docoflove1974

I'll settle for ExLax or similar products, thanks. Christ...

Yet many can't do that. If one does not truly learn their alphabet/writing system, then literacy becomes an issue, even to spell the name. Think of all those who had little-to-no education, and sign with an X. It could be the same in antiquity.

Um...well, since the big Tsunami in Indonesia a few years back, any time there's an earthquake in the Pacific region, yes, we get notices about Tsunami Warnings/Watches. But, honestly, I don't think many people think about it much. Let me rephrase: us natives don't. Perhaps those who have moved here are bit more wary, but most of us native (I think) know that it's rare, and that if it happens, we'll get through. Personally, I never think about it...there is a large mountain range (well, for us they're hills, but I guess most would call them mountains), the Coastal Range, which runs down much of the Peninsula south of San Francisco and on down the state...that would protect most all of the major population from a tsunami. There would probably be reverberations in the bay, but again, I don't think that it'd be that bad. Perhaps it's just wishful thinking, too. Eh, yeah, it does shake your nerves a bit, true. But then you realize that nothing happened, that the infrastructure and buildings are all fine, and that it was on a faultline which isn't constructed to have big quakes...5.6 is about as big as the Calaveras line has. (BTW, 'calaveras' means 'skulls' in Spanish...how appropriate!) Yes, there's always the thought in the back of the head about the 'big one' coming, especially on the San Andreas or the Hayward faultlines...but once you realize that the tremors were brief, you know that it's a small one. In fact, if anything, perhaps this one took pressure off of the faultlines. I think what is bothering me most right now is that the news has to have a major story, and so they're playing it up. As I said, I live really close to the epicenter, in a shaky Victorian, and yet I didn't have one item fall off my shelves, no CDs fell off of my rather shaky CD towers...yet if you watch the news, there were plenty of incidents where stuff came flying off store shelves, particularly in San Jose (where I live). Dude, it couldn't have been that bad...if it wasn't for me, then how the hell could it have been for them??? Anyway...killer waves, dude

Nah, it's all good...it was kinda fun, actually. Well, I say this, and it wasn't very strong, comparatively. It was a killer wave, dude. Sweet.

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! So, at 8:04pm PDT, there was about a 5.0 earthquake centered approximately 6 miles from my place. It were funnnn!!! Ok, it wasn't fun...well, not 'not fun'...kinda thrilling. See, if you're born in 'earthquake country,' you know what to do in an instant: find a place to take cover (under a desk, in a doorway), make sure you have something on your feet, and ride it out...it doesn't last long. But this was the first one in my life that I really, really felt. In 1989, the Loma Prieta earthquake shook us all...but I was on a hillside on granite and clay...behind my high school, waiting to be picked up after swim practice. I felt it...but I don't remember a big rock-and-roll before. The funny part was that there was swim practice for little kids going on at the time, and they were flying out of the pool. At the time, I couldn't stop laughing! This time, I really felt it. I was just starting virtual office hours, sitting in my computer chair, and Bella on the bed. As soon as it hit, I was in the doorway, and she was under the bed. Maybe 5 seconds of shaking, and it was over. It felt like a rolling quake (up and down motion), not so much of an S-quake (side-to-side motion), but I could be wrong there. My jewelry box spit out its drawers, but other than that, nothing major fell. I went out to make sure that the others were ok (there's a band practicing in the studio on the lot), and everyone was. In fact, we were all outside, laughing, making jokes...I'm guessing because we were all somewhat nervous, and were trying to let it all out. I go to the USGS site...and the epicenter was really close. Bella came out of the bed about 45 minutes later...and I've had to lay on the bed with her a bit. She's not purring like usual...a little too scared yet. But after about 5 treats, she's calmed and almost asleep. But what an exciting night!

How symbolic that it's the phallus that was thrown away and never found...on the fertility god. Is this somehow analogous to Persephone and the pomegranate?

