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Category Archives: OBITER DICTA
Obiter Dictum: Outis
If you have not already done so, check out some introductory comments on my category type obiter dictum here. Wednesday 3 April 2013 Obiter Dictum: Outis [Other obiter dicta found here] Outis, an intergalactic extraterrestrial roaming the vastnesses of the … Continue reading
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Breakfast
Breakfast Not long ago a friend and I went out for breakfast to a ‘name’ restaurant nationally recognized, and the kindest thing I can report about this disconcerting adventure is that neither of us will ever go back to any … Continue reading
Posted in OBITER DICTA
Tagged 'a fly in my soup - sort of', ’breakfast disaster’, breakfast, hunger
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Zarina
Zarina Friday 18 Jan 2013 Just as I have my male friend SonnyQ to help me out at times, I have a woman friend too. Her name is Zarina. She too is someone I can talk to Like SonnyQ, she … Continue reading
Posted in OBITER DICTA
Tagged ‘malleable fiction’, ’fictional construct’, ’ontological status’, Zarina
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SonnyQ
SonnyQ Friday 18 Jan 2013 There are occasions when I feel the need for a person as construct, someone against whom to compare myself or measure myself, someone whom I may invoke at will to fill some yawning need of … Continue reading
Posted in OBITER DICTA
Tagged ‘malleable fiction’, ’fictional construct’, ’ontological status’, SonnyQ
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7.8% four weeks before the election?
Bureau of Labor Statistics Just a thought that sprung to mind. Maybe I’m being unfair … but 7.8% four weeks before the election? Yes, government agencies reporting national data like unemployment rates are (supposed to be) beyond political influence. And … Continue reading
Posted in OBITER DICTA
Tagged ’Bureau of Labor Statistics’, ’drop in unemployment’, statistics
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‘enormity’ of Biden’s DNC speech
Last night (Thursday 6 September 2012) our vice-president gave a rousing speech in the build-up to the president’s appearance before the enormously enthusiastic attendees at the Democratic National Convention. Biden has acquired something of a rep as Mr. Mal-a-Prop for … Continue reading
Posted in OBITER DICTA
Tagged ’Biden’s DNC speech’, ’DNC speech’, ’meaning of ‘enormity’’, Biden, catachresis’
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Gender … again!
I really should just give up, accept defeat, appreciate that the fall of some niceties of the English language into permanent desuetude are destined to continue – and to irritate me immensely. For certain, it seems, my jeremiads in the … Continue reading
Posted in LANGUAGE, OBITER DICTA
Tagged ‘gender in English’, ’emeritus or emerita?’, language
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Irae Causa
Irae Causa Saturday 18 August 2012 Very briefly, given the imperfectability of our species, I note this example of an intense discomfort at the outrages done to people by people, institutions, governments. It is an old story, a very old … Continue reading
Gnomicon 64
From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put. Sir Winston Churchill (30 Nov 1874 – 24 Jan 1965) How many times were you warned in middle school English classes about … Continue reading
As is the generation of leaves …
Glaukos the son of Hippolokhos addresses his prospective enemy, Diomedes the son of Tydeus, at Iliad 6.146-149: οἵη περ φύλλων γενεὴ τοίη δὲ καὶ ἀνδρῶν. φύλλα τὰ μέν τ’ ἄνεμος χαμάδις χέει, ἄλλα δέ θ’ ὕλη τηλεθόωσα φύει, ἔαρος δ’ … Continue reading
