August 15, 2007
July 23, 2007
BABY'S NAMED A BAD BAD THING
Diana Goodman's collection of real-life disturbing baby names (both proposed, and actually used) is livened by her ability to comment on the names with an air of long-suffering wisdom. While she is snarky, and at times stern, she appears to be able to do this without losing both her sanity and her ability to throw up her hands and scream in fresh ways.
Because a lot of this required alphabetizing BY HAND, ONE AT A TIME, I gained a whole new hatred for many of these names. Jaden and Jaylyn in particular, but just about any name with f*cked-up phonetics - Your mind seriously starts to numb when putting 8,000 long-A sounds in order, trying to sort "ay" from "ai" from "ae" from "ei" when it should just be "a" to begin with. So I apologize in advance if parts of the list are not, um, okkai. But enough about my masochism. I'm also somewhat sadistic, so I'm taking another crack at some names with these "Best Of" pages. Enjoy!
LINK
Because a lot of this required alphabetizing BY HAND, ONE AT A TIME, I gained a whole new hatred for many of these names. Jaden and Jaylyn in particular, but just about any name with f*cked-up phonetics - Your mind seriously starts to numb when putting 8,000 long-A sounds in order, trying to sort "ay" from "ai" from "ae" from "ei" when it should just be "a" to begin with. So I apologize in advance if parts of the list are not, um, okkai. But enough about my masochism. I'm also somewhat sadistic, so I'm taking another crack at some names with these "Best Of" pages. Enjoy!
LINK
46 Somali words for camel
Mark Liberman 's "46 Somali words for camel" is one of those pieces that enriches your bank of concepts, though not a single one of them will come in handy in your daily life unless you have a taste for invective that is wasted on those who won't comprehend it.
baloolley "she-camel without calf that will or will not give milk depending on her mood"
buub "young unbroken male camel"
caddaysimo "unloaded pack camel; unpoisoned arrow
golqaniinyo "bite given on a camel's flank to render her docile during milking"
gulguuluc "low bellow of a camel when it is sick or thirsty; poem recited in a low voice"
sidig "one of two female camels suckling the same infant"
haneed "left side of cow camel where one stands when milking; good form, nice style"
u maqaarsaar "to put the skin of a dead calf or baby camel on top of a living one in order to induce (cow, camel) to still give milk; [fig.] deceive, mislead or trick s.o."
Yoked with this is Geoff Pullum's rant on "Bleached Conditionals," the cliche that "for some fascinatingly large number N, the Eskimos have N words for snow." Liberman provides a page full of the examples that come up in a search for the phrase, "if eskimos."
Thanks to Language Log
baloolley "she-camel without calf that will or will not give milk depending on her mood"
buub "young unbroken male camel"
caddaysimo "unloaded pack camel; unpoisoned arrow
golqaniinyo "bite given on a camel's flank to render her docile during milking"
gulguuluc "low bellow of a camel when it is sick or thirsty; poem recited in a low voice"
sidig "one of two female camels suckling the same infant"
haneed "left side of cow camel where one stands when milking; good form, nice style"
u maqaarsaar "to put the skin of a dead calf or baby camel on top of a living one in order to induce (cow, camel) to still give milk; [fig.] deceive, mislead or trick s.o."
Yoked with this is Geoff Pullum's rant on "Bleached Conditionals," the cliche that "for some fascinatingly large number N, the Eskimos have N words for snow." Liberman provides a page full of the examples that come up in a search for the phrase, "if eskimos."
Thanks to Language Log
July 19, 2007
Nietzsche Family Circus
The Nietzsche Family Circus pairs a randomized Family Circus cartoon with a randomized Friedrich Nietzsche quote. LINK
"THAT DAMN BIRD"
A Talk with Irene Pepperberg
"There are some things that the birds do that, colloquially speaking, "just blow us away." We were training Alex [the grey parrot] to sound out phonemes, not because we want him to read as humans do, but we want to see if he understands that his labels are made up of sounds that can be combined in different ways to make up new words; that is, to demonstrate evidence for segmentation. He babbles at dusk, producing strings like "green, cheen, bean, keen", so we have some evidence for this behavior, but we need more solid data.
Thus we are trying to get him to sound out refrigerator letters, the same way one would train children on phonics. We were doing demos at the Media Lab for our corporate sponsors; we had a very small amount of time scheduled and the visitors wanted to see Alex work. So we put a number of differently colored letters on the tray that we use, put the tray in front of Alex, and asked, "Alex, what sound is blue?" He answers, "Ssss." It was an "s", so we say "Good birdie" and he replies, "Want a nut."
Well, I don't want him sitting there using our limited amount of time to eat a nut, so I tell him to wait, and I ask, "What sound is green?" Alex answers, "Ssshh." He's right, it's "sh," and we go through the routine again: "Good parrot." "Want a nut." "Alex, wait. What sound is orange?" "ch." "Good bird!" "Want a nut." We're going on and on and Alex is clearly getting more and more frustrated. He finally gets very slitty-eyed and he looks at me and states, "Want a nut. Nnn, uh, tuh."
