One of my fans, who works in Sunnyvale for a firm whose name you’d recognize, thinks there might be an opening for me if only my résumé weren’t so lame. Suggestions invited, including funny ones.
November 23: I could emphasize that the style to which I’m accustomed is (I gather) a lot cheaper than that of typical programmers.
To those who come here searching for WTC+Liebkind: The name you want is Libeskind.
New toy: Dictionnaire Étymologique des noms de lieux en France, by Dauzat & Rostaing. I’m a bit disappointed that it lists only towns, not rivers, but that’s a detail. (Many river-names are too old to analyze anyway.) It’s fun to sort out the traces of Aquitani, Basques, Gauls, Romans, Franks, Normans – have I forgotten anyone?
One thing puzzles me, and I’m hoping some classicist in the legence will shed some light (or pass on my question to someone who can). In all my reading about naming-practices, I have been given to understand that the Romans had a very small stock of personal names. And yet in just the first 32 pages of Dauzat/Rostaing, the following “noms d’homme lat.” are invoked:
Abus, Absentius, Abundus, Acatius, Accius, Accinius, Aco, Aconteus, Acrius, Acrisius, Adius, Agius, Alarius, Albus, Albanus, Albius, Albinus, Albinius, Albucius, Alinnius, Allus, Allarius, Allenius, Allius, Allinius, Alonius, Altinius, Amantius, Amatius, Ambillus, Amius, Amilius, Aminius, Ampellius, Ancus, Ancius, Anicius, Anitius, Annus, Annius, Anno, Ansius, Antenus, Antius, Antianus, Anticius, Antinius, Antistius, Antonius, Antullus, Aper, Apicius, Appius, Apponius, Apuleius, Aquila, Arbennius, Arbussonius, Archontius, Arcius, Arcisus, Arculus, Aredius, Arenus, Arguenna, Armalius, Armarius, Armatius, Arvinius, Ascius, Asius, Asperius, Astus, Atius, Atilius, Attius, Avitus, Axius, Harpilius, Hilarius, Rantius
— and that’s not counting the asterisked (unattested, reconstructed) forms. So. Ought I not to be surprised at this list? Are they Roman nomina or prænomina (they do smell genuinely Latin to me) or perhaps names of retired legionnaires from all over the Empire? Some must be nicknames: Aper ‘boar’, Albinus ‘Whitey’, Absentius.
Later: I am told that Dauzat was not particularly competent; if I remember right, it is said that he often failed to recognize an obvious Celtic root and instead contrived something absurd.
Canadian in passport fiasco: US officials have once again deported a citizen of Canada – to Asia. Is it their goal to make travel through the US so infamously onerous that nobody (with a tan) tries it? (Link from Stephen Notley by way of Joshua Stanley.)
It is disturbing how much stuff, less than twenty years old, cannot be read at all by current gear.
JWZ tells a tale of software archaeology.
I was puzzled by a series of searches in my referral logs: somebody was going to Altavista for random collections of words:
chicago OR storages OR sherwood OR unemployed OR disputers
altercations OR slithers OR peculate OR sherwood OR unmodifiable
hogs OR sherwood OR aggrandize OR impositions OR reunion
buttery OR subtractor OR jacksonville OR hallway OR sherwood
scrambled OR flutters OR dandelions OR timeouts OR anton
cohen OR overestimating OR burnt OR bowdlerize OR sherwood
chordate OR rodriguez OR aspersions OR muttered OR gloat
stereo OR television OR scuttle OR sanborn OR anton
classical OR radiation OR monotonic OR sherwood OR waxing
Eventually I found that it’s Jamie Zawinski’s webcollage, looking for random images.