Geoffrey Nunberg alerts us that in Arabic both Iraq and Qatar are accented on the first syllable. I wonder why we got it wrong. (Link from languagehat)

Do be-all and end-all always go together? Can something be a be-all but not an end-all, or vice versa?

Leaving the house today, I heard a neighbor mention to a visitor that he had taken Russian in hi-skool. “So did I!” said I.

So he asked: “Kogdá idú?”

I remember just enough to know that this means When am I going?

(I assume he meant “Kudá idëš?”)

Achille Talon: Le Roi des Zôtres

ZOTRTRUPPEN! Mitt eine grosse Köningsdeklaraverdung, ich kanonnert vertradukverlang: Grenadiersoldaat Prumpf nicht mehr mit militär obligazionen verankikineerd ist, und Kolonel der zpezial personnäl Achille I.er Royalenkommando vernommert immediääterdung ist und vier semänen kongépayé kan mitt der familie verpasseren . .
Und ein oder minuskuul verdetail: ich, Major Achtungfeuer, vergenomminazionnert Traduktoren-oberzumfuhrerkaporal bin perzonnaliktisch by der Köning. LEBE ACHILLE! LEBE ZOTRLAND!

Yesterday I picked up a remainder copy of Rock Names from ABBA to ZZ Top: How Rock Bands Got Their Names, by Adam Dolgins. Looking through such a reference, naturally one thinks about what to call one’s own hypothetical band; and I thought up The Baroques. (Or maybe Baroke Blokes? There’s already a band named Barolk Folk.)

I can see the cover: the band dressed in Louis XIV style, with huge curly wigs (but in bright colors), banging away on chrome pipe organ and electric mandolin . .

On the front cover of the second album, one of the players, in the same 18c duds but now frayed, stands hitchhiking, showing the title Flat Baroque on a cardboard sign; on the back the others burn instruments in a kettledrum.

Later: Shoulda looked it up. Les Baroques were a Dutch band 1965-9. Flat Baroque is both an instrumental by Richard Carpenter and a blues label; Flat Baroque and Berserk is an album by Roy Harper.

Found in the archives — on 1999 May 20 I wrote:

The Examiner today used the phrase “one-month anniversary” at least three times on the front page alone. What’s next? Will monthly magazines be described as “one-month annual”?

(What happened on 1999 April 20? Hint: Michael (not Roger) “pants on fire” Moore.)

And on 1999 October 23:

We just got notice from the city DPW that it is about to change the street sweeping schedule (on non-residential streets). Apparently one won’t get a ticket for parking in a sweeping-zone on the new schedule until signs are up; but, to help us think about how to adjust our habits (I guess), the notice includes a handy chart describing the new rotation.

Some affected streets will be swept on both sides every day. On the others, Side 1 will be swept on MWF, and Side 2 on TTS.

Nowhere are “Side 1” and “Side 2” defined. . . .

Come to think of it, I never did find an answer to this one. Not that it matters much to me. Then, I had no car to park; now, I have my own space off the street.

John Cowan writes:

All transliteration systems for Arabic are shite in one way or another. When T.E. Lawrence was writing Seven Pillars of Wisdom, he made a point of being as inconsistent as possible throughout.