Number 126
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NEW YORK TIMES
The New York Times (Tuesday, May 31, 2005) carried an article on the Academie Francaise (overlook the lack of diacritical marks, which do not convert well into my e-mail program), which has since the 17th century attempted to record and keep control of the French language. A few stats: For 70 years the academy has been working on the official dictionary's ninth edition, and has reached the letter P. The 1935 (eighth edition) had 35,000 words, but the current edition is already up to 50,000. Half of the academy are in their 80's. Members' uniforms cost about $62,400 new; some just borrow from the "widows' cloakroom".
In its effort to use French for any new words that creep in from other languages, the Academy has come up with translations that in certain cases are probably never really used, such as "courriel" for e-mail, "toile d'araignee mondiale" (global spider web) for World Wide Web, and "cousin de securite" for air bag. The Academy gives approved word lists to the media, and advertising that uses English words must ~ by law ~ include the French equivalent in a footnote. I don't think we have an English equivalent of this law, unless it's the health warnings that must appear on tobacco and alcohol.
Several readers wrote in about a May 26 article on audio books. Who would have thought there is any point of controversy on this subject? True, reading is not the same as listening, and the written language has nuances that the spoken language does not have. It's also true that writing followed oral story-telling and singing. "Literature" has to do with letters, not words, though its meaning is larger. It's all good.
An ad appeared notifying the public of a class action suit on behalf of freelance writers whose work has been republished in electronic media without compensation to the writers, infringing on their copyright. Details at Copyright Settlement.
Winged Migration is one of the most beautiful nature films ever made. Nature photographers are surely superior to any Hollywood or indie movie maker. Do watch this movie.
And I gleaned a linguistic nugget from a scene of a geyser in the film, though the word wasn't used; in fact there is little verbal narrative. The word geyser comes from the Icelandic and is related to "gush". I remembered reading "geyser" in British books, meaning, as I thought, water tap, but actually it's "chiefly British, a gas-operated hot-water heater". I was hoping to suggest that you all start using "geyser" to mean "faucet" just for a change, to stimulate your right brain by doing something unfamiliar, like using chopsticks, but one has fewer occasions to refer to the hot-water heater.
# "ITT Tech has allowed me to get to where I eventually want to go." This would work if only it weren't for the "eventually". Has he already gotten to where he wants to go in the future? Then ITT is offering a really special service ~ time travel.
# Weather report: "The best time for rain tomorrow will occur in the morning." Overlooking the "best", since we do need rain sometimes, I must wonder if time occurs. A particular time can, as in "The time has come, the Walrus said...." But I think the weatherman meant, "The most likely time for it to rain tomorrow will be in the morning."
# Someone interviewed on TV said "conversate" for "converse". (Here I must insert a non-paid plug for cute shoes called Conversations apropos, the brainchild of a woman who used to work for Converse, maker of the classic sneaker.) And someone else on TV said "explicitated" for "made explicit" (should be "explicated"). And I had a brain glitch too, though not on TV. It's been a tough couple of weeks, and when I was trying to think of a word that meant something like "incursion" or "encroachment" I came up with "incrusion" instead. I must have developed short-term dyslexia. I knew it was wrong while I was saying it but I said it anyway.
I'm late for Memorial Day, but here is my offering, the lyrics to my favorite patriotic hymn, "America the Beautiful." Katharine Lee Bates wrote the song more than a century ago, inspired by a trip up Pikes Peak. [Note: Surprisingly, my spell checker did not recognize "thine".] Miss Bates kept revising or probably adding to the song for years.
O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!
O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self the country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for halcyon skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the enameled plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till souls wax fair as earth and air
And music-hearted sea!
O beautiful for pilgrims feet,
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America ! America !
God shed his grace on thee
Till paths be wrought through
wilds of thought
By pilgrim foot and knee!
O beautiful for glory-tale
Of liberating strife
When once and twice,
for man's avail
Men lavished precious life!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till nobler men keep once again
Thy whiter jubilee!
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