LAISSEZ LE TON BEAU DE MAROT ROULER

Mike Sykes sent this in response the bit on translation, where I wrote "let's assume for the sake of argument that no meaning is conveyed by sound and rhythm":

Indeed it is! And if you haven't already read Douglas Hofstadter's Le Ton Beau De Marot: In Praise of the Music of Language (yes, it's a pun), you might be interested.

Note that you can browse bits, and the reviews are, as usual at Amazon, fairly polarised. One of them is helpful because it says:

<quote>

This book had its genesis in Hofstadter's attempts to translate "A une Damoyselle Malade" written by the French Poet Clement Marot in 1537. The poem's unusual and tight form create a challenging translation puzzle. After churning out a couple himself, Hofstadter extended the challenge to a group of his friends. After having seen the various forms a single poem can take when translated across such a large gap (French to English, sixteenth century to twentieth) Hofstadter starting contemplating what translation and, by extension, language mean.

</quote>

I said I wanted to buy the book, I haven't yet, but I just wrote myself a digital Post-It.

Babelfish translates "Le Ton Beau De Marot" as "The Beautiful Tone of Marot." I see a rhyme but I don't get the pun.

FREE ONLINE

LibraryThing

This could be fun ~ LibraryThing is a web site where you can create an account and enter all your books, or some of them (they make it easy), enter your reviews, read others' reviews, chat about books, etc. There are all kinds of literary categories, and a number of languages. Building your own library catalog is free up to 200 book entries.

Word2Word

You can learn a language online for free at Word2Word.com. Aramaic or Arabic could be useful, as well as Cherokee and Chinese, Gaelic and Greek, Hawaiian and Hebrew, Latin and Latvian, Welsh and Wolloff, and lots more.

There's also Esperanto, but why bother? Esperanto comes from a Latin root meaning "hope". I think its creator (1887, L. L. Zamenhof) hoped a universal language would end war, as if misunderstandings are the only cause of war. I'm pretty sure that very clear understandings lead to war quite as often. Anyway, I did not know that Hitler and Stalin both killed Esperanto speakers, and other governments have suppressed it too. Who knew that Esperanto exploded in popularity in Iran in the 1970s? There is a Vikipedio site in Esperanto.

The Internet Public Library

Another place to find books, magazines, and newspapers to read online. Let's say you think you want to read Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics. Read it here then decide whether to buy the book.

FINE FETTLE

Mail order catalogs used to be the spam of snail mail, but I like paper catalogs a lot better than spam. Duluth Trading Co. catalog has nice art and is even interesting to read. They sell a belt called the "Fettler" with this copy: "A British haberdasher might say this belt 'fettles' you, meaning it spiffs you up, adds the finishing touch. (The term originally meant to remove mold marks from a casting ~ same idea, hey?)"

You've probably heard the phrase "in fine fettle" (in good shape), even if you don't use it. Middle English "fetlen" means to make ready, possibly from Old English fetel, meaning girdle, according to yourdictionary.com. Lots of things have to be packed a bit tighter to be ready for whatever they need to do. Aside from the metallurgy sense, it looks like "fettle" has come full circle.

NO MORE PRISONS

Occasionally I see signs planted in people's yard saying "No more prisons." One of them had an anarchy symbol, which would suggest that the sign-maker wants all prisons to be abolished. But probably he or she just meant no more additional prisons. In either case it would probably mean no more arrests and trials. I'm waiting for signs that say "No! More Prisons!"

TUBAL LOCUTIONS

I and Thou

On a soap opera: "I and Sonny wanted you to be informed." I learned in grade school that "I" follows anyone else. It's more a matter of courtesy than grammar. But when people follow this rule, they often break another one and substitute the objective for the subjective case: "Sonny and me wanted...." Or worse, "You informed Sonny and I...."

Weapons with Cachet

I keep hearing about weapon "cachets" in the news when "cache" is meant. Both words are French. A cache (pronounced cash) is a hiding place. A cachet (pronounced cashay) is a seal and in English means a sign of superior status.

6 Months Poignant?

Another French word is poignant, pronounced poin-yent. A woman on TV pronounced it poig-nant. Of course most of us have a larger reading vocabulary than a speaking vocabulary, most of us don't speak French, and this word is not much used. But it still sounded funny.

Mustrats?

My new favorite HGTV show is If Walls Could Talk where people buy old houses and find intriguing bits of history hidden under the floorboards. One owner said, "The house was closed up for a year and smelled very musky." Musky is like musk, a strong animal smell; musk is a secretion from the glands of certain animals that's used in making perfume. Musty is what old houses smell like if they're not aired out. It comes from "moist." Old houses get moldy.

AMOS AND ANDY UPTOWN SATURDAY NIGHT

Last week I watched the movie Uptown Saturday Night (1974) and was struck by its similarities to the classic but discredited TV comedy series, Amos and Andy. According to allmovie.com, Uptown, directed by and starring Sydney Poitier, was a great success and led to two sequels. But why wasn't it considered demeaning to black people? The two main characters are the square guy (Poitier's character and Amos, a solid family man and co-owner with Andy of a cab company) and the foolhardy blusterer (Bill Cosby, a cab driver in the movie, and Andy). There's a neighborhood kingpin (Kingfish and Geechie Dan Beauford, a great Brando/Godfather parody by an unrecognizable Harry Belafonte). A&A is supposed to be in Chicago, Uptown in an unnamed big city. There are numerous other parallels. Why is one OK and the other not OK? Partly because of Poitier's prestige, but I guess you'd have to track the history of the NAACP and various political pressures to figure out what prevents the great actors in Amos and Andy from entertaining us again via reruns. Think of the residuals those actors have lost!

MORE ON THE VIKING INVASION

Bill R. wrote:

You might want to check out the Clausewitz related articles at http://www.afji.com/2006/07/. The Ralph Peters piece is quite interesting in the "Viking invasion" vein. The Scales piece is, as well, although in a different way. He mentions Alan Beyerchen from OSU ~ one of the scariest afternoons I've spent was listening to Beyerchen muse about Ebola and the potential consequences of a pandemic.

Bill, I have my hands full with the wars. Don't get me started on Ebola. I'm not sleeping well as it is.

By the way, did you know that Muslim doctrine teaches that everyone is created Muslim, from Adam to Moses to Jesus to you. Or maybe it's Viking.

HEAR HEAR

Dave DaBee was wondering if "hear hear" should be "here here." It's the former, and it comes from a custom in Parliament, so I read, of shouting to let speakers be heard ("Hear him!").

JUST A THOUGHT

I think people ought to get a solid education in history before they start talking about alternative or secret or underground histories, just like people ought to know English grammar and literature before they start to "break the rules." Specifically, The Egyptian Book of the Dead is not the original version of the Hebrew Bible. (Don't ask.)

SOMETHING NEW! Check out the new "I Eat Dead Things" T-shirts for dogs and people, and the Protestant Work Ethic items in the Parvum Opus CafePress shop, plus a new Parvum Opus mouse pad! Now you can buy neat products with the Parvum Opus / KeithOps Catti logo at CafePress.com/parvumopus.

The poet Muriel Rukeyser said the universe is not composed of atoms, but stories.

The physicist Werner Heisenberg said the universe is not made of matter, but music.

If you buy books from Amazon using the link below, I'll get a tiny commission, and I'd appreciate it.

Link here to look for books on Amazon.com!

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