Mucho interesante

A link to a fascinating article in Asia Times: It's easy for the Jews to talk about life By Spengler

Sprachgefuhl

We'll get to what the German word means in a minute. There is no English equivalent , by the way. An article about the making of Merriam-Webster English dictionary appeared in the newspaper a few days ago. The dictionary is edited out of Springfield, Massachusetts. A team of editors there scours newspapers and journals in search of words, new words, old words. They have no telephones on their desks (!) (I do have one on mine, but it rarely rings and I've no idea how to use its advanced features.) A new word must appear at least eight times somewhere in print (everyday speech, television, radio, don't count!) before it can be considered for inclusion in the next edition of the Collegiate Dictionary. A recently added word which no longer appears, will be dropped. This is what happened to 'snitty', meaning disagreeably agitated. It was added in 1989, then dropped a few years later, to be added again most recently.

Around 1995, the word 'regift', which meant to make a gift of something that had been a gift to us, was introduced by the television comedy show Seinfeld. But the word didn't start appearing in print publications until 2001, when it was finally picked by the Merriam-Webster. Here are some new words being considered by the editors: 'za', for 'pizza', and 'air-kiss', meaning exactly what is says. I wonder if there is a word for the meaningless hugs so often forced on us in group meetings, after yoga classes, and such, by people who often enough hate our guts, just because it's become a custom. Jerry Seinfeld should have invented it back in 1995, he hated those hugs too.

Oh, and finally, the skill required of the editors of the dictionary. It's called 'sprachgefuhl' in German and it means a feeling for the language, an intuitive sense of what is linguistically appropriate. Have you got it?

Le Fantôme de la liberté

Here is another missing scene from a Luis Buñuel film. This time the film is Phantom of Liberty, his 1974, next to last masterpiece (I don't know you if you haven't seen it and are not going to do your best to see it soon! You may borrow my copy.) This is the one that starts with Spanish prisoners (among them monk Luis Buñuel) about to be executed by Napoleon’s soldiers, and shouting "Long Live Chains!" Anyway, here is the link.

Mayer Kirshenblatt

Mayer Kirshenblatt is a 91 year old self taught painter residing in Toronto, who has been painting for close to twenty years. His subject matter is mostly the life in the Jewish shtetl in southern Poland where he grew up until emigrating to Canada in 1934. The painting pictured above is titled The Purim Play: Krakow Wedding. Read more here . Also note that the terms naïve art, or primitive art are never mentioned in the article.

Gateway to Heaven

(A Chinese Parable)

A farmer was hurrying on his way with his horse and dog. Suddenly lighting struck and killed all of them. Like many newly dead souls, they didn't know they were dead and continued to hurry on their way.

They kept going under the scorching sun. They were sweating and in unbearable thirst. Then they saw a beautiful gate leading to a glittering square. There was a clear spring in the middle of the square. He hurriedly went up and greeted the gatekeeper: "What is this beautiful place?"

"Heaven." The gatekeeper said amicably. "That is very good. We are all very thirsty. Can we go in to have a drink?"

"You can go in, but not your horse or dog. We don't allow animals to enter."

"Oh. Let's forget about it then."

The farmer couldn't bear to leave his horse and dog behind. They thus continued on looking for water. After walking for a long time, he found a place with a water source. Again, there was a man guarding the gate.

"Hello, can I and my horse and dog have a drink of water here?"

"Go ahead," said the gatekeeper.

After they satisfied their thirst, the farmer thanked the doorkeeper and asked him: "What is this place?"

"Heaven." The farmer was perplexed: "How can that be! We just passed by a beautiful gate and the gatekeeper there told us it was the heaven."

"That was hell," said the gatekeeper.

"My lord, you should prohibit them from confusing people like that. People will be fooled."

"Not likely," said the gatekeeper. "We should thank them for their help, because they'll keep those who abandon their friends there."



Source: The Epoc h Times

Dysphonia

Dysphonia? Sounds euphonic, but what does it mean? It is a voice disorder (Google is your friend for life,) and the word I was looking for following a weekend day recently, when I spoke to no one for a period of 24 hours, though (one hopes) not as a result of any new disorder amongst my tired old disorders.

I found this word last Wednesday in an article about singer Linda Thompson, who, the article said, had suffered from hysterical dysphonia, which is a condition that makes it impossible for one to speak. Linda Thompson is of course, the former wife of Richard Thompson and mother of Teddy Thompson, all three of them fine British folk rock singers and songwriters. Linda has a new album out, as does Teddy, and Richard is just hitting town on a tour. A lot of noise altogether. I wonder what the antonym of dysphonia is, blabbermouth?

Nothing

Record producer Phil Ramone, who has recorded everyone from Frank Sinatra to the Rolling Stones, was a musical prodigy who graduated from Juilliard at 16. He won the first of his nine Grammy Awards in 1965 for the classic album "Getz/Gilberto."

"You can get used to awful," says Ramone. "You can appreciate nothing. We've done it with fast food."