June 2011
-
Regular readers of this blague know that Dr. M. is easily taken with odd and unusual words. Well, the poor doctor has been enchanted again. Here follows a wordhoard excavated from Barry Cunliffe's big book on European archaeology. Perhaps some doctormetablogians know one or two of these words, but I doubt anyone knows all of them, and I confess that each one is absolutely new…
-
"Wildwood Flower," of course. The tune would have made Bach proud, the story is classic, and the diction and metaphor absolutely perfect: "You've gone and neglected your pale wildwood flower." "Single Girl, Married Girl," which I can never hear without tearing up (or coming very close — depends on my mood). No one has ever written a lyric that is more succinct or more straightforward: "Single girl,…
-
Vivian de St. Vrain: "Why is my computer always breaking down. Why does it get infected with these nasty viruses and trojan horses and stuff?" NGP (my computer consultant): "Because there are evil people in the world."
-
Neolithic Malta presents an exemplum and a warning. The island received its first human inhabitants, who probably arrived from Sicily, some time around 5000 BC. After about 3600 BC, trade and other links with the outside world waned. Over the next thousand years or so, the people of Mlata built seventeen monumental stone temples unlike any elsewhere in the Mediterranean. These are the…
-
I've been reading about rugs. I'm ignorant, but fortunately, there are dozens of eaily-available and learned books, and I'm happy to say that our local university library is going to keep me busy until my enthusiasm flags. Everyone interested in rugs knows that the Pazyryk carpet (which I didn't know about until a month ago) is the oldest known rug…
-
Pound for pound, Macbeth is of all Shakespeare's plays the most unrelenting and horrifying. One of its greatest moments occurs when Macbeth, seeking additional guidance, pays a second call on the witches. "How now," he demands, "you secret, black, and midnight hags!/ What is't you do?" The witches' response to his question, though exceedingly laconic, is far scarier than anything the…
-
My first twelve years of formal schooling were pretty much a bust. I blame my underachieving, unserious self. I was much more interested in punchball, the Dodgers, comic books, and radio serials than in the lessons, which were unchallenging and drab. At school I learned reading, writing and 'rithmetic, for which I'm grateful, and also a little Latin. I was an autodidact, not a…
-
Our understanding of the human brain is mighty slim. As a consequence our therapies for insanity, for head injuries, and for dementia are primitive. When John Donne was dying in 1633, his physicians tied pigeons to his feet. Present-day medicine offers remedies for Alzheimer's sufferers that are no more effective than pigeon tying. Brainwise, we linger in the dark ages…
-
It was an excellent win for Dallas. The series isn't over yet, but it's better to be up 3-2 than down 2-3. Terry, Kidd, Chandler, Marion, and Berea all played beautifully. Dirk Nowitzki had another lovely game. And in the booth, Jeff Van Gundy continued to mangle the language at a yogiberra level: "Dirk Nowitzki is now a household name in…
-
I don't like gore. I’m the kind of person who won’t recklessly channel-surf for fear that the changer gizmo will maliciously lock onto our 24/7 surgery channel, where some poor soul's innards will be on garish hi-def display, And yet, despite my squeamishness, I steeled myself and read right through Katrina Firlik's Another Day in the…