Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue

Something/Someone Old
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I'm now reading The Fashion in Shrouds by Marjorie Allingham. It was published in 1938. It's a really good mystery, but odd in the way that I find Allingham's style to be odd; you think she's coasting along on the surface of things (perhaps because of her main character's cerebral, ironic, witty, upper-class British point of view) and then suddenly you realize she's being quite insightful about people's characters--their complexities and odd motivations.

There's a fair amount of sexist assumptions about women in the book.

"You're a sensible, reasonable, masculine soul. If you fell in love and something went wrong you'd think it all out like a little gent and think it all quietly away, taking the conventional view and the intelligent path and saving yourself no end of bother because your head plus your training is much stronger than all your emotions put together. You're a civilised masculine product. But when it happens to me, when it happens to Georgia, our entire world slides round. We can't be conventional or take the intelligent path except by a superhuman mental effort. Our feeling is twice as strong as our heads and we haven't been trained for thousands of years. We're feminine, you fool!"

Even though I know plenty of people (Dorothy Sayers, for instance) who did not agree with those assumptions in 1938, I'm still inclined to give Allingham a Mulligan on this one, due to the time in which she was writing. Yet it's also true that the statements about women obtrude into your experience of the book like an occasional pothole obtrudes into your experience of a smooth road. I mention this in case anybody here actually picks up books I recommend--I wouldn't want you to be unpleasantly surprised. I feel the book is worth reading despite those odd little jolts.

Something New
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I'm watching a new sageuk, a South Korean historical drama. It's a lot of fun. I think I'm actually going to watch all the way to the end of the season.

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It has an amnesiac prince who falls in love with a prickly spinster. Having forgotten who he is, he thinks he is a working man (and doesn't do a very good job of it). The prickly spinster is also a noblewoman in hiding, whose family was killed and outlawed by a real jerk of a prime minister. Sageuks seem to provide really awful villains.

I highly recommend it. Got some really good child actors in it too.

Something Borrowed
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Given the relationship the U.S. has had with South Korea over the years--which, whatever we may think of it, certainly has had a big influence--it's a little surprising that we haven't appropriated more Korean loan words into English. There are so many English words that have been appropriated into South Korean that some academics feel--or fear--that Korean is diverging into two separate languages. Most of the words we've taken from them refer to Korean food (bulgogi, bibimbap, kimchi, soju) or Korean martial arts (tae kwan do) or, rather horribly, Korean cults and diseases that came from Asia to the West (Moonies, hanta virus). In other words, there aren't many Korean words in English except those words that we use to refer to specifically Korean things. It's not like the word patio (Spanish, from Latin), klutz (Yiddish) and chocolate (Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs), which we use as a matter of course, as in That klutz knocked over the pitcher of chocolate I left on the patio.

Speaking of chocolate (or chokollit), it is, in fact a loanword from English into Korean (Korean as it's spoken in South Korea; North Korea has tried to eliminate both English and Chinese loanwords from its language.

Something Blue
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Meet the Siamese fighting fish.

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I seem to be on an Asian kick today (although, it's a pretty damned big continent, and there's probably not a lot in common between Korea and Thailand).

They're also known as bettas. How pretty!

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Oddly, although they're known as "fighting fish," they are apparently easy to keep.

In case you want to get a betta fish, here's a "before you buy a betta fish" video:

And here's a really cool video on how to make a lucky bamboo betta tank!

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

so I will be back sometime around 8 a.m.

Talk freely amongst yourselves! Smile Smile Smile Smile Smile Smile

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

lotlizard's picture

now appears to be worth thousands of dollars?

http://vielecomics.de/galerielaqua/seiten_englisch/eoausShelton_Sheridan...

Granted, these aren’t like official auction prices at Sotheby’s and Christie’s, and I doubt that the gallery has special insurance with Lloyd’s of London — nor is it in danger of being broken into and robbed by the Lebanese organized crime clans reportedly responsible for the Dresden Green Vault jewel heist or the theft of the 100 kg Queen Elizabeth giant gold coin in Berlin… but interesting, even so. Even the most snubbed, marginalized, and looked-down-upon pop phenomena sometimes become a valued part of world cultural history and heritage, given enough time…

And:
The U.S. government is still dragging its feet on bringing U.S. paper money into line with that of other countries, which use different colors, different sizes, and tactile features to make denominations distinguishable by people who are blind or visually impaired. Even though the ACB (American Council of the Blind) won its lawsuit, filed in 2002, in 2008. Come on, Biden-Harris Treasury, if you can do Tubman, you can also speed up this. Or are the blind somehow back-of-the-bus / bottom of the progressive stack?

https://visionaware.org/blog/visionaware-blog/progress-update-united-sta...

https://www.qwant.com/?q=American%20council%20blind%20lawsuit%20paper%20...

