Majored in Geography because by the time I declared it was too far down the line to add on prerequisites to do IT or Engineering, but loaded up on statistics and math anyway. Graduated in ’73.
Always fascinated by computer mapping, which is now GIS.
Was surprised that the major is still around, and grads do second best among Social Sciences behind Economics. Probably related to GIS employability.
Geography: sad, but not in the least surprising given the state of the K-12 system.
Many years ago, I briefly had my very much younger kid sister convinced that North Dorado and South Dorado were states, as I helpfully reviewed the names of our 50 with her.
The names almost do sound like states if you say them quickly. I was less successful in thinking up other plausible state names: Newtah, and Okasaw just not having the same plausible ring.
The same problem used to occur when filmmakers had to make up plausible names for Himalayan micro states.
But sometimes as they say in another context, “you just cannot make this s##t up” successfully … despite your best efforts.
Showing her somewhat older (at 8 years of age) sister, what was for her a never before seen or smelled large black walnut in its husk, I – casting about for a comically ridiculous but believable sounding made-up name – solemnly informed her it was a very rare treat called a Peruvian Custard Apple.
And then ceremoniously placed it in the freezer compartment of the refrigerator where it needed to be kept in order “to ripen properly.”
I am absolutely certain that at 19 I had never heard of any such thing as a custard apple, much less one from the presumably sterile heights of a rocky and barren Peru.
But damned if it didn’t turn out that there was such a thing.
I’m half convinced that you could probably not easily make up a name that has not already been applied to something.
Wouldn’t be at all surprised if there were such blasted things.
Geography , Yes
AND
Basic Economic
Mathematics
and History
When my daughter was young, I would play geography games with her.
I would ask her questions of the sort, “in which continent is Chile located?” as an example.
Of course, she was young, and would answer the above, “Africa?”
I would crack-up laughing, and then provide the correct answer, which prompted us to discuss geography stuff.
The funniest one I recall was when I asked her “what language do they speak in Holland?” She said “Hollandish?”
I really cracked up at that one.
To this day, many years later, I still remind her of that one. Yea, she laughs at that one too.
I was embarrassed for those kids, but always keep in mind that in video’s like this, they get to pick and choose. If the kid answered quickly and correctly, they didn’t make the cut. I wonder just how many they had to go through to get these few.
Also, Jay Leno, technically, got one of the answers incorrect as well. The *tallest* mountain in the world is not Everest. Everest is the *highest* mountain. The tallest mountain is Mauna Kea on Hawaii. Measured from its submarine base in the Hawaiian Trough to its peak, Mauna Kea has a combined height of approximately 33,000 feet of which about 13,800 feet are above sea level. (If you are looking for snow on Hawaii, the top of this mountain is where it can be found.)
One other thing…
If the roles were reversed, that is a younger person these kids age, interviewing an older person Jay Leno’s age (…or older), using the same video editing techniques, they could find just as many ignorant folks to laugh at.
Roy, right on both counts. I certainly could not answer “how many Oceans” off the top of my head. And, there are more than Seven Seas.
You can get scrunch maps for kids so they can lie on the floor and learn a little geography. If this were followed up by parents on things from different areas the kids find interesting (animals, food,etc.), they might turn off their phones and start to learn.
BTW, here in Germany, they use, Dutch and Niederlandish. We have a store about a block from me where tulips and other plants not sold in the big commercial markets are sold at discount prices. They get deliveries around lunch time every day. The call themselves the Hollanders.
OMT, when is Jay gonna interview Brandon?
they could find just as many ignorant folks to laugh at.
I wouldn’t doubt they could find enough to fill their quota. Not sure about ‘just as many’.
Geography: sad, but not in the least surprising given the state of the K-12 system.
The young should be drilled in the fundamentals of geography (i.e. what’s on a map) in elementary school. If they have to be drilled on that in high school, it’s because they’re on a slow track (necessary for some). By high school, much of the student body should be on a voTech track with those on an academic track being schooled in something more sophisticated than where-is-it.
Art, I have no doubt that they could find “just as many”. Of course, it depends on the questions. For example: “How many oceans are there?” How would you answer that question? Way back in the deep mists of time, I was taught that there were five: Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic, and Antarctic. Some people, however, divide them differently: North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Pacific, South Pacific, Indian, Arctic, and Antarctic, for one example. Some were taught even differently from that. Is the Mediterranean an ocean or a sea? And how many “seas” are there? And what is the difference? Yeah, we could do this all day. (It could be fun.)
The stupid stuff is laughable. “What language do they speak in Great Britain?” It’s obvious they speak British. Right? Well, of course not. They speak English, but at age 14 I might have answered that way myself – especially if caught off guard on the street like that.
When we were young, we were ignorant in a lot of ways, and trust me, our parent’s and grand-parent’s generation laughed at us too. It’s fun to laugh at the ignorance of the younger generations, but I try not to do that too much. I always try to keep in mind that when I’m old and drooling in my Wheaties, these are the people that are going to be caring for me. (…kind of a scary thought eh.)
When I was in seventh grade I took up stamp collecting with a friend. I learned the countries of the world and, more or less, where they were located plus what the scripts of major languages looked like. From commemorative stamps I learned major people and events in history.
It was a great way to absorb knowledge without trying.
Sadly stamp collecting as a hobby has been in deep decline in the 21st century. Some combination of falling out of fashion and the proliferation of other, more exciting pastimes like videogames and the web being available.
Expat, that’s an interesting thought.
I remember when I was about six years old, my sister told me there was a country that looked just like a boot kicking a football. I was skeptical, but she showed me a map of Europe – which I didn’t even know existed at the time – and there it was – Italy and Sicily.
I then became fascinated by maps. I learned to read one early in my life. Back in the day, you could get free road maps from gas stations. I would go and get maps and explore nearby states and cities and my imagination took me there. To this very day, I *love* road trips.
One of my best Christmas presents ever, was a Rand McNally atlas of the world I got when I was nine. At one time, I could name and place every country in Europe and Asia. (Not any more. It’s too much of a moving target nowadays.)
In Paris I saw advertisements for a language school that taught the language “American”. Obviously they wanted to distinguish between American English and British English. In the right context, both “American” and “British” can be considered languages.
‘ “What language do they speak in Great Britain?” ‘
Heh, hey what language do they speak in Latin America?
(I believe the Lightgiver tried to enlighten us all on that one—unless it’s an urban legend, in which case me bad….)
– – – – – – – – – – –
Anyway, here’s Turley on Democratic party “topography”, so to speak (following a pyroclastic “event”…of the spiritual variety—no, that can’t be right; “spiritual”?…) https://jonathanturley.org/2022/02/15/media-vapors-how-special-counsel-john-durham-has-triggered-a-media-meltdown/
– – – – – – –
Huxley, I second your remarks vis a vis stamp collecting as a terrific way to learn about the world’s countries (and former countries & territories, etc.).
(Also found it was a great way to learn about colors and shades…not that I was all that interested in that aspect of stamps at the beginning—it came with looking at stamp catalogues—but the variegations of colors, and their names, was/is fascinating AND it helps develop one’s eye, assuming one isn’t color blind.)