Not only could you imagine him thinking, "Hey, stupid, do I have to spell it for you?" but the point was that he had leaped over where we were and had begun sounding out the letters of the words for us. This was in a sense his way of saying to us, "I know where you're headed! Let's get on with it," which gave us the feeling that we were on the right track with what we were doing. These kinds of things don't happen in the lab on a daily basis, but when they do, they make you realize there's a lot more going on inside these little walnut-sized brains than you might at first imagine."
"There are some things that the birds do that, colloquially speaking, "just blow us away." We were training Alex [the grey parrot] to sound out phonemes, not because we want him to read as humans do, but we want to see if he understands that his labels are made up of sounds that can be combined in different ways to make up new words; that is, to demonstrate evidence for segmentation. He babbles at dusk, producing strings like "green, cheen, bean, keen", so we have some evidence for this behavior, but we need more solid data.
Thus we are trying to get him to sound out refrigerator letters, the same way one would train children on phonics. We were doing demos at the Media Lab for our corporate sponsors; we had a very small amount of time scheduled and the visitors wanted to see Alex work. So we put a number of differently colored letters on the tray that we use, put the tray in front of Alex, and asked, "Alex, what sound is blue?" He answers, "Ssss." It was an "s", so we say "Good birdie" and he replies, "Want a nut."
Well, I don't want him sitting there using our limited amount of time to eat a nut, so I tell him to wait, and I ask, "What sound is green?" Alex answers, "Ssshh." He's right, it's "sh," and we go through the routine again: "Good parrot." "Want a nut." "Alex, wait. What sound is orange?" "ch." "Good bird!" "Want a nut." We're going on and on and Alex is clearly getting more and more frustrated. He finally gets very slitty-eyed and he looks at me and states, "Want a nut. Nnn, uh, tuh."
Not only could you imagine him thinking, "Hey, stupid, do I have to spell it for you?" but the point was that he had leaped over where we were and had begun sounding out the letters of the words for us. This was in a sense his way of saying to us, "I know where you're headed! Let's get on with it," which gave us the feeling that we were on the right track with what we were doing. These kinds of things don't happen in the lab on a daily basis, but when they do, they make you realize there's a lot more going on inside these little walnut-sized brains than you might at first imagine."
East meets West: Maternity Design
PingMag offers a comparison of pregnancy styles in Japan, and the West.
I picked up a pregnancy magazine in a waiting room recently (just looking, I tell you). A far cry from the Mothering magazine that was my favorite resource back when I was pregnant, quite a different world entirely. There were six full-page ads for umbilical cord banking, and ads for a gazillion pieces of baby furniture. Never thought I'd see camo diaper bags, I always thought that if there was enough kinderscheisse and baby throwup that would be camoflage enough.
Nice audio-visual component to this, the moment I opened the PingMag website my toaster oven went "Ping!"
I picked up a pregnancy magazine in a waiting room recently (just looking, I tell you). A far cry from the Mothering magazine that was my favorite resource back when I was pregnant, quite a different world entirely. There were six full-page ads for umbilical cord banking, and ads for a gazillion pieces of baby furniture. Never thought I'd see camo diaper bags, I always thought that if there was enough kinderscheisse and baby throwup that would be camoflage enough.
Nice audio-visual component to this, the moment I opened the PingMag website my toaster oven went "Ping!"
July 17, 2007
Meredith Allen's Melted Ice Pops
Meredith Allen's done a magnificent series of melting cartoon character popsickles. You can feel the heat and want to squint with the glare. The sense of time and motion is intricately bound up not just with the time while the camera is capturing its death, but with the sense of the hurry that led to the slap-dash positioning of its features as it was made.
January 09, 2007
Welcome to the Little Rabbit Foofoo blog.
Little Rabbit Foofoo will cover a wide range of quirky, unusual and cute subjects, in addition to modern parenting, children's books and their illustrators, and women's issues. Don't miss the Toad Blogging Tuesdays!
Along with news, links and commentary, I will be offering custom t-shirts, gifts and housewares featuring uncommon vintage images in the above subject areas through CafePress.com, using images from my extensive personal collection of rare books, prints, and artifacts. I'll share cute duckies, awesome thrift shop art, and unique vintage photos. In the future I will be offering collectible and rare books on all those topics and more.
Carol Maltby
Little Rabbit Foofoo will cover a wide range of quirky, unusual and cute subjects, in addition to modern parenting, children's books and their illustrators, and women's issues. Don't miss the Toad Blogging Tuesdays!
Along with news, links and commentary, I will be offering custom t-shirts, gifts and housewares featuring uncommon vintage images in the above subject areas through CafePress.com, using images from my extensive personal collection of rare books, prints, and artifacts. I'll share cute duckies, awesome thrift shop art, and unique vintage photos. In the future I will be offering collectible and rare books on all those topics and more.
Carol Maltby
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