Catching Ducks

This week, Noam Chomsky's famous sentence:

"Colorless green ideas sleep furiously."


[Tofutti Cutie and I were talking about linguistics the other day, and ever since then I've had it stuck in my head. Unfortunately, I can't quite remember why this sentence is so important.

Tof, Jack -- help!]

Labels: grammar

I read an interesting article by Patrick Cooke in the June 2003 Smithsonian called "Coalition of the Differing".

According to the article, the U.S. and British troops fighting in World War II had a difficult time communicating with each other.

"The Americans complained that the British were secretive and unfriendly; the British insisted that the Americans were simpleminded and boastful. The allies argued about everything."

Margaret Mead was brought into study the problem.

"Mead discovered that the two cultures possessed fundamentally different world views. One simple way to demonstrate this was to ask an Englishman and an American a single question: What's your favorite color? American servicemen quickly came up with a color, but the British asked, 'Favorite color for what? A flower? A necktie?' Mead concluded that Americans, raised in a melting pot, learned to seek a simple common denominator. To the British, this came across as unsophisticated. Conversely, the class-conscious British insisted on complex categories, each with its own set of values. Americans interpreted this tendency to subdivide as furtiveness. (After all, a person who can't name a favorite color must be hiding something.)"

I thought it was interesting, and it also explained why people get so annoyed with me for not have a favorite color! I always wondered why that bothered people. And it really did! I finally started saying "green" just to make them feel better.

Labels: travel

This one's a bit old, but I still love it. It's from Miss Alli's recap of the first episode of the fourth season of The Amazing Race.




Steve tells us that they won't be able to get ahead physically, so they'll have to get ahead mentally. It's good to know your strengths. Come to think of it, it's a shame that teams rarely have the self-awareness to say, "It's a good thing we run fast, because we are as dumb as a can of creamed corn.

Labels: The Amazing Race

I usually run errands on Wednesday. Two weeks ago I cut my errands short because of a snowstorm. The snow stuck around for a week, and last Wednesday it was finally starting to melt. The library parking lot was still covered in slush.

This Wednesday it feels like spring! The air is warm, the sun is out -- if I didn't know better I would say it was March. At first I liked it, but pretty soon I was hot, tired of squinting into the sun, and throroughly annoyed.

I miss the cold.

Labels: weather

Oops!

Labels: travel

From My Name Is Earl:

No, I don’t think shows should do more meta jokes that cater to the online bloggers and I’m sure everyone at Television Without Pity Dot Com agrees with me.

[Best. Shoutout. Ever.]

Labels: My Name Is Earl

It's cold out!

One of my co-workers says that normal Seattle winter weather (40-50 degrees, cloudy/rainy) feels colder than this (30 degrees, snowy/icy) -- but she's from Minnesota.

(btw, I still haven't made it to the grocery store! I'm waiting for the ice on the street to melt. I may have to wait a while...)

Labels: weather

Carlos Mencia on holidays:

I understand Christmas. Three wise men show up with a gift; I love you. Symbolism. I love you; here's a gift. Symbolism. I get that.

How did the egg thing happen? Did somebody walk up to somebody else and go, "Hey did you hear? Jesus rose from the dead."

"[gasp] Hide the eggs! HIDE THE EGGS! We gotta trick Jesus. Paint the eggs pink and purple; put them in the park. Trick Jesus! Tell everybody to spread the word: From now on, eggs come from rabbits."

"Why?"

"So he doesn't take the chickens, too!"

Labels: holidays

I knew there was supposed to be bad weather this morning, so I waited until late afternoon to do my errands. (I needed to go to the library and the grocery store.) When I left my apartment it was cold and cloudy, but the roads were clear.

A few blocks away from home, I realized it was snowing. They were tiny flakes, and not that many of them. I didn't think it would be that big of a deal. By the time I got to the library, it was snowing hard, and it was starting to stick to the road. I quickly ran in, returned the stuff I had checked out, picked up the items I had on hold, and went back to my car. I couldn't have been gone more than five minutes, but my car was covered in snow! They were tiny flakes, but there were a lot of them.

I decided to go home. There wasn't anything I needed at the grocery store that couldn't wait a few days. When I got home, I got some take-out from the Thai restaurant next door (I love living next door to a Thai restaurant!) and watched one of the movies I'd picked up at the library.

Labels: weather

Hi! My name is mamurd and I'm addicted to Blistex. (Hi mamurd!)


Seriously, I have a problem! I own eleven different kinds of Blistex. Everytime a new product comes out, I have to try it. I just can't help myself! So far there's only been one that I didn't really like.

Labels: random silliness

I know I should do something new, but I just can't help myself: More Red vs. Blue!


Tucker: Does it ever bother you that the most take-charge guy on our team is a girl?

Church: Not at all. As long as I get my body back, I don't care if I'm a hero.

[Tucker and Caboose stare at Church.]

Church: What?

Tucker: Well, Church, you're kind of a long way from "hero". Wouldn't it have been better to say, "I don't care if I'm a participant."? Or maybe, "bystander"?

Church: Shut up.

Labels: Red vs. Blue

I had a list of four movies I wanted to get on DVD. This Christmas I got two gift certificates for Borders. I figured I could use them to buy two of my movies. When I got to Borders, they had big signs in their windows saying "Buy any 3 DVDs and get the 4th one free!" How perfect is that?

Of course, it took me a while to track down all four of them. Little Miss Sunshine just came out, so that was easy enough to find. I found Kinky Boots in the comedy section. Then I got stuck. Saving Face wasn't in the drama section and Strictly Ballroom -- which I wasn't even sure had been released on DVD -- wasn't in comedy or foreign film (Strictly Ballroom is Australian). I looked around for a clerk but didn't find one. I looked around some more and found a "customer use" computer -- which required a password to use. Huh? I kept going and found another computer that was set up properly. It told me to find Saving Face in the foreign film section and that Strictly Ballroom was "on order" and that I should reserve a copy.

I went back and got Saving Face, then I headed to the check-out line. I thought maybe if I pre-paid for Strictly Ballroom, I could still get my free DVD. If not, I would put one back.

When I got to the front of the line, I explained everything to the clerk. She looked up Strictly Ballroom in her computer (which is, apparently, more accurate) and told me they had a copy! She had someone bring it down to us, so I got all four of my movies! Yay!!! And I only had to pay for one of them! Double yay!! Of course, I had to pay for the most expensive one (I still haven't figured out why Kinky Boots was $30) and I got the cheapest one (Strictly Ballroom was $15) free, but still! Yay!

I'm still trying to sort out their organization system, though. I didn't find Strictly Ballroom initially because it never occurred to me to look for it in the drama section. Even more confusingly, Kinky Boots (a British film) and Strictly Ballroom (Australian) were in the comedy and drama sections, respectively. But Saving Face -- an American movie! -- was in the foreign film section. I guess because a lot of it is in Chinese?? But it's set in America! Most of the actors were born in America!

Maybe instead of "foreign films" it should be called "movies with subtitles".

Labels: movies