“American” language.
Yes; similarly, there are English books—generally novels, I think—written by American authors and translated into French, that are characterized (in the French edition) as “Translated from the American”.
(Makes one wonder how they’d describe a book written in English by a Canadian author….)
Things change. Or at least the classifications do.
How many planets in our solar system?
Are Europe and Asia really different continents?
Are distinct biomes a critical part of the criteria for defining a continent?
Do the plate tectonics that did not exist as accepted in science in 1948 now come into defining continents? Isn’t there really just one world ocean?
What would your well educated grandmother or great grandmother have said in 1920 concerning the number of planets?
What would your father have said in 1950?
What is your 12 year old, being told today?
Is space a perfect vacuum? Are there canals on Mars?
Is gravity somehow related to the electromagnetic force? Is it a force?
All stuff you would read in a 6th grade science reader and be tested on as basic knowledge. And if you had a perfect recollection and were able to recite it 50 years later, you would be wrong.
(At this rate, there may not be any money left to fund Durham’s investigation!!…)
File under: ‘So you bas***** wanna’ make fun of “Biden”? laugh at Jill? go after Hillary? try to make us accountable?, eh? (And you probably think those truckers are pretty cool, don’t you?…)’
By the time we were the age of these kids we were supposed to be able to identify all the countries in the world on a map. This was in a NYC public school.
Heh, hey what language do they speak in Latin America?”
Yeah. But in a sense, the jokey answer would be right, with a provision two, after all. It being the educated, speaking a vulgar and provincially developed, or degenerated, Latin, or Roman.
There are interesting videos on YouTube concering to what extent Italians may be able to get Latin, or Spainards get Italian. Or most easily, Porugese, understand Spanish.
I wonder how much Romanian they could puzzle out if provided both a written and spoken text and given some time.
The ancient Greek to modern Greek comparisons are really interesting.
“…would be right…”
OK, but would they be speaking Ancient Latin or Modern Latin?….
– – – – – – – – – – –
Meanwhile, some excellent news from SF (no, not the SuperBowl):
“San Francisco recalls 3 school board members: ‘a clear message’;
“In San Francisco, one of nation’s most liberal cities, recall effort split Democrats” https://www.foxnews.com/us/san-francisco-recalls-school-board-members-clear-message
San Francisco….amazing. Unbelievable.
And so is it the “Youngkin effect”?
Is it, “Parents of the USA! UNITE…and rise up against the Democratic Party pervs who are trying to destroy your children AND your families (among many other things)! Fight the criminals who are lording it over you…before it’s too late!”?
(Neo posted about this not too long ago…)
At roughly the age of these kids I had a friend who did not know which side won the Civil War. She is now a fervent Bernie Sanders supporter. Anecdotal evidence, but I don’t really think it’s an accident.
By the time we were the age of these kids we were supposed to be able to identify all the countries in the world on a map. This was in a NYC public school.”
Sure. I remember seeing that map. There is Rhodesia, and there the Belgian Congo; and Ceylon, the Dominion of Canada, East Pakistan, The Federal Republic of Germany, the DDR, Czechoslovakia, Jugoslavia, the Spanish Sahara …
DNW, of course there are canals on Mars. Just ask John Carter.
And, yes your points are well taken.
Now, lets do Climate Change.
Barry, the UK and American editions of Harry Potter have different words, based on whether UK English or American English.
A mischievous classics classmate of mine became a teacher, including in his roster of notable Greeks Thales, Empedocles, Pericles, Themistocles…and Popsicles. “To see who — if anybody — was awake,” he explained
” with a prosivo or two …”
$%##$% hand held
In the right context, both “American” and “British” can be considered languages.
Two comments: 1) George Bernard Shaw’s well-known remark that the UK and the US are two countries divided by a common language. 2) During the Battle of the Bulge, an SS officer named Otto Skorzeny directed Operation Greif, a spy-and-sabotage operation in which German soldiers infiltrated Allied lines by using their opponents’ uniforms, equipment, language, and customs. Some of Skorzeny’s men were caught (and summarily lined up in front of firing squads) because they slipped up on the differences between British and American usages or were unfamiliar with British and American popular culture. One man wearing an American uniform made the mistake of asking an American GI for the location of the nearest “petrol dump.” Another was unmasked when he couldn’t tell the MP at a checkpoint who won the 1944 World Series; any genuine American soldier would have yelled, “The St. Louis Cardinals!”
For a time Bill Gates had a map of the world on the ceiling of his bedroom so he could refresh his memory of countries and their geographic locations before he retired to sleep.
It’s a bummer that P.J. O’Rourke become somewhat of a Never Trumper in his final years. I certainly enjoyed a lot of his writing back in the day, in particular “Parliment of Whores” and “Eat the Rich”.
“If you think healthcare is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free.”
“The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work and then they get elected and prove it.”
“There is no virtue in compulsory government charity, and there is no virtue in advocating it. A politician who portrays himself as ‘caring’ and ‘sensitive’ because he wants to expand the government’s charitable programs is merely saying that he’s willing to try to do good with other people’s money. Well, who isn’t?”
I was always excited when the National Geographic for the month included a map.
When X-boy was born in 1986, the first gift I bought him was a world map published by a Swedish map maker with non rip paper printed with wonderful vivid colors. It was about 2×3 feet in dimension. quite large. I mounted it in his play room just above the floor base board so that it was at eye level as he first crawled and later was able to stand. As he grew, he knew all the countries of the world by heart and is now happily what the Germans would call a ” Weltbummler”. It helps to start young.
Huxley, regarding stamp collecting. I started at a very early age and was magically transported to all the corners of earth by my collection. I tried, unsuccessfully to interest X- boy – but no luck. It is sad the the youth of today do not experience the joy of travelling to other countries though stamps. I am now planning to donate some of my collection to local schools to start stamp collection clubs – but it will be an uphill struggle for the reasons you state.
Chases Eagles; me too…I have a large collection of NG maps. After many years of not looking at NG, I glanced at a recent issue. What a disappointment! It has really fallen of the mark of what it once was.
I think a few of the questions were tricky. “Great Britain” used to be the Kingdom, but now really refers to the Island. And while the English from England live on Great Britain, so do the Welsh and Scots. But today the country is the United Kingdom, to include Northern Ireland, which is on that other island.
Amsterdam can be a fun discussion, because older people will say Holland, and in fact Amsterdam is in North Holland province, but the nation is called the Netherlands. The people are called Dutch, which doesn’t seem to derive from either Holland or Netherlands.
And people from Denmark are called Nordic, however Nordic people live in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, and even Iceland.
So those questions aren’t very straight forward, and that is before we get to the Roy’s point about tallest vs highest mountain.
Now to avoid the temptation to play Crusader Kings.
Speaking of different language’s; long ago I traveled Europe with a friend of mine.
Using my lousy Spanish and French, we were able to get by in Italy, France, Spain and Portugal.
