Ah, yes. That whole Madame thing is fraught with potential trouble. The Robert says of Mademoiselle: “Titre donné aux jeunes filles et aux femmes (présumées) célibataires.” The latter can cause embarrassment. What does one say to what people sometimes call “elderly spinsters”? Madame, I think. But 🤷
Somebody said to me today, “Because you are OLD …” and went on to offer some practical advice. But it stopped me in my tracks. Last year someone asked if I wanted an adult ticket. She meant “or pensioner?” But, gentle reader, if I live to 2027, I shall be 60. Am I OLD?
Some paradox here, one feels. 😉
👍
The Latin equivalent for Greek tele- would be procul.
One can see how proculvision might fail to catch on as a term. But who knows what we’d now be saying if it had?
- Did you watch the match on the procul last night?
- No. I’ve got a season ticket to the ground.
Etc. 😉
Forbidden, yes.
Follow-ups, no.
It’s maddening.
👍 That said, Latin uisio belongs to the same root (*ueid-) as Latin uideo and that selfsame root is seen in Greek οἶδα, earlier Fοῖδα. In the unaugmented aorist Fίδον the link is even clearer. So yes, uisio is borrowed proximately from Latin but the kinship is closer than appears on the surface.
In French stylistics, there is a saying:
Pour “chose”, dites autre chose!
I just thought much the same upon meeting the word “wordsmith” in an obituary.
Call me a snob, but it makes me reach for the sick-bag every time. It lazy and tired.
Ha! Thank you. I wouldn’t say this of myself (as a much more learned friend once said) but I don’t mind if others say it of me. So long as I don’t have to make good on it! 😉
🙂👍
This is why I’d be no good at a general knowledge quiz. I’m really clueless on this stuff. 🫢
I enjoyed Project Hail Mary at the cinema. I had wondered why it was so called. Hearing that Ryan Gosling’s character was Dr Grace, I thought “Hail Mary, [a ship] full of Grace”. But of course not. Turns out a Hail Mary (in *this* context) is some sort of long shot in baseball.
You can’t even go to Mass without word of The Orange One intruding.
Although in his and his cronies’ case, it’s more likely to be “make” than “wake”.
☹️
Happy Easter to those of my Orthodox friends celebrating it today.
Χριστὸς ἀνέστη! Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη!
Khristós Anésti! Alithós Anésti!
Christ is risen! Truly, He is risen!
🤣👍
This is the unveiling of a statue of, er, Baphomet.
In Arkansas, I gather.
Truly, some people will worship anything.
But then I guess we already knew that.
On the one hand, Cousin Jasper is annoying. On the other, one has to salute the sheer verve of his invective.
You don’t say! 🌞
Just seen on the shelf at Waterstone’s.
Presumably not selling like hot cakes.
(Unless somebody desperately needs to discover what the CofE readings were in 2024 and can’t think of another way to do it.)
A split image combining a modern photograph and a historical painting. Top half: A man in a dark suit (Trump) speaks into a microphone outdoors, standing behind a row of white flowers. A woman (Melania) with long light-brown hair stands to his left, facing forward with a neutral expression. To his right, a person in a large Easter bunny costume with tall ears raises a hand in a wave. A building with large windows (WH) forms the background. Bottom half: A detail from The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch shows a surreal scene with a nude woman whose eyes are closed and mouth slightly open, with a large die balanced on her head. To her side is a rabbit-like creature with a long face and upright ears, holding a thin staff or rod. The creature appears anthropomorphic, standing upright and engaging with the scene as if participating in a strange ritual or game. Nearby is another hybrid figure wearing a perforated, metal-like helmet or sieve over its head, with wide, animal-like eyes visible beneath. The creature’s body appears hunched and compact, with a snout and fur-like texture, giving it a rodent- or dog-like appearance. Surrounding them are scattered objects, including dice and a game board, reinforcing the scene's chaotic, symbolic, and dreamlike quality.
That’s what I thought. It’s nice to have it confirmed by someone who knows. ❤️
❤️
Last night at the Easter Vigil we had 11 baptisms (mostly adults) and 10 receptions into the Catholic Church. Of those 21 people, 17 were also confirmed. The others (younger) will be confirmed by the bishop later this month. This wasn’t in London, but up here in Cumbria! Storm Dave raged outside.
Surrexit Christus, alleluia!
Glorious!
Looking at this, I wonder how one would most naturally and idiomatically say in French, “Isn’t the blossom lovely!” - in a way that makes clear that one is talking about des rameaux en fleur and not the meadow full of wild flowers underneath.
🤣🤣🤣
🤣🤣🤣
When hyphens really do matter.
One assumes the pharmacist has the same orders as the groundling. This has happened to me so often in Boots. Even when talking to the exalted person from behind the partition. In London, I have stopped going there, preferring an independent in Bloomsbury. Elsewhere, slightly less choice. Alas.
I went to the independent chemist round the corner. They sold it to me at once. 3/
