedragon

    November 19, 2021 at 4:24 pm

    @JoyceH:  If sedation was used, Joe might find himself feeling surprisingly mellow for a work day.

  44. 44.

    Major Major Major Major

    November 19, 2021 at 4:25 pm

    @Origuy: it’s a translation!

  45. 45.

    HumboldtBlue

    November 19, 2021 at 4:28 pm

    In desperate search for a distraction from the news, I was elated to discover that the gem of a film The Wipers Times — which I first encountered and watched five or six years ago on Netflix — is now available on You Tube.

    It’s such a brilliant movie, poignant, funny, dark.

  46. 46.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    November 19, 2021 at 4:28 pm

    huh, Harris was briefly president to day when Biden was sedated for a medical examine.

    Harris was the first female president. Hot damn.

  47. 47.

    prostratedragon

    November 19, 2021 at 4:28 pm

    @HeleninEire:  A good way to reflect.

  48. 48.

    SiubhanDuinne

    November 19, 2021 at 4:29 pm

    @prostratedragon:

    Time to invoke the Alien and Sedation Acts!

  49. 49.

    Roger Moore

    November 19, 2021 at 4:30 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: 
    It reminds me of someone explaining how unpredictable language is. Someone from Shakespeare’s age would know what hot meant, and they’d know what a dog is, but that wouldn’t let them guess what a hotdog is.

  50. 50.

    Brachiator

    November 19, 2021 at 4:30 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I dunno if this is going to work. “See you later, alligator” makes me think of crocodiles,

    One version of this goes,

    See ya later, alligator.

    After while, crocodile.

    After supper, motherf**

    and that makes me think of crocodile tears, and that makes me think of … well, you know.

    Lewis Carroll?

    How doth the little crocodile
    Improve his shining tail
    And pour the waters of the Nile
    On every golden scale!

    How cheerfully he seems to grin,
    How neatly spreads his claws,
    And welcomes little fishes in
    With gently smiling jaws!

  51. 51.

    oatler

    November 19, 2021 at 4:31 pm

    I heard that “washing machine” is hilarious to Spanish speakers.

  52. 52.

    Benw

    November 19, 2021 at 4:32 pm

    I actually know a family from the Netherlands. Imma try “bye umbrella “ on then the next time I see them!

  53. 53.

    Mai Naem mobile

    November 19, 2021 at 4:32 pm

    @Betty Cracker: I watched a BBC nature doc that showed monkeys eating charcoal to in Zanzibar to counteract the  effects of eating mango and almond leaves. They showed a pretty funny clip of monkeys stealing pieces of charcoal  from street vendors  who sell charcoal for fuel.

  54. 54.

    prostratedragon

    November 19, 2021 at 4:34 pm

    @Brachiator:  Perhaps a faint memory of this poem is the reason that the phrase “crocodiiil smile” rattles around in my brain.

  55. 55.

    sab

    November 19, 2021 at 4:35 pm

    In my long ago French class my French teacher from France said the proper French word for faucet was “robinette” but the misguided Quebequois word was “chantpleur” or rain song. I don’t know if this is true, but I hope so.

  56. 56.

    SiubhanDuinne

    November 19, 2021 at 4:37 pm

    @HeleninEire:

    These anniversaries can be very odd, as can the mathematical/calendrical hoops we jump through to try to make sense of them. A couple of weeks ago was the 46th anniversary of my own mother’s death (she was 58, I was 33). To get granular about it, she was 58 years, 2 months, and 1 day old the day she died. When I hit my own 58/2/1, I was acutely aware that I had matched my mother’s allotted time. It’s always a melancholy, or at least reflective, day for me. Hugs — I know your mom would be thrilled with her smart, funny, accomplished daughter.

  57. 57.

    Bloix

    November 19, 2021 at 4:37 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: Those feet are something else.

  58. 58.

    stinger

    November 19, 2021 at 4:41 pm

    @sab: Love the “misguided” part!

    Reading through Louise Penny right now. Her mysteries are set in Quebec, and her renderings of small town Francophone culture are delightful.