My friend could speak some Yiddish; so in Germany, Austria we got by with that. Only one person in those nations ever questioned my friend about him speaking Yiddish; most thought he was speaking lousy German.
While in Spain (Barcelona, I believe) I heard for the first time Catalon. At that time I never knew that language even existed. I asked someone for directions, and they responded in Catalon. It sounded like Spanish – sort of; but I had no idea what on earth was being said; it was hopeless.
Which reminds me of reading Shakespeare; you pretty much know what each word in isolation means – it is English after all – but when you string them all
together in a sentence or phrase, you have no idea what on earth is being said .
As you can imagine, Shakespeare was not my strong suit.
While in France, at a town’s tourist help place, the French gal there spoke perfect, unaccented English (with a slight Irish tinge) ; she had gone to university in Ireland.
I asked her why the French – despite studying being required to study English at school for about 10 years – could not speak English.
Her response; ” I do not know.”
Anybody notice that when you go to Europe, the RR stations have signs in several languages; the mother tongue of the nation and oft times as well German, French and English.
You will NEVER see Spanish.
I could never figure that one out.
Huxley, I have my stamp collection from my childhood and early teens. I’m not sure what to do with it now. I really doubt that it has the value it once had for exactly the reasons you stated. I also had many foreign stamps that also helped me recognize a country by the name the natives use. It contains a mint sheet of Dag Hammarskjold misprints, quite a few mint condition air mail stamps, and some first day of issues.
Same thing with records. I have an extensive collection of 78s, but no one wants them anymore as the Greatest Generation has died off. Now the hot item is 60s LPs as us Boomers are now collecting them. As soon as we head out, those will also go by the wayside.
No wonder the Left is so confident about their takeover.
NeoConScum:
What we see on the video is the result of their takeover that happened quite some time ago. I believe that video was made around 2010, and those are high school students being interviewed.
Well, this is depressing…
Related to the topic I thought I’d share that one of the Little Fireflies was a geography-whiz as a boy (still is). Made it to the State competition several times in grammar school and even the national competition once; the National Geographic Geobee. I went to the web to share a link to it and it is, sadly, after a 33 year run, now defunct.
Why did the National Geographic Society choose to permanently discontinue the GeoBee?
While we are proud of the National Geographic GeoBee’s 33-year legacy, we believe that this moment presents an opportunity to reimagine geography education and empower young people around the world as solution-seekers to confront our century’s most pressing challenges. In addition to the drop in GeoBee registration in 2020, important shifts—from the COVID-19 pandemic to an increased focus on racial injustice (RFT: “You just knew that was coming, didn’t you…)—challenge us to find new, transformative, meaningful ways to engage young people globally in geography.
Must these rapacious tyrants destroy every vestige of anything noble young people may aspire to? They are like a plague of locusts drawn to swarm on and consume anything pure, noble and good.
Ummm, JohnTyler… You owe your daughter an apology. 😉
As we touched on in the German language thread, Germans call their own nation the English equivalent of “Dutchland,” and refer to their own language, the language we call “German” as “Deutsch” = “Dutch.” Guess what the German word is for the language the people we call Dutch is?
When I left the big city to travel downstate and attend college the friends I made who grew up on farms quickly realized how astoundingly ignorant I was of nature and they would often hold up leaves or point to plants and ask me what I thought their names were, then laugh hysterically at my reply.
One day while eating in the cafeteria one such friend held up a marshmallow and asked, “Hey, Rufus. Where do marshmallows come from?” I looked at the marshmallow he held in his fingers and thought to myself, “Well, marshmallows don’t have much protection, so they probably don’t grow under or on the ground. But trees seem to produce bigger things like apples and oranges…” “I don’t know,” I stated, “Maybe bushes?”
That got an enormous laugh! And, unfortunately, I was serious. Later I saw a taffy pulling machine in a store window and pieced it together. As I have told my children many times; my ignorance could fill volumes!
expat,
We used mats like that, as well as large puzzles with our kids. We also put various, educational place mats under their plates so they might pick up some knowledge when eating!
Germans used to call the Dutch language, “Hollandish.” I have also heard, “Niederlandish.” Has this changed?
Rufus Firefly;
OMG !
My o my; who knew.
Live and learn.
Wait till I tell my daughter !!!
I will never hear the end of it.
Anyway, speaking of Deutsch, my wife’s grandparents spoke Plattdeutsch. They were originally from NW Germany, not to far from the Dutch border.
Roy @ 11:49am,
The Brits I worked with in England were always very specific when referring to my language as, “American English.” If Jay Leno asked one of them what language is spoken in America they would not reply, “English.”
huxley @ 11:54am,
I know nothing of philatelic, but isn’t the near complete absence of physical mail a major contributor to its drop off as a hobby?
(The links are to two snippets from a children’s cartoon show, the Animaniacs. One is a song with all the nations of the world and the other is U.S. states and their capitals. If you’ve never seen them give the links a click. You geographers will appreciate them.)
Barry Meislin,
I thought the Light Giver gaffe was claiming Austrians speak Austrian?
The first Potter book title is unique to America only, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” The publisher, Scholastic, assumed American children wouldn’t know the history of the search for the “Philosopher’s Stone” and its use in alchemy.
Unfortunately, Scholastic is undoubtedly correct in their underestimation.
Hmmm. Well, as I said, “Me bad”…
(So, maybe it was Dubya who said it?)
– – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Well, never mind. It’s time for la plaisanterie du jour (AKA blague post?):
“Schumer says GOP are not offering solutions to fight inflation”— https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/schumer-gop-not-offering-solutions-fight-inflation
Ah…that Chuckie’s SUCH a kidder!
“Schumer says GOP are not offering solutions to fight inflation”—
There is one solution: control the rate of growth of monetary aggregates. The question at hand is why the Federal Reserve Board (most of whose members were Trump appointees last I checked) is not doing that.
I have my father’s very large stamp collection. He died in 1999. We stuck the boxes in a closet, and about twelve years later looked into what the collections were worth. Answer: Face value. So I will probably never buy another stamp in my life. I have fun using old stamps and wondering what the recipients think of them.
I still don’t know if Russia will invade Ukraine, all or part or not at all. But right on schedule, Thomas Friedman has an op-ed about how the wonderful Joe Biden faced up to Putin and won:
To all you lovers of old maps, I bought something really cool not long ago – a globe from the early 1930’s. I put in a guest bedroom decorated with furniture and travel posters from the same era. I love looking at it. They’re not that expensive, and reasonably easy to find.
“…Spanish…”
Condescending, no doubt, since Spanish may well be second only to Chinese when it comes to having the most first-language speakers, globally. (Or maybe it’s in third place. Could be wrong about that—look at all those languages in India—anyway, it’s right up there.)
That is, there are more people who speak English globally—but most of them speak it as either a second language (ESL) or foreign language (EFL).
(On the other hand, Spanish speakers do fine with either Portuguese or Italian, if less so with French or Romanian.)