That's the odd part: no one else in my family has food allergies. Oh, my dad and I are allergic to seemingly every pollen there is, but I'm the only one with a food allergy. I had one doctor tell me that because of the lack of heredity, my allergy is considered 'mild'; this could change with my children. But we shall see! I know all too well about yellowjackets; in CA we have bees and yellowjackets, and in the Central Valley there are also wasps. In Austin I had all three, plus hornets!

Nope, no need for doctors...I've been living with this since a child. It's really no huge deal...by about 11pm I was fine. Well, sort of...I didn't want to eat anything still, and the thought of making out a grocery shopping list was not so wonderful. But as for the morning...I'm raring to go, as normal! (Besides, I only go to the doctors when I have to...your body knows...) My reactions as an adult are worse than as a child--as a child, I never used to get sick, and that didn't happen until my late teens. But they haven't gotten worse since...it's actually pretty straightforward. Crustaceans are evil, mollusks just make my stomach turn, and cephalopods aren't that bad...I just don't like them. Evidently it's pretty typical. But thanks for your concern, Neph...very cool of you.

Oh, no need for an EpiPen...at my worst, I empty the contents of my stomach, feel miserable for a bit, and then I'm fine. Trust me, it's no huge deal...just something I'm careful with. I'm better now...Alka Seltzer, sparkling mineral water, and kitty love, and I'm ok. I'll be 'normal' tomorrow. Just feeling dumb! Capt. Blackadder kept me company tonight!

Have a good one, Boss Dude.

I decided that I'd go out for sushi tonight...and being that I live in Japantown, well, I knew it'd be good. Oh boy...I oopsed big time. I'm allergic to shellfish. It's an interesting food allergy...comes in a variety of forms. Usually, the afflicted person is more affected by either crustaceans, mollusks or cephalopods; for me, crustaceans are evil. It also afflicts the poor soul in a variety of ways: the worst being apoplectic shock, others are covered in hives, and those like me are incredibly nauseous. And I'm really careful, especially when eating at a 'seafood' restaurant. I love sushi, but I know to be careful of some rolls. Ok, most rolls. So I go in, and order my 2 favorites--toro/fatty tuna and unagi/freshwater eel--and want something new. I saw this roll called "Peach Bow"...unagi, salmon, and avocado in a beautiful roll, with tobiko (really small roe) on top. Ok...sounded good. Um, I must have missed an element...because there's imitation crab in there, too. And I didn't realize it until my last piece, which fell apart, revealing it's evil insides. Oh crap...well, here comes the time bomb. See, here's the thing about imitation crab: it's mostly white fish (often haddock), but can have flecks of real shellfish, especially crab, in it. It's also got 'shellfish juice' (probably shellfish stock) in there, in order to give flavor. So in any given piece of 'fake crab' I could have zero reaction...or a fair amount of one. And it happens with me about 30 minutes after I eat...joyous!! So, by the time I walk home, it's almost been half an hour...and I'm already having bad indigestion with stomach pangs. This is common if I eat something that had shellfish in it, but no actual shellfish eaten. In the meantime, Bella can't get enough of my breath...she smells fish, perhaps smells crab, and wants to know where hers is. I told her no...but she's about as hardheaded as I am...so she didn't give up. I sat down in my computer chair, she got on my lap...and about that time I knew that I had better get to the bathroom PDQ. Well, false alarm...still, I'm still burping horribly and have a bad feeling in my stomach...oh man, it's gonna be a long night...and it's pretty much my undoing!!! Yeesh!

My cat, Bella, fits her name...she is indeed a beautiful American Tabby (I think there's a picture of her in the Gallery...if not, there might be one soon.) My parents currently have Peanut--that's the name that she came with, and it stuck. Of course, when Peanut came from the pound, she was but a wee little lassy kitten. Now she's a 14 pound mountain-lion-purring matron cat of the house! We had toy poodles, one after another...I don't know if they count as dogs or not, but they were ok. Missy 1 and 2. Before them, my parents and I had a basset hound, named Huffy. However, she wouldn't be paper trained, and my parents wanted to re-do the backyard...so they sold her to another family. I cried so much! But oh well! Oh...yes...almost forgot...we used to have a couple of canaries. Rocky and Buffy...my brothers named them, not me.

