I don’t think that John McWhorter’s “YO!” has really “floated to the ends of sentences and lost its shouting intonation, and … become what linguists would call a pragmatic marker.” It’s just like football: there are always a few pragmatic markers hanging around on the margins of matches, and then there are Dutch defenders who…
Ah, how we all laughed at mad old Arnie! Mr Schoenberg, who was born on the 13th and feared the number all his life (Twelve tones? That’ll do nicely…), of course died on the 13th, just when he thought his illness had passed. And now the epidemiologists (c/o Bristol-Myers Squibb (Taiwan) Ltd) seem to be…
As the barking of the mad dogs of Mechelen recedes, Hispanic PR Newswire mutters in our ear that its market is suffering from a severe case of the proverbs: Often, excuses come disguised as popular wisdom… Unfortunately, the sayings nearest and dearest to us, those passed on through generations, have also culturally conditioned us to…
Condescending southerner David Green (he’s Manchester-based) has a piece on the Beeb listing the delights that await Rivaldo when he finally signs for Bolton Wanderers. What many people this morning find difficult to understand is why Rivaldo can’t be arsed to travel those extra 10 miles up the A666 to the Anchor Ground, home of…
Kaleboel is one (1) today, which means you’re going to start seeing signs of maturity on-this-day items from 2003 in the right hand column of individual posts. I started it for three reasons: To learn Catalan. At the beginning posts took me ages, but I can now read and write with reasonable facility, although I’m…
Maartje Draak (1907-1995) was a brilliant Celtologist who is remembered principally for having laid bare the debt of the courtly romance to folklore. Draak is Dutch for “dragon”, and she is said on occasion to have begun lectures with the words: “My name is Draak and I deal with fairytales.”
The Mexicain, advertised in La Vanguardia on April 24th 1904, is the kind of miracle cure for obesity about which one would like to know more. Was it a modern-type fat-buster, or did it simply cause chronic diarrhea? So, if you’re a descendant of Dr Jawás (but not if you’re a Star Wars nerd) or…
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