I’ve been noticing little things, lately. On the train today, upon close examination of the metal door, I found tiny scratches all along the side. Of course there are tiny scratches. I’d be amazed if there weren’t. But it suddenly interests me to think that each one of those scratches represents an actual event that […]
Author Archive | weeklyrob
Head Scratcher
Ironic is pronounced: eye + ron + ick. Irony is pronounced: eye + run + ee. Iron is pronounced: eye + yern. How did “R-O-N†become “Y-E-R-N� [End of Post]
Please Forgive This Interruption
Heading off to vacation, so it may be more than a week before my next post. I can forgive myself, so I hope you can too. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with three things. 1. For those who need a little boost of morale:The popularity dialer can call you when you specify, and beg […]
A Torture Primer
Slate (link on main page) provides a primer on torture techniques used (or allegedly used) by Americans. (link) Click the links at the top of the page to see all the pieces. The most interesting living room conversation is on the “Taxonomy of Torture†page, where they discuss the techniques and their legality. I had […]
Internet Public Library
My friend JB at hogswallowing (link on the right of the main page) sends along word of the Internet Public Library, or IPL. (link) Let’s say you’re interested in… astronomy. Go to the main page, find “Science and Tech†among the links on the left. Hover over it, then “Astronomy†pops up. Click to find […]
Kids and Accents
As I was musing over the Pho post (link), it occurred to me that the way we speak may fall into the same area. That is, we all say things a little differently, but at some point we realize that someone says things differently in a way that makes them really different in a larger […]
Pho
Here’s my first post brought over from Why oh Why, as I said I’d do in an earlier post: My wife and I recently ate at a Vietnamese place. We were the only diners lacking an epicanthic fold. We were almost, but not quite, the lightest skinned people in the restaurant. We were not the […]
Why Oh Why
From late 2000 until mid-2005, I occasionally contributed posts to a blog called, “Why oh Why†(or sometimes YOY). There were several contributors, most of whom I barely knew. But then, technical problems killed Why oh Why. Or so I thought. In fact, Why oh Why was licking its wounds, recuperating, rebuilding, and re-other stuff-ing, […]
Translation
I recently finished reading the Odyssey, which I have two versions of. One is translated by S. H. Butcher and A. Lang. The other by Robert Fagles. Here is a representative sample from the former: Therewith he spake to Hermes, his dear son: ‘Hermes, forasmuch as even in all else thou art our herald, tell […]
Old People
Asians in New Jersey seem to have the key to longevity. Not that they know what it is. (Link) [End of Post]