If you’re a 24 fan, you may enjoy this enactment of 24 with 1994 technology. It’s the funniest thing I’ve had to try not to laugh at work to in a long time. [Note: it has a little bit of strong language; no more than you'd hear on the actual 24.]
Archive for November, 2007
do they know it’s christmas? (23rd anniversary)
Twenty-three years ago today, a group of pop stars (Boy George, Sting, George Michael, Bono, etc) got together and recorded “Do they know it’s Christmas time at all?” I heard this song every Christmas growing up on my local soft rock station. As a youth, I really liked the obvious lyrics and the apparently heartfelt performances. Once I started working in Africa (Kenya, specifically, and several other countries since), the portrait of Africa as this total basket case grated on me more and more. (There are parts of Africa that are very bad off; there are parts that are doing very well. The broad strokes painting a pathetic continent are not true and don’t help anyone.)
Now I both appreciate the obvious lyrics and am bothered by them. Last night I watched the video of the new recording from 2004 (with Dido, Chris Martin, Bono again, etc): not a bad watch.
Here is the video from the original 1984 recording. Here is the video from the 2004 version.
If you’re interested in who’s singing the different parts in the different versions, here’s a guide.
pass gas en español
Solo hablo en español con mis niños, y una situación que surge de vez en cuando es cuando el niño tiene gases o flatulencia. Todos sabemos que se puede decir “tirar un pedo” pero suena algo grosero, asi que buscaba una frase más cortes.
Una que encontré es ventosear, que se define como “break wind.” ¡Perfecto! ¿Alquién sabe de otras formas de decirlo?
a surprising beauty pageant
Insofar as you’re going to have a beauty pageant at all, having one that highlights the beauty of landmine victims is – I think – good. I’m not a big fan of the industry (okay, industries: beauty pageants and landmines) overall. Although I confess to a touch of inconsistency here, as I personally crowned Miss Busia 2000 (one of the preliminary pageants to Miss Kenya).
(Thanks to Blattman for the tip.)
how did I miss World Toilet Day?
The website for the World Toilet Organization starts out strong
International statistics (WHO and UNICEF 2000; WHO and UNICEF 2004) indicates that over 2.6 billion people in the world today are without any form of “improved sanitation”. The real situation is even worse: the statistics include toilets that are so bad, or shared by so many people that it cannot be regarded as “improved sanitation”.
But weakens later on
World Toilet Day has been declared to be on the 19th of November each year. The purpose of having this day is to have people in all countries to take action, increase awareness of toilet user’s right to a better toilet environment , and to demand for it from toilet owners. As such, it is also the toilet user’s duty to contribute towards its maintenance, cleanliness and hygiene. The public marks the day to practice toilet etiquette.
best excuse I read yesterday
He forgot an appointment. He’s late for work. His mother is calling him on the ultrasonic frequency reserved by the government for Jewish mothers in the event of lunch.
Awesome. From The Yiddish Policeman’s Union (p89).
And while I’m here, let me share a couple more metaphors.
Its Philipino-style Chinese doughnuts beckon like glittering sugar-dusted tokens of a better existence. [Truly spoken like a police officer!]
He talked like a sausage recipe with footnotes. [This is referring to a goy speaking Yiddish with a very academic style.]
Even though I don’t get all of Chabon’s metaphors, I really enjoy their creativity.
reseña del libro: La ciudad de las bestias, por Isabel Allende (dos palabras: estereotipado y aburrido)
Ya es obvio en el título que no me impresionó mucho este libro. No lo recomiendo para nada. Aquí es lo que escribí para Amazon:
bienvenidos a la selva de los clichés y del aburrimiento
Leí la mitad de este libro. Isabel Allende escribe con un español fácil de comprender para un lector (como yo) que no sea hablante nativo del español. El cuento promete ser interesante: un chico acompaña a su abuela a la selva amazona a encontrar “la bestia” (o sea, “bigfoot” en inglés). Pero no te asustes, cada persona en esta novela se conforma a su papel estereotipado. Los nativos son profundamente espirituales, muy pegados a la naturaleza, y sin egoísmo ningún. El antropólogo está pintado de una forma tan exagerada que me pareció farsa: solo habla de los nativos sanguinarios (quienes no lo son), tiene miedo de su propia sombra, y es altamente sexista. Las mujeres son sensatas y los hombres insensatos, etcétera, etcétera.Además, una vez que el grupo de exploradores se mete en la jungla, el libro se vuelve aburrido. Dos niños (incluso el protagonista) son secuestrados por unos nativos (pacíficos si no haces caso al secuestro) y Allende pasa mucho tiempo describiendo esta tribu idílica, todos compartiendo todo.
No es decir que nosotros en el oeste no podemos aprender de las culturas menos industrializadas. Seguro que sí podemos, pero el dibujo que pinta Allenda es tan blanco y negro que nada se parece a la vida real. Es una caricatura no más, pero no hace gracia.
[Es el segundo libro de Allenda que he dejado sin terminar. El otro fue Ines del alma mia, en el cual el personaje principal me pareció tan anacrónico que no lo aguanté. Algún día leo uno de sus libros clásicos, como La casa de los espíritus.]
a man who knows his way around a metaphor
I’m listening to Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, and I’m struck by this guy’s way with a metaphor. Two examples:
A narrow pile of dirty white brick and slit windows, three or four bloks off the tawdriest stretch of Monsatir Street, the place has all the allure of a dehumidifier.
and
His face is mostly jowl and his ridged forehead looks like one of those domed beehives you see representing industry in medieval woodcuts.
I heard the first one just as I returned from the store to exchange a humidifier, so it really hit home. I have no idea what he’s talking about in the second one, but somehow it rings clever.
my favorite African bird. okay, the African bird I happened to see most on my last trip
While I was in both Sierra Leone and the Gambia recently, I saw many flocks of a certain bird on the beach.
I sent the picture to a birder friend of mine and she identified it as the pied crow (corvus albus). Here is a clearer picture from Wikipedia, plus a bit of wiki-info.
The Pied Crow (Corvus albus) is a widely distributed African bird species in the crow genus.
Structurally, the Pied Crow is perhaps better thought of as a small crow-sized Raven, especially as it can hybridise with the Somali Crow (Dwarf Raven), Corvus edithae where their ranges meet in the Horn of Africa. Its behaviour though is more typical of the Eurasian Carrion Crows and it may perhaps prove to be a modern day link (along with the Somali Crow) between the Eurasian Crows and the Common Ravens.
I can’t help but get excited about something that might “prove to be a modern day link” between – well, anything.
