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February 13th, 2008
04:22 pm - attn:
The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax
Here are some excerpts from Geoffrey Pullman's excellent essay, The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax. Pullman makes an important point about his essay: "the [essay] isn't about Eskimo lexicography at all, though I'm sure it will be taken to be. What it's actually about is intellectual sloth."
Geoffrey Pullman (1991): "The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax and Other Irreverant Essays on the Study of Language." Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, p. 166-9
Eskimo Words for 'Snow'
Some time in the future, and it may be soon, you will be told by someone that Eskimos have many or dozens or scores or hundreds of words for snow. You, gentle reader, must decide here and now whether you are going to let them get away with it. . . .
The last time it happened (other than through the medium of print) was in July 1988 at the University of California's Irvine campus, where I was attending the university's annual Management Institute. Not just one lecturer but two of them somehow (don't ask me how) worked the Eskimological falsehood into their tediuous presentations on management psychology and administrative problem-solving. The first time I attempted to demur and was glared at by lecturer and classmates alike; the second time, discretion for once getting the upper hand over valor, I just held my face in my hands for a minute, then quietly closed my binder and crept out of the room.
Don't be a coward like me. Stand up and tell the speaker this: C.W. Schult-Lorentzen's Dictionary of the West Greenlandic Eskimo Language (1927) gives just two possible relevant roots: qanik, meaning 'snow in the air', or 'snowflake', and aput, meaning 'snow on the ground'. Then add that you would be interested to know if the speaker can cite any more.
This will not make you the most popular person in the room. It will have an effect roughly comparable to pouring fifty gallons of thick oatmeal into a harpsichord during a baroque recital. But it will strike a blow for truth, responsibility, and standards of evidence in linguistics.
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January 8th, 2008
11:19 am
This Be The Verse
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another's throats.
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don't have any kids yourself.
--Philip Larkin
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December 12th, 2006
01:09 am
hey guys.
should i start writing in this thing? y/n
is livejournal passe yet?
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/ford/sydnicons/Determined.gif) predatory
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December 29th, 2005
04:51 pm
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/ford/sydnicons/Sad.gif) worried
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December 11th, 2005
01:09 pm
Gravity’s Rainbow (1973)
Author: Thomas Pynchon
"When one contrasts Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five with this book, it’s like comparing an Olympic sprinter with an obese man running for the bus with a hot dog in one hand and a soda in the other."
more Amazon reviews of some of the classics</a
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December 7th, 2005
11:15 pm
A new worm that targets users of America Online's AOL Instant Messenger is believed to be the first that actually chats with the intended victim to dupe the target into activating a malicious payload, IM security vendor IMlogic warned Tuesday.
According to IMlogic, the worm, dubbed IM.Myspace04.AIM, has arrived in instant messages that state: "lol thats cool" and included a URL to a malicious file "clarissa17.pif." When unsuspecting users have responded, perhaps asking if the attachment contained a virus, the worm has replied: "lol no its not its a virus", IMlogic said.
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December 4th, 2005
November 13th, 2005
11:42 am
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November 10th, 2005
12:30 am
pushing headphones as tight as possible against my ears while listening to music is what i think the "sound" in dreams resembles most.
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November 9th, 2005
11:49 pm - pet-deprived
a house fly has been buzzing around my room for a day and a half, zooming and landing right next to my bed, perched like a taunting bird. when possible, upon finding a bug in my quarters, i take the bug outside of my room and into another place where it will not crawl back. i do this for two reasons: not wanting to kill the bug just in case it has feelings and because bug guts are really a sad excuse for wall decor. with this fly, though, it seems impossible to get it out of my room through a very small hall and out to the door. and i can't kill it--they move too quickly and are fantastic judges of shadow or something. so i just keep talking to it as if it is a pesky pet. if you pass by my room you might hear "go awaaaay" said in a whiny voice, as if a dog is underneath the table begging for scraps.
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November 8th, 2005
November 7th, 2005
10:51 am
John Jacob Jingle Hymer Schmidt
His name is my name too
Whenever we go out
The people always shout
"John Jacob Jingle Hymer Schmidt,"
Da da da da da da da
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October 14th, 2005
11:04 pm
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October 12th, 2005
01:14 pm
oops, i have a livejournal.
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autumnaton's journal
