Althouse: At the Gold Leaf Café...

October 25, 2014

At the Gold Leaf Café...

... you can talk about whatever you want.

16 comments:

chickelit said...: —Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to airy thinness beat.

Valediction, Forbidding Mourning
John Donne (1573–1631)
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I had an interesting conversation the other day with a German student. I was explaining the usefulness of case declensions in that it allows words to retain their meanings regardless of word order in a sentence. For example: "Der Mann gibt den Ball dem Hund" retains its meaning when the elements are transposed: "Dem Hund den Ball der Mann gibt" sounds funny but means the same thing. We can't do this well in English. Obviously this has utility for German poets. Ditto for Latin.; 10/25/14, 10:54 AM
chickelit said...: Word order levies a syntax on poets.; 10/25/14, 10:59 AM
garage mahal said...: Uh oh.

RGA puts additional $1 million into Wisconsin ad buys as Walker frets; 10/25/14, 11:17 AM
chickelit said...: Walker fretting strikes Garage chords.

See what I mean?; 10/25/14, 11:37 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Okay, I did a new post on the "Walker frets" thing.; 10/25/14, 11:38 AM
jimbino said...: Why do even educated persons say, "I should have went..." and "He was hung at sunset" and "I never have drank liquor" and "He dove off the platform"?

Ignorant and pervasive.; 10/25/14, 1:56 PM
Big Mike said...: I really enjoyed George F. Will's column.

I especially loved this line, speaking of the "John Doe" investigation: "Such misbehavior takes a toll on something that already is in short supply: belief in government’s legitimacy."

A perspicacious observation, especially as regards your misbegotten state, Althouse. Democrats regarded Scott Walker's election as being somehow illegitimate (garage mahal is still frothing at the mouth) but an election where conservative advocates have been shut up at gunpoint is tainted in its own way. I hope Scott Walker wins despite the best efforts of Wisconsin Democrats to shut down the freedom to take positions on issues that are in opposition to their dogmas.; 10/25/14, 2:04 PM
chickelit said...: jimbino said...
Why do even educated persons say, "I should have went..." and "He was hung at sunset" and "I never have drank liquor" and "He dove off the platform"?

Why did John Lennon write and sing:

And nothing to get hung about
Strawberry Fields forever

British idiom?

Bob Dylan and Pete Townshend made grammatical errors too.; 10/25/14, 2:30 PM
Wince said...: Hillary at Coakley fundraiser in Boston yesterday:

Don’t let anybody tell you that its corporations and businesses that create jobs. You know that old theory, trickle-down economics. That has been tried, that has failed. It has failed rather spectacularly. One of the things my husband says when people say, ‘What did you bring to Washington?’...

Do you think she was talking about blow jobs?; 10/25/14, 3:43 PM
jimbino said...: Chickelit,

John Lennon committed another error: using "hung" when he meant "hung up." Lazy speakers also say "cave" when they mean "cave in" and "chill" when they mean "chill out."

There are two different verbs in English that have the form "hang" in the present tense. One means "suspend" while the other means "suspend by a rope around the neck until dead."

The past tense of the former is "hung" as in "I hung the lamp from the rafters." the latter is "hanged" as in "They hanged poor Jim at sunset."

Totally different, and serving to separate the men from the boys when it comes to speaking English.; 10/25/14, 3:49 PM
Hagar said...: This story about nurse Kaci Hickox' return from Sierra Leone is another tale demonstrating that "Ebola" has become a political football and a TV spectacle, but is not taken seriously by governments, Federal, State, or local.

It also goes to show how incompetent the bureaucracies are to handle any crisis and why more money and bureaucracy is not a solution.

And may the Lord have mercy upon you, if you ever get caught up in one of their Keystone Kops shoots, because they will not.; 10/25/14, 3:57 PM
RecChief said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/25/14, 3:59 PM
RecChief said...: garage mahal said...
Uh oh.

Uh Oh is right, that paragon of conservative reporting, the Washington Post, ran a story on non-citizens voting. It's a big deal because as the Center for American Progress(!) reports, there are aound 22.1 million non-citizens (not illegal aliens) living in this country. If 2% vote, illegally, that's over 400,000 votes. To put that in perspective, Obama won North Carolina by 14,177 votes, so if 5.1 percent of North Carolina’s adult non-citizens voted, that's more than Obama's margin of victory in that state, and the electoral votes to go with it.

The need for voter ID laws is plain.; 10/25/14, 4:00 PM
Hagar said...: Another example of your Government at work.; 10/25/14, 4:29 PM
jacksonjay said...: Economist WhatDifferenceDoesItMake says businesses do not create jobs.

State and local governments everywhere were stunned to learn this fact. They all had it assbackwards. They've been trying to lure business by giving away tax incentives.; 10/25/14, 4:47 PM
jacksonjay said...: RecChief,

Everyone knows that arithmetic enjoys white privilege.; 10/25/14, 4:51 PM