Category Archives: humanities

where was the battle of Waterloo?

Posted on Thursday, 2002 December 26 by Anton

A recent effort to measure the ignorance of college seniors included the question, “In what country was the Battle of Waterloo fought?” The ‘correct’ answer is Belgium, a state created 16 years later. Waterloo is in Brabant, which at the … Continue reading →

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orthoepy

Posted on Tuesday, 2002 December 24 by Anton

A rant in defense of mis conventional pronunciation (relayed with approval by languagehat): . . . Or were we planning on spending the rest of our lives saying “Paree” for Paris? So to answer your question – no, I think it’s sad … Continue reading →

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search-bait

Posted on Thursday, 2002 December 19 by Anton

Nude gymnasts banned Three Romanian women gymnasts have been punished by their national federation for giving a nude performance in Japan. . . . The trio had “tarnished the image of gymnastics” with their naked performance . . . said the Romanian gymnastics federation … Continue reading →

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Operation Gnashing Butterfly

Posted on Wednesday, 2002 December 18 by Anton

Ftrain Random Military Operation Names Generating Device

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if you do not appease us

Posted on Tuesday, 2002 December 17 by Anton

I heard once that in Sweden or Norway (curse the porosity of my memory) there was an organized campaign to stamp out an offensive second-person pronoun, with buttons proclaiming “I don’t say ___!” Unfortunately, the person who mentioned it did … Continue reading →

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a pox on bioethicists II

Posted on Tuesday, 2002 December 17 by Anton

Apparently Mr Bush has created something called the President’s Council on Bioethics. Now, I’ve never heard that term except in connexion with some chin-puller’s opinion that it’s naughty to tamper with God’s Will Nature by curing infertility or whatnot; so … Continue reading →

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selective historians

Posted on Tuesday, 2002 December 17 by Anton

When Greece won independence from Turkey, romantic foreigners set about reshaping it to a Classical ideal; among other things they destroyed any nonclassical buildings on the Acropolis, which was most of them, because the Acropolis was once a living town. … Continue reading →

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