aka garbanzo
There was also another standard introduction about a broad bean and a chickpea fighting by a public fountain and being put to jail by lentil, which happened to pass by, but being released after the intervention of a split pea.
A few little things I’ve collected.
1) [Roger Caillois] fell out with André Breton after a disagreement about the nature of the Mexican jumping bean.
2) The Sign of the Holy Lamb and Ink-bottle, at the East end of St Paul’s church.
3) A little “how came you so” — that is, drunk.
Also, if you want to see me lead THE FAITHFUL SOLDIER (ShH 174) in a hot happy room in the hills outside Nazareth (Pennsylvania): thanks, Bridget, and congratulations to Dan and Katy.
A long time ago I was doing a series quoting witty additions to the movie ratings in New York Times reviews. I know there was a reason I called it “They also serve” (who merely stand and wait), but I can’t recall what it was. Anyway, I liked this one, from A. O. Scott’s review of Ballet 422, a documentary following the choreographing of a new piece by Justin Peck for the New York City Ballet:
“Ballet 422” is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested). Brutal treatment of toes and toenails.
I missed Haruspex Day, so in recompense I offer up this post from the Getty’s excellent blog, The Iris.
As Caesar entered the Senate, he supposedly said to Spurinna, “You realize the Ides have come?” (As in, “How good a seer are you?”) Spurinna’s reply: “You realize they have not yet gone?” (As in, “Just wait!”).
Not in Brooklyn, though. In Lombok.
“Like everybody who is not in love, he imagined that one chose the person whom one loved after endless deliberations and on the strength of various qualities and advantages.”
Marcel Proust, Sodome et Gomorrhe
(via Terry Teachout)
GalleyCat reports:
Over at Details magazine, a short poetry quiz urges discerning readers to connect celebrities with their enigmatic verses. The wide range of styles includes work by popular poets like Jewel, Michael Jackson, Suzanne Somers, and William Butler Yeats. . . . “Celebrity Poetry [is] a much-maligned and misunderstood American literary genre that’s enjoying a bit of extra attention right now, thanks to the rediscovered cosmic versifications of Michael Jackson…. Lyrical musings have put MJ in the company of poetic luminaries like Leonard Cohen, Rosie O’Donnell, Billy Corgan, Jewel, Mr. Spock, and Suzanne Somers.”
I confess I haven’t checked the facts. Who would dare?
Language Log » Musical protolanguage: Darwin’s theory of language evolution revisited.
Via Language Log and in honor of Darwin Day, W. Tecumseh Fitch shines a new light on Darwin’s concept of the evolution of language.
And a response by Derek Bickerton, here.
One of my favorite blogs, Language Log, is honored.
The Linguistic Society of America announces the 2009 recipient of the Linguistics, Language and the Public Award, given for a body of work that has had a demonstrable impact on the public awareness of language and/or linguistics.
The award will be given to Language Log, a collaborative science blog devoted to linguistics and written by a team of more than a dozen prominent linguists, almost all members of the Linguistic Society of America.
LL tackles issues linguistical at levels from the technical (defined as “stuff I don’t understand”) to the comical (literally: language issues reflected in comic strips). It’s anti-prescriptivist and positively skeptical, and wonderful.
The Haruspex 