  59. 59.

    HeleninEire

    November 19, 2021 at 4:42 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Thank you!

  60. 60.

    Roger Moore

    November 19, 2021 at 4:46 pm

    @sab:

    This is what happens with things that are developed when communications aren’t so good.  New ideas are expressed with new language, and that language won’t be the same from place to place unless there’s enough communication to ensure that happens.  Or maybe it has to do with the ability of one side to enforce the new language on the other.  The classic example is the way that the US and UK use different words for the parts of a car, e.g. windshield/windscreen, hood/bonnet, trunk/boot.

  61. 61.

    sab

    November 19, 2021 at 4:47 pm

    @stinger: She also told us that our textbook glossery that translated “nouriture” as diet was wrong, and that the correct word was “regime.” We were afraid to tell her that English diet has two very different meanings, both correct.

  62. 62.

    SiubhanDuinne

    November 19, 2021 at 4:47 pm

    @Brachiator:

    Yup. Also Kipling (from Just-So Stories, “The Elephant’s Child”):

    ‘Come hither, Little One,’ said the Crocodile, ‘for I am the Crocodile,’ and he wept crocodile-tears to show it was quite true.

  63. 63.

    CaseyL

    November 19, 2021 at 4:47 pm

    Some Spanish sayings get put through an English play-on-words process.

    I’m rather fond of “Hasty Bananas!” and “Vayas Con Carne!”

  64. 64.

    sab

    November 19, 2021 at 4:49 pm

    @Roger Moore: Winston Churchill with the American mother: ” Two peoples separated by a common language.” But, of course, more than two peoples, since there are English speakers speaking it differently all over the world.

  65. 65.

    eclare

    November 19, 2021 at 4:57 pm

    @CaseyL:   Wonton tomato!

  66. 66.

    Roger Moore

    November 19, 2021 at 5:02 pm

    @sab:

    We got mass media in time to ensure the language doesn’t split too badly.  Most of the colonies stuck with British English as their starting point, since the English had the power to enforce it.  The Canadians wound up with the oddest mishmash of British and American forms because they had two strong influences.  They even can’t make up their mind on spelling; they’ve adopted some, but not all, Americanisms.

  67. 67.

    sab

    November 19, 2021 at 5:03 pm

    @eclare: That sounds dirty. Shame on you.

  68. 68.

    sab

    November 19, 2021 at 5:04 pm

    @Roger Moore: I think their spelling problem is that books are published by continent not country.

    My  nephew married a lovely anglophone Canadian, and she has certainly fucked up his perfect midwestern accent.

  69. 69.

    cope

    November 19, 2021 at 5:10 pm

    @sab: My favorite true story of English/American language stumbles happened in Ft. William, Scotland in a shop known for woolen items (as are most shops in Ft. William). My American buddy, an enthusiastic cross country skier but first time visitor to GB asked if they sold woolen knickers. Two of the shop girls exchanged looks and worked very hard to stifle their laughter.

  70. 70.

    sab

    November 19, 2021 at 5:13 pm

    @cope: Lol. I hope they didn’t have any, as those sound scratchy and uncomfortable.

  71. 71.

    schrodingers_cat

    November 19, 2021 at 5:14 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Were Kipling alive he would have totally cheered and fundraised for Rittenhouse.

    As he did for a more infamous mass murderer, the butcher of Jalianwala Bagh, General Dyer who opened fire on unarmed protestors after blocking the exits.

    Official death count according to British authorities was 379, figures from Indian sources put the number close to 2000.

  72. 72.

    Major Major Major Major

    November 19, 2021 at 5:16 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: You want the thread downstairs. Or upstairs.

  73. 73.

    schrodingers_cat

    November 19, 2021 at 5:18 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: My comment was more to do with Kipling who makes an appearance in this feel good thread. Excusing folks like him leads to events that precipitate the threads you mentioned

  74. 74.

    sab

    November 19, 2021 at 5:22 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: I like Kipling’s stories but you are completely right.

