The excellent and kindly chronicler, Lily Tequila, has awarded me a corrected version of Kreativ Blogger, to which I've added the above multiplier, x2. Reason is, I thought it called for 10 self-expository items when I dealt with it earlier this month, but it only wants seven. Seven twice-applied makes 14, which left me 4 short. The four items in this post may seem like foreshortened compliance but, on closer inspection, will be seen to settle things.
1. I don't usually care for music videos but I like Bonnie Tyler and I like old scuttled ships. Sometimes you get a ship and a voice rusted to perfection simultaneously. Less often, you get Bonnie Tyler singing half of "Louise" in French. This collection of rarities is combined here:
2. My other favorite video defines the harmonic possibilities of an Old Testament disaster. Americans sound funny. We know we sound funny but can't help it. Not our fault, it's God's. When the Tower Of Babel fell, and language got confounded, Welsh got all consonants, Hawaiians just got vowels and mainland Americans got flat, nasal inflections. Nobody demonstrates American intonation and diction better than Adriano Celentano in "Prisencolinensinainciusol" --I find the words very moving:
3. I like oddities. Friend Wendy sent an old picture yesterday on her 34th wedding anniversary. Norma and I were on the left with our oldest boys. Group represents a century's immigrants --Portuguese, Italian etc., all of whom recall the childhood shock of meeting little schoolfriends' grandparents and hearing them speak perfect English. Gallimaufry of occupations: gardener, nuclear medicine technologist, grocery clerk, x-ray technician, deli-chef, police detective etc. in karass. But the greatest oddity is all three of these couples are still together. Long time. How long? If you subtract Wendy's 34th (anniversary) from this year, 2012,you get uh...78. Wow, 78 years!
4. I'm no good at math. I do, however, have a favorite math problem, one solved by syllogism in Ambrose Bierce's Devil's Dictionary: If 60 men with 60 shovels can dig 60 fencepost holes in 60 seconds, how long would it take them to dig one hole?
60 seconds.
ReplyDeleteYour revelations are uniquely fascinating - and your take on the Tower of Babel is priceless.
ReplyDeleteI've always hated math and can see no logical reason for its existence. The math problem in Bierce's Devil's Dictionary eloquently reflects my reasoning......
Thanks Delores and Jon. Bierce figured they'd dig the hole in one second, but I don't know --there'd be a lot of dust and swearing. Idea was never tested outside his lexicon.
ReplyDeleteOne second.
ReplyDeleteI remember photos like this one. Those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end... Ha.
Thanks Rubye Jack. Fortunately the cafes are far from empty (Mary Hopkins?).
ReplyDeleteBonnie Tyler isn't bad, actually. Everything sounds better in French. And the other one... wow, get down!
ReplyDeleteMath problems make my head hurt, like an exploding clock.
Awesome photo! Did you say 78 years of marriage? Not computing...
Yes, theoreticallly one second. I could dig a hole in one second. Not a big hole, not a deep one, but a hole. And hey, 78 years times three couples is 234 years of marriage?!
ReplyDeleteCarrieBoo and Austan, I think I see the problem with the photo: When people stand close together, their age-fields overlap and throw all calculations off.
ReplyDelete