Brings to mind the Picasso Museum in Barcelona, which when I visited about 12 or so years back, had its painting titles and descriptions in three languages: Catalan (OK), Spanish (OK) and….Chinese (HUH? well, um…OK). But NOTHING in English. (OTOH Picasso can be pretty inscrutable at the best of times…but I found it surprising.) Maybe it was a political statement, or maybe they just ran out of ink.
I found the museum, housed in a former residence of his, as being a bit of a disappointment, though, cashing in on the Picasso name but not being terribly interesting or unusual—to this museum-goer, at least. Maybe the Chinese got a kick out of it, though….
huxley @ 1:11pm,
I heard a similar story about the inside of Gates’ garage door. Why waste the 10 seconds or so waiting for the door to open when one could be learning?
I did similar things with my bedroom ceiling as a boy. Learned the Presidents of the U.S. that way and the 88 constellations and their brightest stars, the Greek alphabet…
“…control the rate of growth of monetary aggregates.”
OK, except that they’re printing greenbacks like it’s going out of style.
Gosh, wonder why they’re doing that? (Any other “wonder whys” while we’re at it?)
Well, dollars to donuts, it’s all part of Bust Back Better…and everybody has got to get their cut—since the Democrats are tremendously loyal to their friends!…
(But “Republicans aren’t offering any solutions”…)
JohnTyler,
Regarding Spanish, first, I have nothing against it. I’ve studied it, think it’s a beautiful language and listen to Latin Jazz more than any other music. However, I know of no other country that requires the “learned” class to learn the language of the immigrant, working class. The McDonalds in Singapore doesn’t have Tagalog on its menu. You don’t see the Turkish word for “pull” on the entrance door to Aldis in Frankfurt.
The working class typically strives to learn the language of the learned class. Yet I, like most American High School students, was encouraged to learn Spanish because our nation borders Mexico. Japanese or Mandarin would have served me better, financially.
neo,
One of those same, College friends sent me the spaghetti harvest video when it was uploaded to youtube. When I was 18 I would have believed it!
When I was 21 my Italian teacher taught me how to make spaghetti from scratch. Much easier than gathering it in an orchard!
Rufus,
My Italian wife is in total shock!
On the surface – because it’s ultra-blue San Francisco – this seems like a surprising development:
SF is like Seattle – it elects ultra-blue muni fonctionaires out of voter disengagement and media disinformation, but when the voters’ kids run into the consequences, they wake up and take belated action. London Breed has gotten herself quoted with a few lines against other consequences of the ultra-blues, and they may serve as smokescreens. But she’s as blue as the rest of them, and after all the non-prosections of the resident (and opportunist out-of-town) barbarians, she should be on the block as well.
I haven’t set foot on an airplane in nearly five years. Are they this horrid as a matter of course? (And has anyone ever heard of this airline?).
Rufus @ 3:17 pm:
Eswatini!
@ArtDeco:
Whypeepo Country Airlines are invariably but not uniformly awful. This is a problem. Clearly this awfulness is in need of standardization and regulation.
One day while eating in the cafeteria one such friend held up a marshmallow and asked, “Hey, Rufus. Where do marshmallows come from?” I looked at the marshmallow he held in his fingers and thought to myself, “Well, marshmallows don’t have much protection, so they probably don’t grow under or on the ground. But trees seem to produce bigger things like apples and oranges…” “I don’t know,” I stated, “Maybe bushes?”
But if someone threw The Wanderer at you and asked you what it said, I doubt that any of us could make sense of it without at least 3 weeks of study.
Speaking of wanderers, I keep waiting for one of the history channels on YouTube to cover the great migration of Saxon nobility that took place after the Normans really settled in.
I had read that some had left England, but I had no idea of the many thousands who departed in fleets for Constantinople, some of whom built a colony on the Black Sea.
Quite a story. Hell of a thing to lose your country and to become so wretched.
Rufio,
Just so you know, I’m not yet certain that that is the same work I found back in the stacks in school.
As it has Mercian and Northumbrian dialects, it might be.
As I recall, the texts were printed in parallel.
Just now found the one which I linked to above.
Oh Geez, it’s got to be the same book.
Page 68 of the archive window. (not the text)
“On anginne aerest waes word …”
It don’t have the keyboard set up to do eth or thorn or the old monkish “and” sign
Wow. Sometimes the Internet is worth more than can be easily stated.
DNW,
That’s amazing! You made my day! I just texted that link to my college friend who mocked me all those years ago. Turns out I was right! Think he’ll apologize?
DNW, “Sometimes the Internet is worth more than can be easily stated.”
Yes!
… and yet… I was thinking about this today when reading all the comments on this post.
So many of us had hours and hours of fun as kids and adolescents poring over physical maps, stamps, almanacs, encyclopedias, Chilton’s automobile manuals with their exploded diagrams of automobile parts, the Old Farmer’s Almanac, dictionaries, the Funk and Wagnall’s, the Book of World Records… Something very visceral and tangible about it.
When knowledge is too easy to discover is it cheapened?
“The Russian Foreign Ministry has called on Western media outlets to publish a full list of dates on which Russia will invade Ukraine for the year ahead, so Russian diplomats can schedule their vacations accordingly.
When knowledge is too easy to discover is it cheapened?
Rufus T. Firefly:
I would separate convenience from physicality.
I love being able to check the definition of a word or the year a book was published with a few clicks, instead of trudging over to a heavy old dictionary or encyclopedia, prising it open, then flipping pages until the proper nugget of information is revealed.
You’ll have to pry my mouse from my cold dead fingers on that account.
However, the sensory joys of physical books, magazines, and whatnot cannot be underestimated. We live in a physical world in physical bodies. We are not digital beings existing in cyberspace and interacting with virtual objects.
It matters.
Lately I’ve been going through the old paperbacks I’ve been lugging around. Some I read in high school. They are nothing special. They are old Ballantine, Dell, Signet mass market paperbacks I paid a buck or two for back then.
Now they are fifty years old and falling apart. I don’t want to buy new copies, assuming I could. I’m happy to repair them by wrapping the covers and spine in clear packing tape, so they’ll last another decade or two.
I’ve come up with my own technique and it’s a small, pleasant ritual to restore my old books this way.
Some Invasion Day trolling from the Russian Embassy in Pretoria:
My daughter’s favorite map is a neon-colored shower curtain showing the world before the end of the Cold War. I’ve asked her several times if she is going to replace it, but she loves it.
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Majored in Geography because by the time I declared it was too far down the line to add on prerequisites to do IT or Engineering, but loaded up on statistics and math anyway. Graduated in ’73.
Always fascinated by computer mapping, which is now GIS.
Was surprised that the major is still around, and grads do second best among Social Sciences behind Economics. Probably related to GIS employability.
Geography: sad, but not in the least surprising given the state of the K-12 system.
Many years ago, I briefly had my very much younger kid sister convinced that North Dorado and South Dorado were states, as I helpfully reviewed the names of our 50 with her.
The names almost do sound like states if you say them quickly. I was less successful in thinking up other plausible state names: Newtah, and Okasaw just not having the same plausible ring.