    I have a hard time dealing with writings of writers I love who had horrible values. I hope I wouldn’t love them if the horrible values shown through in their writing, but I don’t think they do. Opposite of cancel culture? Or maybe their values do shine through and I am oblivious.

    Open question to me.

    With Kipling I think I am oblivious because I haven’t much contact with Indians. I had Indian ancestry friends in high school and college, but they were Americans too and so not as aware as their parents or grandparents. Other writers I still have issues. I love William Faulkner and Mark Twain, which horrifies Black friends of mine.

    ETA I haven’t read any Harry Potter, but I love JK Rowlings adult novels and I am appalled by her TERFishness.

  75. 75.

    Ken

    November 19, 2021 at 5:28 pm

    @Scout211: I called my internet service provider, Ron.

    Who, from the sound of things, downloads the new Office onto about 350 3.5″ floppies, which he then walks over to your house together with his carefully-maintained external floppy drive, plus the chain of six converters needed to connect it to a USB port.

  76. 76.

    Origuy

    November 19, 2021 at 5:29 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: Oh, my mistake.

  77. 77.

    schrodingers_cat

    November 19, 2021 at 5:31 pm

    @sab: Kipling was born in India in Mumbai  actually.  He spent his formative years in the city of my birth. His father is the architect of one of its most famous landmarks. It used to be called the Victoria Terminus.

  78. 78.

    Fair Economist

    November 19, 2021 at 5:32 pm

    @prostratedragon: Yeah, last time I had a colonoscopy they gave me Propofol, which *mostly* goes away pretty quickly – but to fat cells, from where it diffuses back slowly as it get metabolized by your liver. So I did feel kinda woozy for about day – the requirement to not drive seemed very reasonable to me.

  79. 79.

    Brachiator

    November 19, 2021 at 5:34 pm

    I was listening to a film review podcast.

    Enthusiastic cheers for “King Richard,” with Will Smith and the Williams sisters and their daddy. In theaters and on HBO Max.

    Also big thumbs up for “Ghostbusters Afterlife.” In theaters.

    I want to see these movies, but still hesitant about going out to the movies.

    I can stream “King Richard.” Don’t know if there is a surcharge.

  80. 80.

    Ninedragonspot

    November 19, 2021 at 5:34 pm

    One of my favorite Hokkien words is the word for “tears” – ba̍k-sái目屎, which might be translated as “eye-shit”.

  81. 81.

    sab

    November 19, 2021 at 5:35 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: He was a colonialist but he did lose an adored son in a stupid war, which he acknowledged afterwards.

  82. 82.

    Kalakal

    November 19, 2021 at 5:41 pm

    One of my favourite bits of playing with words is a 400 year old Elizabethan pun. HMS Warspite was launched in the 1590s and the name sounds suitably hardcore “War’s spite” but spite is Old English for a woodpecker, from the German specht so the War Woodpecker sounds pretty good when all ships were built of wood

  83. 83.

    sab

    November 19, 2021 at 5:42 pm

    @sab: I have loved “Without Benefit of Clergy” since I was twelve and I still tear up when I read it.

  84. 84.

    Brachiator

    November 19, 2021 at 5:43 pm

    @sab: ​
     

    I have a hard time dealing with writings of writers I love who had horrible values. I hope I wouldn’t love them if the horrible values shown through in their writing, but I don’t think they do. Opposite of cancel culture? Or maybe their values do shine through and I am oblivious.

    The only writer I totally approve is Anonymous.

    This kind of thing gets tough. Some writers works fortunately do not reflect the negative aspects of their lives. Others, are much more difficult to accept.

    But there are few artists who can withstand much in the way of moral or ethical scrutiny.

  85. 85.

    SiubhanDuinne

    November 19, 2021 at 5:45 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I wasn’t in any way trying to excuse Kipling his racist colonial views and actions. But the fact remains that he was a hugely influential and often entertaining writer in the late 19th-early 20th centuries, and many of the Just-So Stories are charming fantasies about how things might have happened. I absorbed these stories at my grandparents’ knees as a toddler — long, long before I had any concept of the inhumanity of Empire — and those happy childhood memories are an integral part of who I am. I truly don’t mean to upset you, but I will never not love knowing how the elephant got his trunk.

