blogblond gets smarter. or not.

so i just finished reading a book which i am dying to brag that i read. it is called 'a curable romantic' by joseph skibell.

this book slips casually from english into french, german, hebrew, yiddish, and esperanto. the french and german are fairly easy, the hebrew is mostly translated, the yiddish is translated sometimes, and the esperanto is mostly decipherable if you have a background in romance languages and latin.

oddly enough, the most difficult language for me in this book was the english. now, all kidding aside, i am not an intellectual slouch. in spite of my uncorrected typos on this blog, and in spite of my blond relationship to all things technical, i am a fairly proficient speaker of english. i would say that i am, in fact, mostly fluent. however, this book required me to sit with a dictionary by my side- 6 words in the first 8 pages alone!- and i can't exactly figure out who could read this book otherwise. i was tempted to take the easy road and just guess at the words from their contexts, but i figured 'in for a penny, in for a pound'- or really, if i was going to spend the time to read this massive novel (two words that don't usually bode well when used together) i would do it "properly" (yes, i am married to a brit...)

the plot was surprisingly good, although by the third section i was losing my zest. the ending (page 593) was sort of weird, but overall it was a good read and a worthwhile use of time. the problem is, i can't figure out who in the world i can recommend this book to. who but an overindulged jewish intellectual (hello, joseph skibell) flits in and out of languages so casually? who will have enough familialrity with the hebrew alphabet to read both the hebrew and the yiddish, but be worldly enough to hang in there through the french, german, and esperanto? as the plot drags into the third section, it helps immensely to have a familiarity with jewish shtetl/ghetto culture.

oh, as an aside, i had a native yiddish speaker translate the dedication for me (yeah, red flag #1 is when you can't even understand the stuff leading up to chapter 1...) and it made even less sense in english than in yiddish. so, in some ways it's that kind of book.

so, i am bragging and throwing down a gauntlet- read this book, if you dare. belong to the elite blogblond reading circle. intimidate friends and influence people. or at least carry it around with you and astound those who try to read it after you.

happy translating! -BB

more obama, same old nonsense

news has it that our illustrious president has come up with a way to catch our lagging students up with pretty much everyone in the world. he has put forth a suggestion to lengthen the school year, as if longer is better when it comes to education.

as if more of a bad thing is good. as if substandard times substandard equals substantive. as if spending more time, mopre money, and more resources has paid any dividends thus far in public education.

in fact, public education may be the only industry that makes more money the more it fails.

how about this: try teaching kids instead of wasting precious time and squandering scarce resources trying to indoctrinate them into political correctness. imagine how much more math kids could learn if they didn't have to learn not to subtract because it hurts people's feelings. i wonder how much more reading kids could do if they didn't have to attend assemblies on embracing bobby's 3 daddies. could teachers have more time to plan exciting and engaging lessons if every word did not have to be censored in fear of Offending some protected class?

how about this: make education about education instead of indoctrination. or at least avoid momentary/transient fads like sex ed for kindergardeners and ethical relativism for middle schoolers. maybe we should put more emphasis on actually using the hours that children are already held captive by mostly boring and ineffective teachers (who can often be hamstringed into being boring and ineffective by having to teach to the mid level of mediocrity instead of being encouraged to be innovative and inspiring). maybe we should figure out why our system isn't working, rather than assuming that we just don't do enough of this poor tecahing...

if a company turned out substandard widgets, would the CFO propose that they should just make more? if a family has their children taken away by social services for neglect and abandonement should they just have more kids so they can do better? will they beat the odds that way? if i am burning batch after batch of cookies should i just keep putting more in the oven, or cook them longer??? perhaps i should adjust the temperature of the oven or check the recipe to find out that i forgot the margarine...

the point is that public education needs to be re-evaluated and re-designed, not just lengthened and dragged out.

but what do i know? i'm just a right wing wacko.

and, by the way, i homeschool.

of bitches and other linguistic conundrums

so i was thinking last night about the word "bitch". we all know that a bitch is a female dog (and possibly other animal varitites?), but we also know how it is used. so here is my question:

female dogs are submissive to males. when a bigger or stronger or more alpha dog comes along, the female will flop onto her back and expose her belly for petting or ripping apart. when they mate, the female is practically getting raped, and she just kind of stands there and takes it while the boy dog (with no nasty nickname) runs his agenda on her. a mother dog will nurse her puppies and try to protect them, but if someone higher on the totem pole walks over, she will even let them take away her babies.

