Category Archives: humanities

ITAWT; ITAWA; PUDYE; TTATT; IDEED

When symbol-space is arbitrary, whimsy sometimes happens.

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layers of language

In the chaos that is my mind at this hour — Brain damage such as stroke can take away the symbolic processing ability known as language. I wonder: does the most obvious kind of sign-language, pointing and miming, go with … Continue reading

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partial translation

I see that in Yahoo’s Chinese translation my name is “安東 Sherwood”, i.e. Anton becomes ‘peace+east’ (which in Japanese is pronounced antō, unfortunately).

Posted in language, me!me!me! | 1 Comment

a symptom of something or other

Each member of the California State Bar Association (which is a state entity) has a number, and the Bar’s website lets you search by number or by name. Barrister No. 1 was William Harrison Waste, admitted in June 1894. The … Continue reading

Posted in law, politics | 2 Comments

the purloined telegram

Thirty-odd years ago I read Alvin’s Secret Code by Clifford B. Hicks (1963), which begins when a puzzling telegram falls into the hands of two boys. The only sentence in it that makes any kind of sense to them is … Continue reading

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Horatio Bunce and Davy Crockett

A friend asked me why Ron Paul voted against a hurricane relief bill; was there something poisonous in it, or did he think it would be ineffective? I replied that I would expect Dr Paul to vote against any such … Continue reading

Posted in constitution, history | 2 Comments

one lobe of the brain is dedicated to old advertising

Watching Pillow on patrol, guarding the hearth against MLO (mouse-like objects), stirs a tickle in my mind: About thirty years ago was there a long-running ad campaign, for some luxury good, that featured a black panther? Or have I imagined … Continue reading

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