113, 119, 120
At the time I first read the novel, I had never heard the word "prefect" and read it as "Perfect." I thought, like Joel Polowin, that it was just an illustration of his cluelessness about naming conventions.
I haven't had much time on the internet for the last couple of weeks. Thanks to all those upthread (way, way, upthread) who answered my question about the hours people keep in the Nero Wolfe books. (It's not all about Wolfe being eccentric. When Saul and the boys are tailing a suspect, they often report them doing things quite late.) The information about hours among the leisure classes, plus the variety of options in New York, clarifies things.
Also, I think I had commented in other threads, and never got back to them. My apologies, it wasn't my intention to walk away from the conversation. (Not that I had much to say..)
Xopher and Mary Aileen (612 and previous) - Doesn't that add up to two, rather than three? I also can't quite parse 2007 as "many years ago." I think the writer means once "many years ago" (whatever that means), once in 2007, and once this year, which adds up to three.
If I'm right, the author has more problems than punctuation.
I know one woman who converted from Christianity to Islam. (There are many, but I only know one.) She had met some Muslim women, and the subject of the burqa came up. She was vocally critical. They told her that she shouldn't condemn it if she hadn't tried it. So she borrowed one for a week.
She told me that once she had experienced it, she could never go back. For the first time since puberty, she could go about her business in "dignity and privacy" (her exact phrase). The only way she could keep wearing the burqa was to convert, so she converted.
This obviously says a lot about her, and her experiences, but it is also obvious that not every woman will experience the burqa as oppressive.
Grabbing the opportunity for an open-thready question:
I've been re-reading a lot of Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin books lately, and I'm really struck by how late in the day things happen. Nero is always having people show up at 9pm. Various characters mention going out for the evening at 8pm. There is one reference to someone dropping by for a visit at 10pm, and no one seems to find this odd.
It this a New York thing? I've lived a few places (deep South and Mid-west, mostly), and all these things seem like they should have happened a couple of hours earlier.
Is it an earlier times thing? The books I've been reading take place between the 30s and the 50s. Was there a shift sometime in the second half of the last century, and everyone started doing things earlier? (The annotated Jane Austen talks about something similar happening in the early 19th century in England, so it's possible.)
Or am I just out of the loop?
Re: Teresa's "Wedding Entrance" particle - That's my church, Christ Lutheran on Capital Hill. We really do have that much fun pretty regularly.
The phone has been ringing off the hook since this hit youtube. Since you're familiar with comment threads, you won't be surprised that there are a surprising number of people who feel it was sacreligious, and that they have to tell us so.
The vast majority have been positive, and quite a few want to get married here. Our pastor said he is telling people we don't provide choreographers or dance lessons.
Come visit if you're in town.
Bruce who is cleaning furniture -
The article you mentioned @ 559 talks about laundry soap, which is emphatically NOT laundry detergent. It usually comes in bars, and is called something like fels naptha. You can get it at most grocery or general purpose stores.
Keith@ at 124:
Some quick googling suggests that the study I'm thinking of was by Berlin and Kay. It also suggests that I'm conflating at least two studies. Berlin and Kay posited the connection between colors we see and words we know. It may be someone building on that who found that women know more color words.
John Houghton @103
That reminds me of something I read years ago. Someone created a giant matrix of color squares and had people all over the world divide it into colors and then circle the most representative square for each color within that section.
What he found was that people saw as many different colors as they had names for. It's been long enough that the details are fuzzy, but I remember that women had more color words than men (blue, teal, turquoise, jade, green vs. blue, green) and that the hypothesis was that knowing the word "chartreuse" made the color visible, rather than seeing the color made one want to learn the name. Teaching people color words changed the way they answered the question.
Michael, Congratulations! That looks wonderful.
Sisule and OtterB - Another fan of Stepping on my Cloak and Dagger. (Between this thread and the seven deadly sins one, I'm having a nostalgic book day.)
Heavens, the Callandar family! I remember them, and Ismo, quite fondly. The idea of an anarchist state based on the model of English golf clubs stuck with me. Ismo also inspired me to pick up a biography of Garibaldi (I suspect I was around 12 or so), and started me on a lifetime of reading non-fiction and history, cause it's just so interesting. It also gave me a habit of unconciously resting my finger on my chin, but that's another story, and I've long since dropped it. (Yet another source of merciless teasing from my peers.)
I think that Ismo was actually from Italian, and was something like the last letters of "anarchismo."
Steve - I have no idea how well they would stand up, but they would certainly be quick and probably pleasant.
David at 46:
Where do you live? I think it's hard to generalize about "tipping in the US," because it's a big country, and there is a lot of variation.
That said, I have never heard of tipping 25%. I have heard 15% (of the total, before discounts, as you say) is standard, 20% for exceptional service.
I make an exception for breakfast - the totals on those meals are lower, and the waiters tend to be poorer, overall.
You know, when I typed that comment, it was true. Just ignore it.
That link doesn't work for me. It goes to a "url not found" page, from which you can click through to the blogs front page, which will get you the article.
And yes, I was delighted when Pete started that verse.
Thanks for the continuing camera advice. I'm absorbing it all and taking notes.
Fragano, I am so impressed that you can write villanelles. I was impressed with the first one, and that you can continue to do it, on such a variety of topics, just boggles my mind.
Thank you to everyone who wrote with suggestions about cameras. I am taking notes, and will do some research at the local camera shop.
I especially enjoyed the picture pages. It's always interesting to me to see what kinds of pictures other people take, and what they do with them.
Taking advantage of open-threadiness, I would appreciate some advice on digital cameras. I had one (a Sony, I believe) that got whacked. (Literally. My 3-yo nephew was involved. It was my fault for not being careful where I put it.)
I am very not technologically inclined. I am also fairly clueless about the nuts and bolts of photography. I am the kind of person who leaves a camera where a 3-yo can reach it.
I'm not looking for a top-quality camera that will take amazing artistic pictures. I'm looking for a camera small enough to carry around in my purse or pocket, and tough enough to survive being carried in my purse or pocket. I want to be able to take quick snapshots, mostly involving children or dogs.
I don't want to spend a lot of money. I'm planning on checking the local pawn shops once I get some ideas about what I'm looking for.
Does anyone have any pointers or suggestions?
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| 2009 | 21 |
| 2008 | 54 |
| 2007 | 7 |
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