Miscellany
Sep. 8th, 2012 04:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stoutfellow1. I learned, this past week, a couple of etymologies. "Stroppy" (a la Steve Irwin) is apparently derived from "obstreporous" (no real surprise there, I guess), and "ornery" originated as a modification of "ordinary". I can see the latter phonetically, but how you get from here to there semantically is puzzling.
2. Most of my Amazon order arrived today - all but the Connelly (Arab Folk Epic and Identity) and the Mazrui (The Africans: A Triple Heritage). I think I'll make Algebraic Set Theory my next bus book, after I finish Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms.
3. I think I saw Buster limping a bit this afternoon, favoring his left foreleg. I've been watching since, but I can't tell whether it's continued, and visual and tactile examination of both forelegs didn't reveal anything. (Nor did he display any signs of pain during the latter.) I'll keep an eye on things.
4. It continues to amuse me how many of Warner Brothers' classic cartoon characters have speech impediments of one kind or another. The only major ones I can think of who don't are Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam. Even Foghorn Leghorn has an occasional stammer. (I assume the explanation is that Mel Blanc used impediments as a tool in establishing distinct character voices, but it's still funny.)
5. I've listened to several of the songs from Springsteen's Wrecking Ball album lately; I found "Death to My Home Town" striking, especially in comparison with his earlier "My Hometown". The latter is a song of despair; the former, though it deals with the same general topic, is angry, pinning the blame for the town's decline squarely on a specific group of villains.
2. Most of my Amazon order arrived today - all but the Connelly (Arab Folk Epic and Identity) and the Mazrui (The Africans: A Triple Heritage). I think I'll make Algebraic Set Theory my next bus book, after I finish Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms.
3. I think I saw Buster limping a bit this afternoon, favoring his left foreleg. I've been watching since, but I can't tell whether it's continued, and visual and tactile examination of both forelegs didn't reveal anything. (Nor did he display any signs of pain during the latter.) I'll keep an eye on things.
4. It continues to amuse me how many of Warner Brothers' classic cartoon characters have speech impediments of one kind or another. The only major ones I can think of who don't are Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam. Even Foghorn Leghorn has an occasional stammer. (I assume the explanation is that Mel Blanc used impediments as a tool in establishing distinct character voices, but it's still funny.)
5. I've listened to several of the songs from Springsteen's Wrecking Ball album lately; I found "Death to My Home Town" striking, especially in comparison with his earlier "My Hometown". The latter is a song of despair; the former, though it deals with the same general topic, is angry, pinning the blame for the town's decline squarely on a specific group of villains.
