22 November 05
Language Learning
I’m back in Hebrew. I almost didn’t, because my three classmates were not going to come back, and the opportunity arose to take the same class over again.
Part of me was very weary of the idea but also welcomed the chance to consolidate what I’d learned. It was a huge learning curve at the beginning, there.
I finally feel as though I’m making some real progress: I was able to follow along with a lot of the prayers and readings at a Bar Mitzvah on Saturday. It’s the very best kind of motivation. I know you need to push hard to get anywhere but sometimes it’s nice to get this sense of accomplishment…
2 November 05
Be Obscure Clearly
Those who are fans of Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style will be pleased to learn that this classic work has been turned into an operatic song cycle. It received its first performance last month in the reading room of the New York Public Library, the accompaniment performed by the Omit Needless Words Orchestra.
31 October 05
On Spokesweasels and Bark Mitzvahs
In the spirit of Word Spy comes the Double-Tongued Word Wrester dictionary, which describes itself as a “growing dictionary of old and new words from the fringes of English.”
Fitzmas, anyone?
25 October 05
Using Language
Today I co-taught a class on Culturally Inclusive and Non-Violent Language. Here’s why this is important:
“Keep your thoughts positive
Because your thoughts become your words
Keep your words positive
Because your words become your behavior
Keep your behaviorf positive
Because your behavior becomes your habit
Keep your habits positive
Because your habits become your values
Keep your values positive
Because your values become your destiny.”
—Mahatma Gandhi
19 October 05
Yolo Crow
A poem of mine got published in the Yolo Crow, a new literary magazine. A copy came in today’s mail.
I seem to find myself around people whose ambition it is to start a literary magazine; often they don’t make it beyond the third issue. I hope that’s not true for this one…
23 September 05
Collaboration
Qarrtsiluni just started. Head on over and have a look, and if you’d like to contribute a piece (this month’s topic is “Something About to Burst”), please do! Instructions are on the site.
21 September 05
An Evening With Terry Pratchett
Terry Pratchett was speaking tonight at Cody’s in Berkeley, part of his Thud! book tour (he found out just before his appearance that it was #4 on the NYT bestseller list; this was someone who could hardly get his books published in the US in the 90s).
It’s bad when there’s no standing room.
He was funny, even hilarious, throughout. He’s much shorter than you’d think from his author photo. The line to get books signed snaked through Cody’s, but if you didn’t want a signature (I didn’t), there was a nice space off to the side for furtive sketching.
4 September 05
This Must Be A Sign
Though I’m not sure of what.
Yesterday I took a walk west out the Putah Creek levee. After passing under the freeway, I found some scattered pages torn out of a book. I picked these up and read—it was Candide.
30 August 05
Science Writing
Partly for professional reasons—the need to inform myself about West Nile Virus and the possibility that Avian Flu will emerge in lethal and pandemic form any minute now, and will possibly enter the United States via California, possibly in wild birds—I’ve been reading about epidemics.
John Barry’s The Great Influenza is an excellent read not just about the horrifying events of 1918 but about the emerging field of medicine in the U.S. My grandfather got this flu when he was a quartermaster in the Canadian Air Force, but his letters mention it only obliquely (“I had a mild case, unlike some of the others”—for “some of the others,” read “poor bastards writhing in cyanotic agony, blood streaming from their eyes and ears,” but you don’t write this in letters home to mother, especially when said letters are censored. It’s extraordinary how little has actually been written, fictionally or otherwise, about this pandemic given how many millions of people it affected.). Then, while I was in L.A. a couple of weeks ago, I picked up a copy of Mike Davis’ new Monster at Our Door: The Global Threat of Avian Flu.
Both these writers are journalists and have written a lot about non-scientific subjects. Yet the way they both approach science is inspiring to me: it’s hard to make a virus with codenames such as HPAI H5N1 interesting, but Davis has written a searingly compelling book. So has Barry.
I want to write like this. I want to take a subject about which I know ostensibly little, research it, and write like this. I wish I knew how to start. (Of course the way to start is to start, and there are lots of reasons for not starting such as I’m working 50-60 hours this week and so on, but still.) Anyone have any suggestions?
7 August 05
Omniglot
This site is a guide to written language which seems pretty comprehensive. All manner of scripts are covered, everything from Glagolitic to Tengwar. The multilingual tongue-twisters are quite fun as well.