The same problem used to occur when filmmakers had to make up plausible names for Himalayan micro states.
But sometimes as they say in another context, “you just cannot make this s##t up” successfully … despite your best efforts.
Showing her somewhat older (at 8 years of age) sister, what was for her a never before seen or smelled large black walnut in its husk, I – casting about for a comically ridiculous but believable sounding made-up name – solemnly informed her it was a very rare treat called a Peruvian Custard Apple.
And then ceremoniously placed it in the freezer compartment of the refrigerator where it needed to be kept in order “to ripen properly.”
I am absolutely certain that at 19 I had never heard of any such thing as a custard apple, much less one from the presumably sterile heights of a rocky and barren Peru.
But damned if it didn’t turn out that there was such a thing.
I’m half convinced that you could probably not easily make up a name that has not already been applied to something.
Gobi Desert dew berry? Ural mountain golden cherry tree? Variegated civet cat?
Wouldn’t be at all surprised if there were such blasted things.
Geography , Yes
AND
Basic Economic
Mathematics
and History
When my daughter was young, I would play geography games with her.
I would ask her questions of the sort, “in which continent is Chile located?” as an example.
Of course, she was young, and would answer the above, “Africa?”
I would crack-up laughing, and then provide the correct answer, which prompted us to discuss geography stuff.
The funniest one I recall was when I asked her “what language do they speak in Holland?” She said “Hollandish?”
I really cracked up at that one.
To this day, many years later, I still remind her of that one. Yea, she laughs at that one too.
I was embarrassed for those kids, but always keep in mind that in video’s like this, they get to pick and choose. If the kid answered quickly and correctly, they didn’t make the cut. I wonder just how many they had to go through to get these few.
Also, Jay Leno, technically, got one of the answers incorrect as well. The *tallest* mountain in the world is not Everest. Everest is the *highest* mountain. The tallest mountain is Mauna Kea on Hawaii. Measured from its submarine base in the Hawaiian Trough to its peak, Mauna Kea has a combined height of approximately 33,000 feet of which about 13,800 feet are above sea level. (If you are looking for snow on Hawaii, the top of this mountain is where it can be found.)
One other thing…
If the roles were reversed, that is a younger person these kids age, interviewing an older person Jay Leno’s age (…or older), using the same video editing techniques, they could find just as many ignorant folks to laugh at.
Roy, right on both counts. I certainly could not answer “how many Oceans” off the top of my head. And, there are more than Seven Seas.
You can get scrunch maps for kids so they can lie on the floor and learn a little geography. If this were followed up by parents on things from different areas the kids find interesting (animals, food,etc.), they might turn off their phones and start to learn.
BTW, here in Germany, they use, Dutch and Niederlandish. We have a store about a block from me where tulips and other plants not sold in the big commercial markets are sold at discount prices. They get deliveries around lunch time every day. The call themselves the Hollanders.
OMT, when is Jay gonna interview Brandon?
they could find just as many ignorant folks to laugh at.
I wouldn’t doubt they could find enough to fill their quota. Not sure about ‘just as many’.
Geography: sad, but not in the least surprising given the state of the K-12 system.
The young should be drilled in the fundamentals of geography (i.e. what’s on a map) in elementary school. If they have to be drilled on that in high school, it’s because they’re on a slow track (necessary for some). By high school, much of the student body should be on a voTech track with those on an academic track being schooled in something more sophisticated than where-is-it.
Art, I have no doubt that they could find “just as many”. Of course, it depends on the questions. For example: “How many oceans are there?” How would you answer that question? Way back in the deep mists of time, I was taught that there were five: Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic, and Antarctic. Some people, however, divide them differently: North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Pacific, South Pacific, Indian, Arctic, and Antarctic, for one example. Some were taught even differently from that. Is the Mediterranean an ocean or a sea? And how many “seas” are there? And what is the difference? Yeah, we could do this all day. (It could be fun.)
The stupid stuff is laughable. “What language do they speak in Great Britain?” It’s obvious they speak British. Right? Well, of course not. They speak English, but at age 14 I might have answered that way myself – especially if caught off guard on the street like that.
When we were young, we were ignorant in a lot of ways, and trust me, our parent’s and grand-parent’s generation laughed at us too. It’s fun to laugh at the ignorance of the younger generations, but I try not to do that too much. I always try to keep in mind that when I’m old and drooling in my Wheaties, these are the people that are going to be caring for me. (…kind of a scary thought eh.)
When I was in seventh grade I took up stamp collecting with a friend. I learned the countries of the world and, more or less, where they were located plus what the scripts of major languages looked like. From commemorative stamps I learned major people and events in history.
It was a great way to absorb knowledge without trying.
Sadly stamp collecting as a hobby has been in deep decline in the 21st century. Some combination of falling out of fashion and the proliferation of other, more exciting pastimes like videogames and the web being available.
Expat, that’s an interesting thought.
I remember when I was about six years old, my sister told me there was a country that looked just like a boot kicking a football. I was skeptical, but she showed me a map of Europe – which I didn’t even know existed at the time – and there it was – Italy and Sicily.
I then became fascinated by maps. I learned to read one early in my life. Back in the day, you could get free road maps from gas stations. I would go and get maps and explore nearby states and cities and my imagination took me there. To this very day, I *love* road trips.
One of my best Christmas presents ever, was a Rand McNally atlas of the world I got when I was nine. At one time, I could name and place every country in Europe and Asia. (Not any more. It’s too much of a moving target nowadays.)
In Paris I saw advertisements for a language school that taught the language “American”. Obviously they wanted to distinguish between American English and British English. In the right context, both “American” and “British” can be considered languages.
‘ “What language do they speak in Great Britain?” ‘
Heh, hey what language do they speak in Latin America?
(I believe the Lightgiver tried to enlighten us all on that one—unless it’s an urban legend, in which case me bad….)
– – – – – – – – – – –
Anyway, here’s Turley on Democratic party “topography”, so to speak (following a pyroclastic “event”…of the spiritual variety—no, that can’t be right; “spiritual”?…)
https://jonathanturley.org/2022/02/15/media-vapors-how-special-counsel-john-durham-has-triggered-a-media-meltdown/
– – – – – – –
Huxley, I second your remarks vis a vis stamp collecting as a terrific way to learn about the world’s countries (and former countries & territories, etc.).
(Also found it was a great way to learn about colors and shades…not that I was all that interested in that aspect of stamps at the beginning—it came with looking at stamp catalogues—but the variegations of colors, and their names, was/is fascinating AND it helps develop one’s eye, assuming one isn’t color blind.)
“American” language.
Yes; similarly, there are English books—generally novels, I think—written by American authors and translated into French, that are characterized (in the French edition) as “Translated from the American”.
(Makes one wonder how they’d describe a book written in English by a Canadian author….)
Things change. Or at least the classifications do.
How many planets in our solar system?
Are Europe and Asia really different continents?
Are distinct biomes a critical part of the criteria for defining a continent?
