Currently Reading A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING PEOPLES: THE BIRTH OF BRITAIN, VOLUME ONE. By Winston., Sir. Churchill see related

closure

It looks like Xanga has fallen by the wayside, at least as far as We are concerned.  Nobody except Emily has updated since February.  The last remnants of the pre-Facebook online social network have been swept away, you might say.  So assuming there's not some resurgence, this might be it.  And very likely, nobody will ever even read this, unless I become famous someday and people comb through the archives here to see the Real Me in the 2005-2008 period (the "Red" period, they'll call it, after the color of the Zangaship). 

Prayers to all of you at NIU. 

Hello, 2008?  I thought I was back in the xan game for a while... alas.  Nothing really to post this evening.  I'm taking a break from grading and planning.  I'm halfway through a cup of coffee and it's after 10.  Long night. 

I read about an amusing historical anecdote today whilst browsing Wikipedia for Ill-Bethisad-related reasons.  (I've definitely found a guilty pleasure that suits me perfectly.)  Anyway, Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg was at a church council when a bishop corrected his Latin grammar.  He replied, "Ego sum rex Romanus et super grammaticam," which means, "I am King of the Romans and am above grammar."  I like that historical anecdote.

I voted for Obama on Tuesday.  I was pretty excited.  I was up ridiculously late watching the results.  I lucked out beyond belief that it was a snow day the next morning.  I would have been sleepy beyond all functioning had I had to work.

My alternate history website is up and running.  If you have not comprehended the magnitude of my nerdiness before, check out www.henua.tk for a good time.

Potery

Has anyone ever heard of a double dactyl?  It's a kind of poem with ridiculously strict rules to follow.  They are:

1. 2 stanzas of 4 lines each (8 lines total)
2. Each line consists of two dactyls (a metric foot with one stressed and two unstressed syllables, ONE-two-three).
3. The last line of each stanza (4th and 8th lines) consist of one dactyl plus a beat (ONE-two-three-ONE).
4. The first line of the first stanza is nonsense, usually two rhyming nonsense words.
5. The second line of the first stanza is somebody's name, which must fit the double dactyl pattern (like "Eleanor Roosevelt").
6. The fourth and eighth lines rhyme (ABCD EFGD).
7. In the three first lines of the second stanza (Lines 5, 6, and 7), at least one must consist of a single 6-syllable word.
8. It's almost always dirty.

So Wikipedia has an example:

Hey-nonny, ho-nonny,

Penis Van Lesbian
Entered the buisiness that
No biz is like.

 

He found he increased his

Marketability

After he took on the
Name "Dick Van Dyke."

The business that no biz is like is show business, you see.  Another one:

Higgamus hoggamus,

Anton van Leewenhoeck
Had a small problem con-
cerning his wife.

 

"Microbiology

Doesn't concern me; his

Microanatomy's 
Blighting my life!"

Apparently, Anton was a microbiologist.  Well, I've been trying to think of one for a year now, and finally one came to me tonight, in a licquor store of all places.

Avada kavada,

Albus P. Dumbledore
Cheered as youg Potter flew
Circles and loops.

 

However, this magic

Nonogenarian

Flies his own broomstick through
Quite different hoops.

Yes, a Dumbledore gay joke.  So should I make it a 7th grade assignment this spring?  Dirty jokes are what language arts teachers call "high interest."

More strange trivia: I never knew that garbanzo beans and chick peas were the same thing.  Neither did Krissy, and we spent quite a few puzzled minutes in front of hundreds of canned vegetables wondering how was it that the store didn't have any chick peas.  The problem was solved by a bilingual can that read "Garbanzos" on one side and "Chick Peas" on the other.  Now, how ignorant does that make us exactly?  I feel like the garbanzo-chick-pea thing must be common knowledge, and yet, neither of us knew it.

The wedding was five months ago this morning.  We're going out.  Thought I'd mention it.  : )

Well, I may as well do my political rant; I've been meaning to for over a month.  So there was this guy.  I tried to find his name on Google and Wikipedia, but he is the only person being held for terrorism in the continental US rather than Guantanamo.  He is, or was a month ago, trying to bring his case to court.  President Bush of course opposed the idea, but it's his comment that made me start cursing very, very loudly at my radio.  Bush said that he should have the power to decide who goes to court in situations like this-- get ready-- "until the end of the war on terror."

So when will that be, George?  How will we know that we've made it?  When there are no terrorists, anywhere, at all, I suppose.  And until then, we're just supposed to let you have your way around here.  We are at war, after all.

It just makes me so furious the way he uses the term "war on terror"-- originally a metaphorical concept for a big struggle, like the "war on drugs" or the "war on poverty".  He first coined this term, and then used his own little coinage to justify taking "war powers" in a conflict which, by definition, will never end.

It's becoming cliche to compare the Bush Administration to 1984 (what does it say when comparing your government to dystopian novels becomes cliche)... but this was exactly the logic of the dictators in that book.  They deliberately waged war with each other all the time, not caring about objectives or actual progress, only for using the war to justify taking more and more rights away.  This is the logic of President Musharraf in Pakistan, who is taking more and more power because of an "emergency" which does not look like it will end soon.  We're at "war"... so you guys can't have your freedom anymore.  This... infuriates me.  Fuck-- what kind of people are we that we let ourselves get so shaken by one attack that we allowed this to happen to us?  Are still allowing it, because that's his only argument-- we got attacked once, and if you stop thinking and follow me, I'll make you feel like we'll never get attacked again.

Hrmph.  Well, Krissy'll be home soon and I have a monthaversary to enjoy.  I'd like to hear your thoughts on this.  Have a great weekend!