  86. 86.

    sab

    November 19, 2021 at 5:46 pm

    @Ninedragonspot: My sister says ” go pee” is vulger in two languages. The Mandarin is “dogfart”. The English is obvious.

  87. 87.

    Sister Golden Bear

    November 19, 2021 at 5:46 pm

    For all my cat-servant jackals:

    Given the premise that:

    1. Adult cats don’t meow in the wild.

    2. Meows are kittenish language that domesticated cats retain in order to communicate with humans.

    3. Every cat that meows at you is therefore speaking baby talk.

    We can conclude that meows mean:

    “Hewwo.”
    — Ana Mardoll (@AnaMardoll) November 19, 2021

    Hewwo, aren’t the cuuuutest little hooman evaaah! Aren’t you?! Now bring me tuna and I shall let you live, today.

  88. 88.

    sab

    November 19, 2021 at 5:50 pm

    @Sister Golden Bear: Our new adoptee, Dobby, only just started purring for me. Then last night he started the Starscream midnight yowling for “I want something and I want it NOW.”

    I think we need to reevaluate his training.

  89. 89.

    schrodingers_cat

    November 19, 2021 at 5:50 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: I am not upset. Just pointing out that not all racist bigots are country bumpkins toting guns. They can be erudite and beloved. He basically ran the early 20th century version of Go Fund Me for the unrepentant Butcher of Jalianwala Bagh.

  90. 90.

    schrodingers_cat

    November 19, 2021 at 5:53 pm

    @Sister Golden Bear: Cats think we are huge ungainly kittens who can’t hunt or wash themselves. So they use baby talk to get us to do the simplest things like serving them.

  91. 91.

    sab

    November 19, 2021 at 5:56 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: I think “cancel culture” is a silly thing proposed by political operatives, but the underlying issues are important. Do you read writing by people whose politics or other views appall you? I do often, when their politics don’t infuse their writing. But this has been an ongoing concern for most of my reading life.

    I read to learn, and I read to sharpen my morals. I don’t read to have my mind poisoned.

  92. 92.

    sab

    November 19, 2021 at 5:58 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: He did, and that was horrible. Also very long past. Did what he did turn up in his writing? I don’t know.

  93. 93.

    schrodingers_cat

    November 19, 2021 at 6:01 pm

    @sab: I don’t know either. I have read some of his poems that were in my school selection and I have seen various versions of Jungle Book.

  94. 94.

    Kalakal

    November 19, 2021 at 6:03 pm

    one that always intrigued me was the English/American leftenant/lieutenant pronounciation for the same spelling.

    Apparently when the captain of an Italian medieval merecenary company was away the senior sargeant was in locum tenens ( holding the place of, where we also get the medical locum from) . In French this became lieutenant . The English took, translated it the first half of it, lieu to left, but couldn’t be bothered to change the spelling. Americans use the French pronounciation. Oddly the English do use “in lieu of” quite a lot and have resisted all te

    mptation to mispronounce it.

    Western military ranks have interesting etymology

    Army are nearly all from medieval Italian/latin

    Navy are nearly all

    Norman French – officers

    Anglo Saxon – menials except Admiral which is Arabic

  95. 95.

    SiubhanDuinne

    November 19, 2021 at 6:05 pm

    @sab:

    I’m not really understanding your point. I read for lots of reasons: for information, for inspiration, for entertainment and escapism, and for the sheer emotional/aesthetic pleasure of seeing the language beautifully used. And yes, I often read things I know I’ll disagree with (I subscribe to and read FTFNYT and WaPo, for heaven’s sake!)

    With respect, I don’t think your mind is going to be poisoned by reading “The Making of the Armadillo” or “The Elephant’s Child.”

  96. 96.

    sab

    November 19, 2021 at 6:06 pm

    I have written a bunch of comments I forgot to post. ( nitwit)

    I think reading some of these writers depends on where you start from. Kipling opens up new ideas to me ( outside of his colonialsm.) Ditto Wm Faulkner.