Do the plate tectonics that did not exist as accepted in science in 1948 now come into defining continents? Isn’t there really just one world ocean?
What would your well educated grandmother or great grandmother have said in 1920 concerning the number of planets?
What would your father have said in 1950?
What is your 12 year old, being told today?
Is space a perfect vacuum? Are there canals on Mars?
Is gravity somehow related to the electromagnetic force? Is it a force?
All stuff you would read in a 6th grade science reader and be tested on as basic knowledge. And if you had a perfect recollection and were able to recite it 50 years later, you would be wrong.
And about those peaceful astronomers the Maya …
Meanwhile…the erstwhile destroyers of America are showing some remarkable ingenuity:
“5 New Numbers That Prove That America’s Horrifying Inflation Crisis Is Getting Even Worse”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/5-new-numbers-prove-americas-horrifying-inflation-crisis-getting-even-worse
(At this rate, there may not be any money left to fund Durham’s investigation!!…)
File under: ‘So you bas***** wanna’ make fun of “Biden”? laugh at Jill? go after Hillary? try to make us accountable?, eh? (And you probably think those truckers are pretty cool, don’t you?…)’
By the time we were the age of these kids we were supposed to be able to identify all the countries in the world on a map. This was in a NYC public school.
Yeah. But in a sense, the jokey answer would be right, with a provision two, after all. It being the educated, speaking a vulgar and provincially developed, or degenerated, Latin, or Roman.
There are interesting videos on YouTube concering to what extent Italians may be able to get Latin, or Spainards get Italian. Or most easily, Porugese, understand Spanish.
I wonder how much Romanian they could puzzle out if provided both a written and spoken text and given some time.
The ancient Greek to modern Greek comparisons are really interesting.
“…would be right…”
OK, but would they be speaking Ancient Latin or Modern Latin?….
– – – – – – – – – – –
Meanwhile, some excellent news from SF (no, not the SuperBowl):
“San Francisco recalls 3 school board members: ‘a clear message’;
“In San Francisco, one of nation’s most liberal cities, recall effort split Democrats”
https://www.foxnews.com/us/san-francisco-recalls-school-board-members-clear-message
San Francisco….amazing. Unbelievable.
And so is it the “Youngkin effect”?
Is it, “Parents of the USA! UNITE…and rise up against the Democratic Party pervs who are trying to destroy your children AND your families (among many other things)! Fight the criminals who are lording it over you…before it’s too late!”?
(Neo posted about this not too long ago…)
At roughly the age of these kids I had a friend who did not know which side won the Civil War. She is now a fervent Bernie Sanders supporter. Anecdotal evidence, but I don’t really think it’s an accident.
Sure. I remember seeing that map. There is Rhodesia, and there the Belgian Congo; and Ceylon, the Dominion of Canada, East Pakistan, The Federal Republic of Germany, the DDR, Czechoslovakia, Jugoslavia, the Spanish Sahara …
DNW, of course there are canals on Mars. Just ask John Carter.
And, yes your points are well taken.
Now, lets do Climate Change.
Barry, the UK and American editions of Harry Potter have different words, based on whether UK English or American English.
A mischievous classics classmate of mine became a teacher, including in his roster of notable Greeks Thales, Empedocles, Pericles, Themistocles…and Popsicles. “To see who — if anybody — was awake,” he explained
” with a prosivo or two …”
$%##$% hand held
In the right context, both “American” and “British” can be considered languages.
Two comments: 1) George Bernard Shaw’s well-known remark that the UK and the US are two countries divided by a common language. 2) During the Battle of the Bulge, an SS officer named Otto Skorzeny directed Operation Greif, a spy-and-sabotage operation in which German soldiers infiltrated Allied lines by using their opponents’ uniforms, equipment, language, and customs. Some of Skorzeny’s men were caught (and summarily lined up in front of firing squads) because they slipped up on the differences between British and American usages or were unfamiliar with British and American popular culture. One man wearing an American uniform made the mistake of asking an American GI for the location of the nearest “petrol dump.” Another was unmasked when he couldn’t tell the MP at a checkpoint who won the 1944 World Series; any genuine American soldier would have yelled, “The St. Louis Cardinals!”
For a time Bill Gates had a map of the world on the ceiling of his bedroom so he could refresh his memory of countries and their geographic locations before he retired to sleep.
It’s a bummer that P.J. O’Rourke become somewhat of a Never Trumper in his final years. I certainly enjoyed a lot of his writing back in the day, in particular “Parliment of Whores” and “Eat the Rich”.
Here’s some great quotes of his:
“If you think healthcare is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free.”
“The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work and then they get elected and prove it.”
“There is no virtue in compulsory government charity, and there is no virtue in advocating it. A politician who portrays himself as ‘caring’ and ‘sensitive’ because he wants to expand the government’s charitable programs is merely saying that he’s willing to try to do good with other people’s money. Well, who isn’t?”
I was always excited when the National Geographic for the month included a map.
When X-boy was born in 1986, the first gift I bought him was a world map published by a Swedish map maker with non rip paper printed with wonderful vivid colors. It was about 2×3 feet in dimension. quite large. I mounted it in his play room just above the floor base board so that it was at eye level as he first crawled and later was able to stand. As he grew, he knew all the countries of the world by heart and is now happily what the Germans would call a ” Weltbummler”. It helps to start young.
Huxley, regarding stamp collecting. I started at a very early age and was magically transported to all the corners of earth by my collection. I tried, unsuccessfully to interest X- boy – but no luck. It is sad the the youth of today do not experience the joy of travelling to other countries though stamps. I am now planning to donate some of my collection to local schools to start stamp collection clubs – but it will be an uphill struggle for the reasons you state.
Chases Eagles; me too…I have a large collection of NG maps. After many years of not looking at NG, I glanced at a recent issue. What a disappointment! It has really fallen of the mark of what it once was.
I think a few of the questions were tricky. “Great Britain” used to be the Kingdom, but now really refers to the Island. And while the English from England live on Great Britain, so do the Welsh and Scots. But today the country is the United Kingdom, to include Northern Ireland, which is on that other island.
Amsterdam can be a fun discussion, because older people will say Holland, and in fact Amsterdam is in North Holland province, but the nation is called the Netherlands. The people are called Dutch, which doesn’t seem to derive from either Holland or Netherlands.
And people from Denmark are called Nordic, however Nordic people live in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, and even Iceland.
So those questions aren’t very straight forward, and that is before we get to the Roy’s point about tallest vs highest mountain.
Now to avoid the temptation to play Crusader Kings.
Speaking of different language’s; long ago I traveled Europe with a friend of mine.
Using my lousy Spanish and French, we were able to get by in Italy, France, Spain and Portugal.
My friend could speak some Yiddish; so in Germany, Austria we got by with that. Only one person in those nations ever questioned my friend about him speaking Yiddish; most thought he was speaking lousy German.
While in Spain (Barcelona, I believe) I heard for the first time Catalon. At that time I never knew that language even existed. I asked someone for directions, and they responded in Catalon. It sounded like Spanish – sort of; but I had no idea what on earth was being said; it was hopeless.
