“Pleasant is the glittering of the sun today upon these margins because it flickers so.”
— An anonymous medieval monk writing in a manuscript of Cassiodorus, quoted in Nora Chadwick’s The Celts, 1971
An Unanswered Question
One of the most beautiful and moving of the bird-songs heard throughout the country which [French merchant Nicolas] Denys governed [in 17th-century Acadia], is that of the Veery, or Wilson’s Thrush. The Maliseet Indians of the Saint John River, as Mr. Tappan Adney has recently told us, say this bird is calling Ta-né-li-ain′, Ni-kó-la Dĕn′-i Dĕn′-i?, that is, ‘Where are you going, Nicolas Denys?’ and Mr. Adney thinks this an actual echo from the days of our author.
— From William Francis Ganong’s 1908 introduction to Denys’ Description and Natural History of the Coasts of North America, 1672
Summing Up
Sign posted on Primero Street in New Cuyama, California:
In Other News
From the Peterborough Standard, 1979:
CROWLAND’S Silver Jubilee committee was finally wound up on Thursday evening with a presentation ceremony at the library.
The jubilee fund, described by chairman Frank Parnell as ‘one of the finest efforts in Lincolnshire’, fremony at the library.
The jubilee fund, described by chairman Frank Parnell as ‘one remony atremony aremony at the library.
The jubremony at the library.
Tremony at remony at the library.
Thrremony at tremony at the liremony at the libraremony at the library.
Theremony at the library.
The jubilee fund, described by chairman Frank Premony rremony at the liremony aremony at the libremony atremony at the tremony at the library.
Tremorremony at the library remony at the library.
The jubilee fund, described by chairman Frank Parnell as ‘one of the finest efforts in Lincolnshire’, fn he latched onto a through ball. Although he was hauled down by the ‘keeper he still managed to stroke the ball home.
But for the second week running Durant had to leave the field injured, this time suffering eye trouble.
The winning goal was another 25-yard shot — again from Blackstones’ central defender — coming from their second chance of the game.
Gary Cooper, recently signed from Queens Old Boys, had a good debut.
Traffic
Remarked by Robert Southey in 1850:
“If you wait half an hour on the Pont Neuf, it was said, you were sure to see an Abbé, a Benedictin, a Genovesin, a Capuchin, a Knight of St. Louis, a French Guardsman, a woman of the town, and a white horse cross during that time. This has been often tried and verified.”
Worldly Wise
Proverbs from around the world:
- Don’t buy someone else’s problems. (Chinese)
- Strange smoke irritates the eyes. (Lithuanian)
- The poor lack much, but the greedy more. (Swiss)
- It is the mind that wins or loses. (Nepalese)
- The point of the needle must pass first. (Ethiopian)
- God did not create hurry. (Finnish)
- When you go, the road is rough; when you return, smooth. (Thai)
- If you want to marry wisely, marry your equal. (Spanish)
- Where is there a tree not shaken by the wind? (Armenian)
- Wherever you go, you can’t get rid of yourself. (Polish)
- Money swore an oath that nobody that did not love it should ever have it. (Irish)
- Character is habit long continued. (Greek)
- Where you were born is less important than how you live. (Turkish)
- It is better to prevent than to cure. (Peruvian)
- Don’t do all you can, spend all you have, believe all you hear, or tell all you know. (English)
- Better is better. (German)
(From Reynold Feldman and Cynthia Voelke, A World Treasury of Folk Wisdom, 1992.)
Sudden Impact
“Instead of saying ‘cut’ at the end of a take, he would say, ‘That’s enough of that shit.’ After your own close-up, it’s hilarious, but when I saw him doing it to himself, it really made me laugh.” — Laura Dern, of Clint Eastwood
Unquote
“Home is the only place where you can go out and in. There are places you can go into, and places you can go out of, but the one place, if you do but find it, where you may go out and in both, is home.” — George MacDonald
Coverup
Suppose you have a publicity-seeking inchworm and want to keep him to yourself. What’s the smallest cover you can contrive to keep him hidden? He can writhe into any shape that an inch-long creature can take; you must always be able to turn your shape to keep him covered.
Strangely, we don’t yet know the answer to this question. Mathematician Leo Moser first posed it in 1966, and various proposals have driven the upper bound as low as π/12 ≈ 0.2618, but we still don’t know whether smaller covers are possible. It’s known as Moser’s worm problem.
“Orange”
It’s true, you’re right; there is no rhyme.
The effort is a waste of time.
I happily concede defeat.
But oranges were made to eat,
And not to rhyme; I find it more enj-
oyable to eat the orange.
— James H. Rhodes