yes, perhaps?

the sock monster, a great cartoon series rippled from here. i suggest you read it from time to time.

haut de moien am wortchen…

note the great german grammar. and the way in which this kind of police report makes the news in luxembourg. ah, marienland, comme tu m’amuses… jo war et da lo eng bäckerei oder eng épicerie? an wat ass mat der spuerbëchs geschitt? eieiei…

Dieb mit Schwäche für Süßes

Einbruch in Geschäft in Esch/Alzette

(jot) – Einen Christstollen und vier Marzipanstücke hat ein Mann am frühen Montagmorgen gegen drei Uhr aus einem Geschäft in Esch/Alzette gestohlen. Der Dieb war durch ein eingeschlagenes Fenster in das Geschäft gestiegen. Er bestritt jedoch später gegenüber der Polizei, das Fenster selbst eingeschlagen zu haben. Er sei nur ins Geschäft gestiegen, um nach dem Rechten zu sehen.

Die Polizei ertappte den Dieb auf frischer Tat. Der Besitzer stellte später fest, dass eine Spardose, vier Marzinpanstücke und ein Christstollen gestohlen worden waren. Die Staatsanwaltschaft ordnete eine Hausdurchsuchung in der Wohnung des Mannes an. Dabei wurden die gestohlenen Süßwaren sichergestellt. Die Spardose konnte jedoch nicht aufgefunden werden.

Die Staatsanwaltschaft leitete ein Strafverfahren gegen den Dieb ein und ordnete seine Verhaftung an. Da nützte dem Mann es auch nichts, dass er behauptete, die Spardose unweit des Geschäftes auf dem Boden gesehen zu haben und nichts mit ihrem Diebstahl zu tun zu haben.

(LW 17.11.09)

phew.

my yearning today is at least as great as when i was fifteen. it takes no effort at all, but my head is wobbly and i cannot make decisions or work properly. i am accompanied by that song ‘desireless’ by eagle-eye cherry that i once categorised as the sexiest song ever. i’m not so sure about that now, but it’s an awesome song.

i want to laugh about it all.

deliverance. now. yes. please

names. patronymes.

came across the following which i had no idea about:

Dans la plupart des civilisations antiques, un seul nom, qui n’était pas héréditaire, servait à désigner l’individu.

Les Romains utilisaient un système de trois noms : le prénom, le gentilice (nom du groupe de familles) et le cognonem (surnom, devenu nom de famille). Deux seulement, en général, pour les gens du peuple. Ce système s’est étendu sur tout l’Empire et notamment la Gaule.

Les Barbares mettent le système à bas. Les populations ne portent plus désormais qu’un nom qui ne se transmet pas.

Problème : il y a trop d’homonymes. On ajoute alors au nom un surnom. Ces surnoms sont généralement issus de la profession exercée, Meyer pour le meunier par exemple, ou d’un sobriquet lié à l’apparence (Leroux, Lagrandeur), au lieu de vie ou d’origine (Dulac), à un trait de caractère (Loiseau, Lamy), ou au rang social (Lemaître). Ces surnoms ont été peu à peu transmis aux enfants et ainsi pérennisés.

Au XV e siècle, l’on commence à fixer les noms de famille. En 1474, Louis XI interdit de changer de nom sans une autorisation royale.

En 1539, François Ier promulgue l’ordonnance de Villers-Cotterêt. Celle-ci rend obligatoire la tenue de registres d’état-civil. Le but : trouver de la «chair à canon» pour les batailles à mener au nom du Roi. La tache est confiée aux curés. Etape suivante : la Révolution française. La tenue de l’état-civil passe désormais dans les attributions de l’État et se fait à la mairie de chaque commune.

La loi du 6 fructidor de l’an II (23 août 1794) interdit de porter d’autre nom et prénoms que ceux inscrits à l’état-civil, sauf autorisation du Conseil d’Etat. En 1870, l’apparition du livret de famille fige définitivement l’orthographe de tous les patronymes.

Certains, malsonnants, sont lourds à porter : Assassin, Baise, Bordel,Cosnard, Fayot, Garce, Gaudiche, Groslard, Lapine, Maquereau,Monsallot, Nique, Putin, Simplet, Soulard, Tapin. Il est désormais possible de les modifier devant les tribunaux.

