Tag: language update
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Tracking the trace
Trying to explore the concept of value in ledgers, consulted an 1873 book on accounting which has a fresh view of the subject. The book also has an unexpected phrase: With regard to stocks, the titles of account, by which value in them is kept trace of, will be suggested from their descriptive names. If…
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Why only v’
Listening to the Strange as it seems episode on the origin of the Star-spangled Banner. The characters are singing the song as it first appeared in a Baltimore paper, and their father tells them it’s not new at all. He then sings Anacreon in Heav’n and orders his daughters to stop singing an old bawdy…
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One good thing
The bitcoin world was always and only a trick for Deepstate and big banks to steal money and power from suckers. Still, the bitcoin world has one advantage over the “standard” government and corporate world: Occasional clear language. Here’s a statement from some “network” or “exchange” that decided to shut down because of QT: “Product…
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Kirn loses it
Katharine Boyle said: The decline in liberal arts degrees bodes well for society on almost every dimension. College students now know that majoring in Book Club won’t get you a great job. This is progress. Kirn snotted back: “On almost every dimension” isn’t English, brainiac. Close, but not quite. And what would know about dimensions…
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British losing θ?
θ is a weak sound, and weak sounds tend to slide down a gradient into silence or into stronger sounds. θ goes to f in many British dialects. Lately I’ve been noticing θ going toward t in some proper London types. This might be an old tendency but I haven’t noticed it before. It’s constantly…
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God believes in ether
Until 1920 most discussion of electricity and radio was based on the assumption of an ether. Michelson-Morley DIDN’T wipe out the ether. It was wiped much later when quantum quackery took over the doctrines and creeds of “science”. Here’s a nice clear example from a 1904 book by Frederick Vreeland, the inventor of the weirdly…
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More fake surprise
Bad grammar is a major component of sneaky propaganda. I don’t mean ain’t or irregardless. I mean distortion of verb aspect. The latest fake surprise is a 75-year-old constant process posing as a freshly discovered sudden unexpected unprecedented brand-new crisis. The feds have arrested two Chinese spies who were running a blackmail factory in NYC,…
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Random grammar thought
Random grammar thought, seems like an interesting correlation at the moment. Among Indo-European languages, the Catholic or Orthodox cultures (Latin, Slavic) prefer reflexive verbs as a way of expressing passive or middle voice. Protestant and Islamic cultures (Germanic, English, Arabic) prefer distinct active and passive forms. Latin started with a distinct passive, then replaced it…
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Bond gender
We’re confused about bonds in the same way that we’re confused about gender. A bond is a contract with a specific time interval. You buy it, let the seller use your money for a specific time, and expect a periodic rental fee from the seller. At the end of the fixed time interval you sell…
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π
π Day again! Since I’m talking typography lately, I’ll hash and rehash a couple items from 2019. = = = = = Thinking about Trump as Pied Piper. When the metaphor first appeared in those DNC emails I didn’t quite understand it. After learning that Trump is Roy Cohn’s protege, I understand it PRECISELY. Agents…
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Anyone could own?
Last week I was trying to show that one individual has always been powerless against the rulers, but an organization or union has always been capable of pushing back against demons. 4. Before Hollerith, record-keeping and calculation were partly mechanized by printing presses and typewriters and abacuses and cash registers. Anyone could own an adding…
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Wrong word, same advice?
Randomly noted in a Reddit topic of ‘useful quotations’… How to survive in a tyranny: Keep your mouth closed and your eyes open. In 1969, Warden Copley gave the new intakes his standard speech. Imagine Edward G. Robinson as a gangster and you’ve got Warden Copley. I heard him say: Keep your mouth closed and…
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Ancient words
Kirn points out yet another reason why you shouldn’t copyright your work if you want to leave a legacy. I hadn’t thought about this part of the problem. He shows parallel passages from Roald Dahl’s novel ‘Witches’, with the latest edition bowdlerized by Woke idiocy. Recently the ancient word usufruct popped into my ancient head…
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whorfles
Now we have more “Chinese” UFOs. After I obediently gave Deepstate the snap reaction it wanted, I turned up my input filters and baseline sensors. This is clearly a rather low-quality fake THREAT, and the repeat is designed to create a new fake threat CATEGORY. Deepstate treats an ordinary and frequent object as a UNIQUE…
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Primly and properly
Speaking of subjunctives… There are lots of old jokes about proper prim Bostonians. Maybe they’re right. Motor Age in 1909 has some pretty pictures of the motoring conditions around President Taft’s “summer capital” in Beverly. Nice Stickley typography. I’d say the summer capital is almost large enough to hold Taft. Alongside this picture: the article…
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