Which reminds me of reading Shakespeare; you pretty much know what each word in isolation means – it is English after all – but when you string them all
together in a sentence or phrase, you have no idea what on earth is being said .
As you can imagine, Shakespeare was not my strong suit.
While in France, at a town’s tourist help place, the French gal there spoke perfect, unaccented English (with a slight Irish tinge) ; she had gone to university in Ireland.
I asked her why the French – despite studying being required to study English at school for about 10 years – could not speak English.
Her response; ” I do not know.”
Anybody notice that when you go to Europe, the RR stations have signs in several languages; the mother tongue of the nation and oft times as well German, French and English.
You will NEVER see Spanish.
I could never figure that one out.
Huxley, I have my stamp collection from my childhood and early teens. I’m not sure what to do with it now. I really doubt that it has the value it once had for exactly the reasons you stated. I also had many foreign stamps that also helped me recognize a country by the name the natives use. It contains a mint sheet of Dag Hammarskjold misprints, quite a few mint condition air mail stamps, and some first day of issues.
Same thing with records. I have an extensive collection of 78s, but no one wants them anymore as the Greatest Generation has died off. Now the hot item is 60s LPs as us Boomers are now collecting them. As soon as we head out, those will also go by the wayside.
No wonder the Left is so confident about their takeover.
NeoConScum:
What we see on the video is the result of their takeover that happened quite some time ago. I believe that video was made around 2010, and those are high school students being interviewed.
Well, this is depressing…
Related to the topic I thought I’d share that one of the Little Fireflies was a geography-whiz as a boy (still is). Made it to the State competition several times in grammar school and even the national competition once; the National Geographic Geobee. I went to the web to share a link to it and it is, sadly, after a 33 year run, now defunct.
From the website (bolding mine): https://www.nationalgeographic.org/education/student-experiences/geobee/
Must these rapacious tyrants destroy every vestige of anything noble young people may aspire to? They are like a plague of locusts drawn to swarm on and consume anything pure, noble and good.
Ummm, JohnTyler… You owe your daughter an apology. 😉
As we touched on in the German language thread, Germans call their own nation the English equivalent of “Dutchland,” and refer to their own language, the language we call “German” as “Deutsch” = “Dutch.” Guess what the German word is for the language the people we call Dutch is?
Hollandish.
It’s also the English term for the most spoken Dutch dialect, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollandic_dialect#:~:text=Hollandic%20or%20Hollandish%20%28Dutch%3A%20Hollands%20%5B%CB%88%C9%A6%C9%94l%C9%91nts%5D%29%20is%20the,Flemish%20%28East%20Flemish%2C%20West%20Flemish%29%2C%20Zeelandic%20and%20Limburgish.
DNW @ 10:21am,
When I left the big city to travel downstate and attend college the friends I made who grew up on farms quickly realized how astoundingly ignorant I was of nature and they would often hold up leaves or point to plants and ask me what I thought their names were, then laugh hysterically at my reply.
One day while eating in the cafeteria one such friend held up a marshmallow and asked, “Hey, Rufus. Where do marshmallows come from?” I looked at the marshmallow he held in his fingers and thought to myself, “Well, marshmallows don’t have much protection, so they probably don’t grow under or on the ground. But trees seem to produce bigger things like apples and oranges…” “I don’t know,” I stated, “Maybe bushes?”
That got an enormous laugh! And, unfortunately, I was serious. Later I saw a taffy pulling machine in a store window and pieced it together. As I have told my children many times; my ignorance could fill volumes!
expat,
We used mats like that, as well as large puzzles with our kids. We also put various, educational place mats under their plates so they might pick up some knowledge when eating!
Germans used to call the Dutch language, “Hollandish.” I have also heard, “Niederlandish.” Has this changed?
Rufus Firefly;
OMG !
My o my; who knew.
Live and learn.
Wait till I tell my daughter !!!
I will never hear the end of it.
Anyway, speaking of Deutsch, my wife’s grandparents spoke Plattdeutsch. They were originally from NW Germany, not to far from the Dutch border.
Roy @ 11:49am,
The Brits I worked with in England were always very specific when referring to my language as, “American English.” If Jay Leno asked one of them what language is spoken in America they would not reply, “English.”
huxley @ 11:54am,
I know nothing of philatelic, but isn’t the near complete absence of physical mail a major contributor to its drop off as a hobby?
Roy @ 12:08pm,
If you want a moving target try Africa!
We played this, https://youtu.be/V1508wboZXk
And this,
on long car rides with our kids.https://youtu.be/bx6c_EefZAQ
Last I checked they all could still sing the second from memory.
(The links are to two snippets from a children’s cartoon show, the Animaniacs. One is a song with all the nations of the world and the other is U.S. states and their capitals. If you’ve never seen them give the links a click. You geographers will appreciate them.)
Barry Meislin,
I thought the Light Giver gaffe was claiming Austrians speak Austrian?
Rufus T. Firefly:
The spaghetti harvest.
DNW @ 12:57pm,
How about Americans and Chaucer or Beowulf?
SHIREHOME,
The first Potter book title is unique to America only, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” The publisher, Scholastic, assumed American children wouldn’t know the history of the search for the “Philosopher’s Stone” and its use in alchemy.
Unfortunately, Scholastic is undoubtedly correct in their underestimation.
Hmmm. Well, as I said, “Me bad”…
(So, maybe it was Dubya who said it?)
– – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Well, never mind. It’s time for la plaisanterie du jour (AKA blague post?):
“Schumer says GOP are not offering solutions to fight inflation”—
https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/schumer-gop-not-offering-solutions-fight-inflation
Ah…that Chuckie’s SUCH a kidder!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2S_a5ExLZ8
William Conrad is under-rated.
“Schumer says GOP are not offering solutions to fight inflation”—
There is one solution: control the rate of growth of monetary aggregates. The question at hand is why the Federal Reserve Board (most of whose members were Trump appointees last I checked) is not doing that.
I have my father’s very large stamp collection. He died in 1999. We stuck the boxes in a closet, and about twelve years later looked into what the collections were worth. Answer: Face value. So I will probably never buy another stamp in my life. I have fun using old stamps and wondering what the recipients think of them.
I still don’t know if Russia will invade Ukraine, all or part or not at all. But right on schedule, Thomas Friedman has an op-ed about how the wonderful Joe Biden faced up to Putin and won:
https://www.wral.com/is-sleepy-joe-biden-making-vladimir-putin-blink/20141011/
To all you lovers of old maps, I bought something really cool not long ago – a globe from the early 1930’s. I put in a guest bedroom decorated with furniture and travel posters from the same era. I love looking at it. They’re not that expensive, and reasonably easy to find.
“…Spanish…”
Condescending, no doubt, since Spanish may well be second only to Chinese when it comes to having the most first-language speakers, globally. (Or maybe it’s in third place. Could be wrong about that—look at all those languages in India—anyway, it’s right up there.)
That is, there are more people who speak English globally—but most of them speak it as either a second language (ESL) or foreign language (EFL).