It's the same set-up as the one on FOX, but I think that the series started in the UK, so the episodes are older. Same idea: he goes into a crap-tastic restaurant, whips people into shape, and turns things around (or tries to). I just love the fact that he gets into the arrogant bastards' faces, makes them wake the hell up, and then they're like, "gee, it all seems so simple!" duuuuuuh... Oh...Thursday 8 and 9pm on BBCAmerica, for those interested.

On the whole, I watch very few series...most of them are rubbish, to say the least. I always have sports and the Food Network on, as they are my two main passions. But there are some shows that I regularly watch: --Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares--both the US and UK versions (they're on BBCAmerica) --Boston Legal (God bless Denny Craine) --Dirty Sexy Money (new show on ABC...I'm liking it so far, but it's gonna get old, quick, methinks) Other than that, there are some shows which I'll watch some times, but mostly I'm watching sports, cooking, or history stuff. Or nothing at all...shocker!!! Oh! And I'm about to finish viewing the Blackadder series...I have 'Goes Fourth' on DVD right now.

What about Helen, or Pandora? I often call my cat 'Pandora' because of all the trouble her curious little mind wanders into...

I have no idea...perhaps Yankee Doodle is involved?

Hot off the wires of LinguistList! _______________________________________________________ LINGUIST List: Vol-18-3057. Fri Oct 19 2007. ISSN: 1068 - 4875. Subject: 18.3057, FYI: Glottopedia: The Free Encyclopedia of Linguistics -------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- Dear LINGUIST readers, We would like to announce a new free reference resource for linguists: Glottopedia, the free encyclopedia of linguistics (see http://www.glottopedia.org). Glottopedia is a wiki site that depends on volunteer contributions, like Wikipedia. All linguists are invited to share their knowledge with others through this site. Glottopedia differs from Wikipedia (or other general encyclopedias such as Citizendium) in that (i) its content is much more specialized (e.g. you'll be able to find articles on ''copy raising'', ''appositive relative clause'', ''subcomparative construction'', ''relabelling'', ''rich agreement'', ''loan translation'', ''adfix''), and (ii) users must have an account to edit articles, and they must be linguists with an academic background. Moreover, Glottopedia focuses on *dictionary articles* rather than survey articles of the sort that are found in Wikipedia (and various specialized linguistics handbooks). But each dictionary article (potentially) provides more information than just a definition: It also gives examples, synonyms, other meanings of the term, the origin of the term, some key references, and a translation into other languages (Glottopedia is a multilingual enterprise; so far there are mainly articles in English and German). Glottopedia also has articles on linguists, but unlike Wikipedia, which aims to restrict its articles to ''notable people'' (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Notability (academics)), Glottopedia potentially has articles on all linguists. Thus, there is no danger that an administrator will delete your article because it does not meet this (extremely vague) criterion. (However, Glottopedia's articles on living linguists are restricted to links, in order to avoid problems of personality rights.) Eventually we also want to add articles about all languages and language families (with detailed references), and articles about things that we need for our everyday work (such as journals, conferences, institutions), but at the moment this is mainly an idea for the future. We feel that Glottopedia is a resource that the field of linguistics really needs, and we hope that you will all contribute to it (as well as contributing to Wikipedia, for a general audience!). Some of us have taught courses in which the assignment to the students was writing dictionary articles on some technical terms. We think that especially advanced students, who do not yet have easy access to other forms of publications, will find that Glottopedia gives them a great chance to make a contribution to the field. Martin Haspelmath, Sven Naumann, and G

That's what I thought you meant, but for some reason I just wasn't seeing it clearly. Yes, no question that the 'infrastructure' (not just the roads and towns, but the agricultural engineering) that the Romans put in place was neglected to a degree by the Gothic lords, such that when the Moors came into Hispania and could easily implement their advances; I've read some contemporary accounts where monks where almost happy to see the Moors come in and 'revamp' things to 'bring back splendor' which was seen as having been lost under Gothic rule.