so why is a powerful or assertive or aggressive or pushy or strong woman a bitch? why is a woman who walks into a boardroom and commands respect a bitch? why is that bad driver a bitch? why is someone who screws people over a bitch? i'm not commenting on whether or not these people deserve our scorn or deserve to be cursed out, i am just wondering why they are labeled as something that is almost the complete opposite of their behaviour.

it's not like it's said in sarcasm, the way you tell an idiot that he is sooooooooo smart. it's not said condescendingly, like you are taking them down a notch by slyly calling them weak and ineffective. no- the word "bitch" is used as the ultimate condemnation of all things ugly. and it's not even accurate.

so what's up with that? other swear words pretty much fit. i'm not gonna go through a list, but they usuallly prettty accurately describe the situation. bitch just doesn't seem to fit.

any insights into this bastardization of language, or am i just being a bitch?

burn baby, burn

so, rather predictably, some guy wants to have a public service to commemorate 9/11 where he will burn the koran. i don't know the particulars, and don't have time to research it, but i'll give you some general thoughts on the general idea.

so what?????????????

the military is afraid that this "aggressive" act will spark more violence against our troops in the middle east. i'm sorry, but don't you guys have, like, WEAPONS??? aren't you guys trained to, um, kick some ass??? is american military policy now to cower at the strong feelings of our enemies??? obviously working hard to not offend the peace loving muslims has worked really well up until now. there have only been about 85 trillion IED attacks on our troops when someone in america DIDN'T burn the koran. hmmmmmmmmmmmm...

on another front, this act (the koran burning) is apparently a huge assault on the first amendment. has anyone saying this actually read the first amendment? because is it pretty clear (not blurry like the 2nd amendment obviously is...) that the first amemndment- actually the entire bill of rights- restricts the powers of the government against the people. it protects the citizens of the US from government abuses of certain 'fundamental' rights. so, whose rights is the government trampling on when a private citizen burns a private copy of the stupid- oops, i mean holy- koran? for that matter, why do those in favor of building a victory monument- oops, i mean an islamic cultural center- on ground zero also invoke the first amendment? whose free speech is being restricted? the muslims who are allowed to build untold numbers of mosques all over our country? the friendly brotherly loving folks who will skin you alive and cut your throat while they chant allah hoo akbar into a camera lense? has anyone heard the quote that all it takes for evil to prevail is for good people to satnd by and do nothing???

being americans, we of course take it to the next level of stupidity. it is not enough to allow them to do their own thing- we have to facilitate it, sanction it, bless it, and wish it well. can we sharpen your sword for you? pack shrapnel into your bomb belt? lick your feet clean while you slowly but surely try to turn american freedoms against us? perhaps the US governenment should put american flags and bibles into our foreign aid budget so the islamic nuts will have something to burn while they eat our food and use our medicine. wouldn't want them to be bored, because then they might turn violent. and how un-muslim would that be???

i am so done with those who will stand on the backs of the fallen to be first in line to kiss the asses of our enemies. unfortunatlely, it seems that they are only just beginning...

gotta go burn my koran- BB

blog-baby grows up

here's a cute story about the child formerly known as blogbaby:



she is now 5 and started school yesterday. the teacher was talking about different letters and how each one makes a sound. she took a foam letter shape and asked it, "what sound do you make?" she pretended to listen and the letter didn't tell her. so she explained to the letter that she wanted to teach the children about letter sounds, so would the letter please tell the class what sound it makes. my daughter raised her hand and asked, "have you considered that the letter is not answering you because really it is just piece of foam?"



gotta love that kid. good luck to her teachers! seriously, though, they loved it, and it makes a great welcome back blog post! -BB

blogblond rides again!

hey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! after getting locked out of my blog and trying repeatedly to break in, i finally did it!! it was shockingly easy (go ahead and try it!), but now i can post again. looking forward to reconnecting with my many many fans (hahahaha). see you in the blogasphere! -BB