(On the other hand, Spanish speakers do fine with either Portuguese or Italian, if less so with French or Romanian.)
Brings to mind the Picasso Museum in Barcelona, which when I visited about 12 or so years back, had its painting titles and descriptions in three languages: Catalan (OK), Spanish (OK) and….Chinese (HUH? well, um…OK). But NOTHING in English. (OTOH Picasso can be pretty inscrutable at the best of times…but I found it surprising.) Maybe it was a political statement, or maybe they just ran out of ink.
I found the museum, housed in a former residence of his, as being a bit of a disappointment, though, cashing in on the Picasso name but not being terribly interesting or unusual—to this museum-goer, at least. Maybe the Chinese got a kick out of it, though….
huxley @ 1:11pm,
I heard a similar story about the inside of Gates’ garage door. Why waste the 10 seconds or so waiting for the door to open when one could be learning?
I did similar things with my bedroom ceiling as a boy. Learned the Presidents of the U.S. that way and the 88 constellations and their brightest stars, the Greek alphabet…
“…control the rate of growth of monetary aggregates.”
OK, except that they’re printing greenbacks like it’s going out of style.
Gosh, wonder why they’re doing that? (Any other “wonder whys” while we’re at it?)
Well, dollars to donuts, it’s all part of Bust Back Better…and everybody has got to get their cut—since the Democrats are tremendously loyal to their friends!…
(But “Republicans aren’t offering any solutions”…)
JohnTyler,
Regarding Spanish, first, I have nothing against it. I’ve studied it, think it’s a beautiful language and listen to Latin Jazz more than any other music. However, I know of no other country that requires the “learned” class to learn the language of the immigrant, working class. The McDonalds in Singapore doesn’t have Tagalog on its menu. You don’t see the Turkish word for “pull” on the entrance door to Aldis in Frankfurt.
The working class typically strives to learn the language of the learned class. Yet I, like most American High School students, was encouraged to learn Spanish because our nation borders Mexico. Japanese or Mandarin would have served me better, financially.
neo,
One of those same, College friends sent me the spaghetti harvest video when it was uploaded to youtube. When I was 18 I would have believed it!
When I was 21 my Italian teacher taught me how to make spaghetti from scratch. Much easier than gathering it in an orchard!
Rufus,
My Italian wife is in total shock!
On the surface – because it’s ultra-blue San Francisco – this seems like a surprising development:
SF is like Seattle – it elects ultra-blue muni fonctionaires out of voter disengagement and media disinformation, but when the voters’ kids run into the consequences, they wake up and take belated action. London Breed has gotten herself quoted with a few lines against other consequences of the ultra-blues, and they may serve as smokescreens. But she’s as blue as the rest of them, and after all the non-prosections of the resident (and opportunist out-of-town) barbarians, she should be on the block as well.
oops, wrong outburst.
https://rumble.com/vv399j-man-reportedly-kicked-off-a-flight-because-he-had-lets-go-brandon-written-o.html
I haven’t set foot on an airplane in nearly five years. Are they this horrid as a matter of course? (And has anyone ever heard of this airline?).
Rufus @ 3:17 pm:
Eswatini!
@ArtDeco:
Whypeepo Country Airlines are invariably but not uniformly awful. This is a problem. Clearly this awfulness is in need of standardization and regulation.
From marshes of course.
https://eattheplanet.org/marsh-mallow-the-sweet-edible-that-inspired-the-candy/
I have enough trouble with the Lord’s Prayer in Old English.
You might for example be able to read the introduction to The Gospel of John too.
https://archive.org/details/holygospelsinan01skeagoog
But if someone threw The Wanderer at you and asked you what it said, I doubt that any of us could make sense of it without at least 3 weeks of study.
Speaking of wanderers, I keep waiting for one of the history channels on YouTube to cover the great migration of Saxon nobility that took place after the Normans really settled in.
I had read that some had left England, but I had no idea of the many thousands who departed in fleets for Constantinople, some of whom built a colony on the Black Sea.
Quite a story. Hell of a thing to lose your country and to become so wretched.
Rufio,
Just so you know, I’m not yet certain that that is the same work I found back in the stacks in school.
As it has Mercian and Northumbrian dialects, it might be.
As I recall, the texts were printed in parallel.
Just now found the one which I linked to above.
Oh Geez, it’s got to be the same book.
Page 68 of the archive window. (not the text)
“On anginne aerest waes word …”
It don’t have the keyboard set up to do eth or thorn or the old monkish “and” sign
Wow. Sometimes the Internet is worth more than can be easily stated.
DNW,
That’s amazing! You made my day! I just texted that link to my college friend who mocked me all those years ago. Turns out I was right! Think he’ll apologize?
DNW, “Sometimes the Internet is worth more than can be easily stated.”
Yes!
… and yet… I was thinking about this today when reading all the comments on this post.
So many of us had hours and hours of fun as kids and adolescents poring over physical maps, stamps, almanacs, encyclopedias, Chilton’s automobile manuals with their exploded diagrams of automobile parts, the Old Farmer’s Almanac, dictionaries, the Funk and Wagnall’s, the Book of World Records… Something very visceral and tangible about it.
When knowledge is too easy to discover is it cheapened?
@Kate:
Re Ukraine:
https://twitter.com/MuradGazdiev/status/1493862768818151425?cxt=HHwWgoCz6b-RorspAAAA
“The Russian Foreign Ministry has called on Western media outlets to publish a full list of dates on which Russia will invade Ukraine for the year ahead, so Russian diplomats can schedule their vacations accordingly.
This is not satire. They did this”
(Screen cap in case Twitter memory holes original)
https://media.gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/098/946/594/original/f9e89a72d15e42cf.png
When knowledge is too easy to discover is it cheapened?
Rufus T. Firefly:
I would separate convenience from physicality.
I love being able to check the definition of a word or the year a book was published with a few clicks, instead of trudging over to a heavy old dictionary or encyclopedia, prising it open, then flipping pages until the proper nugget of information is revealed.
You’ll have to pry my mouse from my cold dead fingers on that account.
However, the sensory joys of physical books, magazines, and whatnot cannot be underestimated. We live in a physical world in physical bodies. We are not digital beings existing in cyberspace and interacting with virtual objects.
It matters.
Lately I’ve been going through the old paperbacks I’ve been lugging around. Some I read in high school. They are nothing special. They are old Ballantine, Dell, Signet mass market paperbacks I paid a buck or two for back then.
Now they are fifty years old and falling apart. I don’t want to buy new copies, assuming I could. I’m happy to repair them by wrapping the covers and spine in clear packing tape, so they’ll last another decade or two.
I’ve come up with my own technique and it’s a small, pleasant ritual to restore my old books this way.
Some Invasion Day trolling from the Russian Embassy in Pretoria:
https://twitter.com/EmbassyofRussia/status/1493884806022713344
My daughter’s favorite map is a neon-colored shower curtain showing the world before the end of the Cold War. I’ve asked her several times if she is going to replace it, but she loves it.