Les noms les plus portés en France sont en fait des prénoms : Martin, Bernard, Dubois, Thomas, Robert, Richard… Le moins porté : Lancellotti.

also on jewish family names here and european family names here, here on russian names…

Porcellio scaber. most amazing little critter.

Woodlice need moisture because they breathe through gills, called pseudotrachea, and so are usually found in damp, dark places, such as under rocks and logs. They are usually nocturnal and are detritivores, feeding mostly on dead plant matter, although they have been known to feed on cultivated plants, such as ripening strawberries and tender seedlings. Woodlice then recycle the nutrients back into the soil. In artificial environments such as greenhouses where it can be very moist, woodlice may become abundant and damage young plants ^[1].

The woodlouse has a shell-like exoskeleton, which it must progressively shed as it grows. The moult takes place in two stages; the back half is lost first, followed two or three days later by the front. This method of moulting is different from that of most arthropods, who shed their cuticle in a single process.

A female woodlouse will keep fertilised eggs in a marsupium on the underside of her body until they hatch into small, white offspring. The mother then appears to “give birth” to her offspring.

Some species of woodlice are able to roll into a ball-like form when threatened by predators, leaving only their armoured back exposed. This ability, or dominant behavior, explains many of the woodlouse’s common names.

Metabolic rate is temperature dependent in woodlice. In contrast to mammals and birds, invertebrates are not “self heating”: the external environmental temperature relates directly to their rate of respiration. They are not generally regarded as a serious household pest as they do not spread disease and do not damage wood or structures; however, their presence can indicate dampness problems.

Woodlice are eaten by a wide range of insectivores, but the only animals known to prey exclusively on woodlice are spiders of the genus Dysdera, such as the woodlouse spider Dysdera crocata ^[2].

yeah!

joyful friday.

lots of reasons to be happy. what a ride it’s been this week. been to the depths of sadness and elated, inspired and bored and angry and playful. geeez. evening it all out? nae too sure about that at the moment.

i miss you already and look forward to your return. i hope the mountains are kind to you. i’ll get the burnt rice ready love.

this song accompanies me just now.

connections between people travel across meadows and cities. they’re what matters.

robert graves.

Just came across Robert Graves. Fascinating man. I love this poem. More of the sort here.

TO AN UNGENTLE CRITIC

The great sun sinks behind the town
Through a red mist of Volnay wine….
But what’s the use of setting down
That glorious blaze behind the town?
You’ll only skip the page, you’ll look
For newer pictures in this book;
You’ve read of sunsets rich as mine.

A fresh wind fills the evening air
With horrid crying of night birds….
But what reads new or curious there
When cold winds fly across the air?
You’ll only frown; you’ll turn the page,
But find no glimpse of your “New Age
Of Poetry” in my worn-out words.

Must winds that cut like blades of steel
And sunsets swimming in Volnay,
The holiest, cruellest pains I feel,
Die stillborn, because old men squeal
For something new: “Write something new:
We’ve read this poem—that one too,
And twelve more like ‘em yesterday”?

No, no! my chicken, I shall scrawl
Just what I fancy as I strike it,
Fairies and Fusiliers, and all
Old broken knock-kneed thought will crawl
Across my verse in the classic way.
And, sir, be careful what you say;
There are old-fashioned folk still like it.

dinosaurs on the window sill.

i like summer. even though it is only a semblance of summer in aberdeen, i like it.

i want to spend it with you. what did they say in that film? you make me want to be a better person.

muhahaha.

little miss tut and the object of tz.

i thought this was one of the OED’s less skillful descriptions:

tut, n

also tutt, -e, 9 Sc. tuts.

. 9 Sc. toot, tout; toots. [A natural utterance; the spelling tut sometimes represents the palatal click (also spelt TCHICK, TCK). Cf. also hut tut, hoot toot, hout tout s.v. HOOT int.] 

An ejaculation (often reduplicated) expressing impatience or dissatisfaction with a statement, notion, or proceeding, or contemptuously dismissing it. (The Sc. toot, toots, expresses mild expostulation.)