I was just reading Richard Dawkins' thus far excellent The God Delusion when I came to this passage:
The journalist Andrew Mueller is of the opinion that pledging yourself to any particular religion 'is no more or less weird than choosing to believe that the world is rhombus-shaped, and borne through the cosmos in the pincers of two enormous green lobsters called Esmerelda and Keith.'
It was at the point of reading the word Keith and realising the absurdity of a lobster named Keith, or the unlikely pairing of an Esmerelda with a Keith that I had just taken a sip of too hot espresso. The espresso almost made it's way out of my mouth and onto the pages of the book, but I managed to hold it in, though I burnt my tongue in the process. But what was I to do? It was a library book.
28.3.07
The Language of World Domination...
I saw Ken Loach's excellent film The Wind that Shakes the Barley last night, which I highly recommend. There was a song in the film that a group of republican soldiers were singing as they walked through the mist or fog on their way to an ambush which was also used in the final credits. The tune was vaguely familiar and the words were in, I assumed, Irish Gaelic, though a few of them sounded recognizable as English words. The song got into my head, so when I got home I started searching on the Internet and found out this was the song in question:
Óró, Sé Do Bheatha 'Bhaile
I also found it written as:
Ó Ró Sé Do Bheata Bhaile
Óró, 's É Do Bheatha 'Bhaile
Oro Se Do Bheatha Abhaile
Oró sea de bheatha bhaile
And so on and so forth, etc. Anyone care to try pronouncing that?
Now, I understand there are often different ways of transcribing a language into a non-native alphabet, what with varying dialects/pronunciations etc., and it can take time and effort to get there, but if you are going to adopt that non-native alphabet (whether voluntarily or by conquest), get there you should. All of the Germanic languages that once used runic scripts now use the Latin or Roman alphabet, (Icelandic excluded, they're doing their own thing). It probably took a while for those languages to be, if not understood by others, at least legible to others. Which brings me to my point. In the way that the Welsh never got anywhere because of their ridiculous coracles, the Irish were never really able to dominate the world in any way, because they were entirely incomprehensible. Sure the language has a nice lilt to it and it looks cool and I'll even go so far as to say it's useful...if it's a secret code and you don't want anyone to be able to understand a bleeding thing you've written. Or even have a clue where to begin to figure out how to understand a bleeding thing you've written. And so:
Dear Ireland,
Orthographic reform. It's time.
Sincerely,
TOGM
P.S. We'll even let you have funny symbols over and around your letters like the Swedes and the Vietnamese.
Óró, Sé Do Bheatha 'Bhaile
I also found it written as:
Ó Ró Sé Do Bheata Bhaile
Óró, 's É Do Bheatha 'Bhaile
Oro Se Do Bheatha Abhaile
Oró sea de bheatha bhaile
And so on and so forth, etc. Anyone care to try pronouncing that?
Now, I understand there are often different ways of transcribing a language into a non-native alphabet, what with varying dialects/pronunciations etc., and it can take time and effort to get there, but if you are going to adopt that non-native alphabet (whether voluntarily or by conquest), get there you should. All of the Germanic languages that once used runic scripts now use the Latin or Roman alphabet, (Icelandic excluded, they're doing their own thing). It probably took a while for those languages to be, if not understood by others, at least legible to others. Which brings me to my point. In the way that the Welsh never got anywhere because of their ridiculous coracles, the Irish were never really able to dominate the world in any way, because they were entirely incomprehensible. Sure the language has a nice lilt to it and it looks cool and I'll even go so far as to say it's useful...if it's a secret code and you don't want anyone to be able to understand a bleeding thing you've written. Or even have a clue where to begin to figure out how to understand a bleeding thing you've written. And so:
Dear Ireland,
Orthographic reform. It's time.
Sincerely,
TOGM
P.S. We'll even let you have funny symbols over and around your letters like the Swedes and the Vietnamese.
27.3.07
Lies!
Golden Delicious Apples. They are not particularly golden and they are certainly not delicious.
In other news that has not much to do with anything, I may have been jumping the gun a little, but I wore flip-flops for the first time this year, last night. Bring on the nice weather.
In other news that has not much to do with anything, I may have been jumping the gun a little, but I wore flip-flops for the first time this year, last night. Bring on the nice weather.
14.3.07
Get out of my head!
I was at a party on Saturday night, a party where people were singing karaoke. Someone was singing a Madonna song to which I knew all of the lyrics. That made me realise: I begrudge her the space in my brain that is taken up by her crappy pop songs and all of the other stupid, crappy pop songs that are in my brain, not because I choose for them to be there but because they are ubiquitous. Aarrgghhhh! Now go away.
13.3.07
Many Thanks!
To whomever read my blog yesterday and made the rain stop, I thank you with all of my heart. It was sunny and beautiful today.
11.3.07
5.3.07
Pizza Of The Day!
I like pizza as much as Sparky likes prime numbers, which is a lot. Happy 37th muchacho!
Today's pizza has marinated tofu, spinach, tomatoes, green olives and garlic. And if you'll excuse me, I will now go eat it.
Today's pizza has marinated tofu, spinach, tomatoes, green olives and garlic. And if you'll excuse me, I will now go eat it.
2.3.07
So What!
I found this video over on Parkdale Pictures and it blew me away. I've listened to the tune many times, but seeing Miles & Trane et al. perform it live makes it that much better...
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