I want to join the “Century Club”
I want to be as productive as Elliot Cook Carter at 100. Read this fascinating story about the concert in New York a few months ago.
Alex Ross. (The New Yorker). The last emperor of China had just assumed his throne. William Howard Taft, the President-elect of the United States, was meeting with Theodore Roosevelt at the White House. A deranged veteran of the Philippine war terrorized Edgewater, New Jersey, holding up a hotel. The diva Nellie Melba disembarked from the Lusitania, resplendent in a broad-brimmed hat. Gustav Mahler was about to conduct the last of three concerts at Carnegie Hall, having unleashed his Second Symphony a few nights earlier. And Elliott Cook Carter, Jr., was born in New York City. It was December 11, 1908. A hundred years later to the day, Mr. Carter walked onstage at Carnegie, a little hunched but moving under his own power,
A Feature that you don’t have in your car
Mr. Gibbs (Obama’s press secretary) said, the president was particularly impressed by the many phones inside the presidential limousine. “He thinks the coolest thing about this,” Mr. Gibbs said, “is that you can pick up the phone and say, ‘I need to reach so and so,’ and a minute later, the phone rings and they are on the line.”
New Euro Language
The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.
As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as ‘Euro-English’.
In the first year, ‘s’ will replace the soft ‘c’. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard ‘c’ will be dropped in favour of ‘k’. This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter. There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome ‘ph’ will be replaced with ‘f’. This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.
In the 2nd and 3rd years , publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where! more komplikated changes are possible.
Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.
Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent ‘e’ in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.
By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing ‘th’ with ‘z’ and ‘w’ with ‘v’.
During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary ‘o’ kan be dropd from vords kontaining ‘ou’ and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensi bl riten styl.
Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.
Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey fuking vunted in ze forst plas.
Continue ReadingThe Moment: Reflections on the Inauguration
Unfortunately I am traveling and cannot watch the inauguration ceremonies on TV. All I can do is surf the web to get feeling for the mood in the country and around the world. It is a remarkable moment! Most people seem to share the deep feeling that Obama is the man we need to get us out of the big mess we are in. We all seem to share a sense of gratitude that stars were aligned for him to get elected. The Gods seem to endow a few individuals with talents that are far beyond what we typically see in human beings. Sakespeare’s as writer, Mozart as a composer, Michael Jordon as a basketball player, and Tiger Woods as a golfer are commonly recognized as in a class of their own. Barak Obama as politician may join this illustrious list. Over the holidays I read his two books and particularly the first one, Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance written in 1995 long before his political campaign started is deeply revealing about Obama. This is the best political autobiography I have read. Obama’s first roommate at Columbia recently remarked that Obama toyed with the idea of becoming a novelists. He does write like one. Just like everyone else who has come in touch with Obama’s voice, I feel I can trust the man to do the best for us. Of course, I also fear that no individual can solve the pressing issues that are plaguing the world. But he is our best hope and that is why everyone is so excited. Watching video excerpts from the day I cannot help but notice that his smile is worth almost as much his rhetorical gift. What a moment! Tomorrow the hard day of implementing policies will start. But let’s enjoy the moment.
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Human evolution: Why we love Music?
I have been waiting for a piece on the origins of music for a long time. Read this interesting report in the Economist on the scientific debates on why most of us like music so much.
Biologists are addressing one of humanity’s strangest attributes, its all-singing, all-dancing culture.
“IF MUSIC be the food of love, play on, give me excess of it.” And if not? Well, what exactly is it for? The production and consumption of music is a big part of the economy. The first use to which commercial recording, in the form of Edison’s phonographs, was to bring music to the living rooms and picnic tables of those who could not afford to pay live musicians.
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