    They might be appalling to you, but they move me forward a lot. I like to discuss the difference in perspective.

  97. 97.

    sab

    November 19, 2021 at 6:10 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: It has been a long time, but a lot of Kipling short stories were pretty contemptuous of Hindus and rah rah for Muslims. I have no opinion either way, but he sure did

    ETA Other stories of his are completely innocuous. That’s my point. Okay to read, or racist as shit. He did both. Not racist as shit, but at least disturbingly racist.

  98. 98.

    BruceJ

    November 19, 2021 at 6:10 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    actually it’s useful, as you can tell the difference between an alligator and a crocodile, based on whether they see you later, or see you in a while…

  99. 99.

    Kalakal

    November 19, 2021 at 6:20 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: Orwell described Kipling as a

    Good Bad Poet which always struck me as very accurate. He was a brilliant writer with some awful ideas.

    Someone who could describe colonial wars as ” savage wars of peace” had a gift for language.

    The story of fundraising for that monster Dyer  has been contested

    https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/archive/punjab/rudyard-kipling-gave-10-for-dyer-fund-756595

    Kipling was without any doubt a thourogh going colonialist. His attitudes were actually pretty complex but he certainly makes my sad list of people who produced work I love/admire but  I fel very different about the person themselves

  100. 100.

    schrodingers_cat

    November 19, 2021 at 6:28 pm

    @Kalakal: His attitudes were actually pretty complex

    He didn’t think people of India were capable of ruling themselves, he didn’t see us as completely human. We have a word for it and it is not complex.

  101. 101.

    Ninedragonspot

    November 19, 2021 at 6:32 pm

    @sab: Your sister is correct

  102. 102.

    Kalakal

    November 19, 2021 at 6:32 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: Several words , he was an imperialist, he was a racist to name but two

  103. 103.

    Ruckus

    November 19, 2021 at 6:36 pm

    @Fair Economist:

    Whatever I was given last time was good stuff. Out like a light and when it was gone and I woke up, it really was gone. And no, I couldn’t drive then either. The stuff I got for an angiogram was goooooood stuff. Awake during with zero pain and I talked non stop for the 6 hrs I had to lay very still on my back afterwards. Of course I’m pretty sure that during those 6 hrs no one could have stopped me from talking.

  104. 104.

    Gary K

    November 19, 2021 at 6:39 pm

    @stinger: In the mirror I now see my dear grandfather, but I’m older than he ever was.

  105. 105.

    prostratedragon

    November 19, 2021 at 6:39 pm

    @Fair Economist:  I’ve had propofol and fentanyl for various things in the last few years. My favorite advisory is not to make critical financial or similar decisions for a day or so. (I think pardoning a turkey would be ok though.)

  106. 106.

    schrodingers_cat

    November 19, 2021 at 6:42 pm

    Friday art for the respite thread.

  107. 107.

    prostratedragon

    November 19, 2021 at 6:49 pm

    @sab:  Siamese? Tommy turned into the town crier on his after-midnight patrols.

  108. 108.

    prostratedragon

    November 19, 2021 at 6:53 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:  Ooo, thanks. You’ve inspired me to start coloring again, though so far I’m just working on voter postcards that were meant to be colored.

    Checking my aspect ratio issues, is the basic figure a circle or an obloid?

  109. 109.

    schrodingers_cat

    November 19, 2021 at 7:35 pm

    @prostratedragon: circle

  110. 110.

    Mel

    November 19, 2021 at 7:55 pm

    @HeleninEire: Peace and a hug to you. Your mom surely would be very proud of the how the little girl that she loved has grown into a such a thoughtful, strong, caring adult, as your comments and kindnesses to others here have shown you to be.

    I hope your day was beautiful and healing, and filled with quiet joys and good memories.

  111. 111.

    HeleninEire

    November 19, 2021 at 8:15 pm

    @Mel: Thank you. ❤

  112. 112.

    schrodingers_cat

    November 19, 2021 at 8:36 pm

    @prostratedragon: Do share your work sometime!

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