Ok, big question, as I'm not familiar with this area of history (or, rather, I'm only vaguely knowledgeable): when you say "north" vs "south," do you mean of Italia? or Mediterranean vs. 'northern territories' of Germania, Celtic lands to the northwest (northern Gaul, Hispania, and the now-British Isles, etc.)? I ask because the same 'north v. south' economic disparity is seen in Italy and in many other Mediterranean areas.

Well, Alexandria does have it's incredible draws...but I'd probably either be in the lands of my (modern) ancestors: Mediolanum (aka Milan) or Genua (aka Genoa). I probably would also be found in the place in Hispania which has stolen my heart: Lucentum (aka Alicante).

Nope...none is good. I'll drink Diet Dr. Pepper if I must, but honestly, none of it is worth a damn. If you want the bubbles but not the sugar, go for sparkling water or mineral water...great stuff, even comes "with a hint" of flavor (I'm drinking Crystal Geyer's now), and is very low sodium (even lower than diet soda). Vetoing Snickers and Doritos!!!??? Feh, evil you...

Agreed with e-tickets...but sorry, Neph...diet soda and other diet versions of 'junk' food is evil. Either eat the real stuff in small quantities, or give it up...fake sugar is evil.

Well, there's a start...looks like you had fun regardless!

Between what I saw here and with the other thread, it still looks like a good gathering of folks. For the next trip, you might want to 'advertise' (fliers, etc.) with the Classics dept...might get more students and faculty involved, if only to watch the festivities.

I just got this notice via LinguistList; it might be interesting to some of you here. It's a new dissertation on various Italic writings--seems like it's half linguistics, half literature analysis. Many universities have access to dissertations, and often you can contact the institution (in this case, UCLA) to borrow a copy of the dissertation. _______________________________________________ LINGUIST List: Vol-18-3032. Wed Oct 17 2007. ISSN: 1068 - 4875. http://linguistlist.org/issues/emailmessag...amp;msgnumber=1 Institution: University of California, Los Angeles Program: Indo-European Studies Dissertation Status: Completed Degree Date: 2006 Author: Angelo O. Mercado Dissertation Title: The Latin Saturnian and Italic Verse Linguistic Field(s): Historical Linguistics, Writing Systems Subject Language(s): Latin (lat) Language Family(ies): Indo-European Dissertation Director(s): Brent H. Vine Dissertation Abstract: This dissertation investigates the remains of archaic Latin, Faliscan, South Picene, Umbrian, and Oscan stichic verse, mainly from the linguistic and comparative-philological perspectives, and, departing from traditional syllable-counting and/or quantitativist approaches, proposes synchronic descriptions of their meters based on their systems of phonological accentuation. The Latin Saturnian can be described as a complex accentual meter, based on the rules of (ante-) penultimate accentuation in Plautine Latin, with thirteen or twelve positions distributed into two half-verses and four quarters. The 130+ surviving literary and epigraphic epic, elegiac, and gnomic verses of archaic Latin point to 25 metrical line archetypes related to each other derivationally through the operation of inversion, anaclasis, and acephaly on essentially two half-verse archetypes. The meager Faliscan remains may instantiate two Saturnian line archetypes, either by initial or (ante-) penultimate accentuation. Close examination of South Picene poetry likewise yields a Saturnian and several more accentual trochaic-dactylic cola according to Sabellian initial accentuation. The trochaic-dactylic colon is also found in Vestinian and Paelignian Oscan, and possibly Faliscan. Lastly, Paelignian attests a complex trochaic-dactylic pentapody. The synchronic descriptions I propose further point to a prehistoric Italic poetic-metrical unity, recoverable through the tentative reconstruction of an extendable and invertible *trochaic-dactylic colon. This is also found in archaic Celtic, suggesting a possible Proto-Italo-Celtic unity as well. That archaic Italic (and Celtic) meters can be described in coherent systems with reference to phonological accent has far-reaching implications for the broader comparison of Indo-European metrical systems and for the reconstruction of the Urvers.