Things I learned while looking up other things, 2022.08.11
Dear friends,
Just this morning I learned about the cat gap. (Don't worry, I've already pointed out that it's a great band name.)
In a moment of idle curiosity I wondered "what do other countries call the right to avoid self-incrimination?" and learned that in France, if you're the person under indictment, you're not questioned under oath. (But no, it's not called "the Fifth Amendment with Cheese".)
This past month, unpacking lots and lots of dictionaries (and trying not to open them and get sucked in to extended browsing sessions) I consoled myself by remembering that W.H. Auden also thought that dictionaries are the most bang for your buck, book-wise: "That is why, for a desert island, one would choose a good dictionary rather than the greatest literary masterpiece imaginable, for, in relation to its readers, a dictionary is absolutely passive and may legitimately be read in an infinite number of ways."
It's understandable that lots of people miss going into an office (my day job is famous for really great free food in offices) but my favorite thing about meeting mostly over video calls is that it's now possible to annotate meetings in real time. Mention something random? Drop a link in chat, don't assume people will go off and search for it on their own time! Last week I was randomly mentioning camera obscura (probably trying to make some point that even people that we think of as being masters of craft use assistive tools) and found this nice Wikipedia article on the Hockney-Falco thesis. (Hockney Falco, of course, being a wonderful name for the person who has the MacGuffin in a heist movie. Played by Peter Lorre, or Willem Dafoe, or Kate McKinnon.)
I'm usually in favor of punctuality, but George Dantzig solved two famous unsolved statistical problems because he came late to class. (He assumed they were the assigned homework.)
Every time I learn something new about semiotics I feel as if I narrowly averted a chemical dependency. If I had learned about semiotic squares in my twenties I would absolutely thought about nothing else for weeks.
In July I got a touch of the COVID. Luckily I had an extremely mild case, but it was enough to knock me right out for several days. I was so tired I couldn't choose a book to read! Luckily I was able to outsource that work to Jo Walton, whose book columns never fail. One of her recommendations was Una Silberrad, and it was exactly what I needed. I love Edwardian fiction (uh, unless you have a LOT of time, don't ask me about The Impersonation) and Silberrad's novels (I've read three now, they're hard to find!) have very interesting women characters (in other words, although people get married, it's not all marriage plot).
Also, in "words and things have a tenuous relationship at best": did you know there's no such thing as a tree?
Stay well!
Your friend,
Erin
Just this morning I learned about the cat gap. (Don't worry, I've already pointed out that it's a great band name.)
In a moment of idle curiosity I wondered "what do other countries call the right to avoid self-incrimination?" and learned that in France, if you're the person under indictment, you're not questioned under oath. (But no, it's not called "the Fifth Amendment with Cheese".)
This past month, unpacking lots and lots of dictionaries (and trying not to open them and get sucked in to extended browsing sessions) I consoled myself by remembering that W.H. Auden also thought that dictionaries are the most bang for your buck, book-wise: "That is why, for a desert island, one would choose a good dictionary rather than the greatest literary masterpiece imaginable, for, in relation to its readers, a dictionary is absolutely passive and may legitimately be read in an infinite number of ways."
It's understandable that lots of people miss going into an office (my day job is famous for really great free food in offices) but my favorite thing about meeting mostly over video calls is that it's now possible to annotate meetings in real time. Mention something random? Drop a link in chat, don't assume people will go off and search for it on their own time! Last week I was randomly mentioning camera obscura (probably trying to make some point that even people that we think of as being masters of craft use assistive tools) and found this nice Wikipedia article on the Hockney-Falco thesis. (Hockney Falco, of course, being a wonderful name for the person who has the MacGuffin in a heist movie. Played by Peter Lorre, or Willem Dafoe, or Kate McKinnon.)
I'm usually in favor of punctuality, but George Dantzig solved two famous unsolved statistical problems because he came late to class. (He assumed they were the assigned homework.)
Every time I learn something new about semiotics I feel as if I narrowly averted a chemical dependency. If I had learned about semiotic squares in my twenties I would absolutely thought about nothing else for weeks.
In July I got a touch of the COVID. Luckily I had an extremely mild case, but it was enough to knock me right out for several days. I was so tired I couldn't choose a book to read! Luckily I was able to outsource that work to Jo Walton, whose book columns never fail. One of her recommendations was Una Silberrad, and it was exactly what I needed. I love Edwardian fiction (uh, unless you have a LOT of time, don't ask me about The Impersonation) and Silberrad's novels (I've read three now, they're hard to find!) have very interesting women characters (in other words, although people get married, it's not all marriage plot).
Also, in "words and things have a tenuous relationship at best": did you know there's no such thing as a tree?
Stay well!
Your friend,
Erin
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