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@lotlizard

is just the sort of thing a neoliberal Biden/Harris administration could do, and do well. I guess they don't do it because they want to move us all away from material currency.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

enhydra lutris's picture

@lotlizard @lotlizard

visually and hearing impaired and they sign Presidential speeches. That's a huge concession from our government, one that couldn't even put wheelchair ramps on courthouses and such where they would often summon the "leg impaired" to appear until the late sixties and seventies.

be well and have a good one

Edited to add Until ... etc,

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Dawn's Meta's picture

I found a Chinese tv series with English subtitles:
Ruyi Royal Love in the Palace
Official Trailer

It's 87 parts long. If I understand the politics, Chinese government eventually shut it down for not being socialist enough.

Sets, costuming, intrigue, complex character interactions, make this fascinating stuff. I try to take it in small doses.

About those Beta: Siamese Fighting Fish...my dad had those. If two males are in a tank together they will shred each other to death. Some people subdivide tanks with acrylic or glass to separate them. If they can see each other they will continue to bang and charge the other fish they can see. It was a fad for awhile to have one in a small bowl like vase on a desk. Cruel to my way of thinking.

Thanks for the lovely OT.

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A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Dawn's Meta

Jesus. I would never put two males in the same tank, knowing that they would attack each other without ceasing until one of them was dead. That's actually rarer in the non-human animal world than people think.

If all species always acted like that, they wouldn't succeed as well. IMO.

And you're welcome! Always nice to see you, DM.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
Territorial fights rarely result in death, but with the loser running away into exile.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

That actually makes me feel better.

It really isn't particularly helpful to most species to have regular death matches.

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4 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
It's just mathematics. If a male can corner all the females for himself his genes will concentrate in the population. To the extent that the behavior is inherited (excess testosterone?) it will be reinforced in the next generation.

Sadly this pugnacious oversexed behavior is readily recognized in High school and even Junior High.
Even in male bands (or cliques) there must be a leader who is allowed to punch down on his followers and has first crack at the females. Adolescent behavior (and often, sadly, in later life) mirrors the African Veldt. As reflected in my sig.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Dawn's Meta

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8 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

up
5 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Raggedy Ann's picture

When I was watching the series Mad Men, I would remember the treatment of women in the 60's and it infuriated me all over again. I turned 8 in 1960, so the 60's were mostly my formative years, for which I still suffer today. I would buy most things for my children on lay-away, which I loved. But for furniture and such, one needed either a credit card or store credit. I remember my dad having to co-sign for me to get store credit in a furniture store. As a single mother in the 70's they thought of me as "not a man" who would meet my obligations. So happy those days are over, but then again, now they want us to be in deep debt. America! Sigh.

Ah the memories - must pack them away again and live in the present.

Got snow overnight - about two inches. The roads will be bad until the sun melts them. Road crews won't get it done in the city - they're never prepared for snow, lol.

Enjoy the day! Pleasantry

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

@Raggedy Ann
I was 21, nearly 22, a college graduate and a Civil service engineer with the US Navy. I was a newlywed and we needed furniture for our apartment.

My sister was a programmer for sears. They sent her to IBM school as a result of a discrimination lawsuit. When she later quit for a better job, they cancelled her credit card. When she asked the credit department why (she never missed a payment) they told her "we don't think you can keep a job if you are not working for us". I advised her to get a card at Montgomery ward's. She did and never shopped at Sears again. She had no employment problems until the post-dotcom-crash massacre of American born programmers. At that time she was 63 and I advised her to take SS early. She didn't really want to but needed something to pay her rent.

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7 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

lotlizard's picture

Protest against 9 p.m. curfew, imposed for the first time since the Nazi occupation during World War II

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9184963/Dutch-mayor-warns-count...

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but sweet.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvAaamC6wdk]

Thanks for the books/video recs. I can't seem to relax enough to consume anything nonfiction these days but I will file the above list of offerings away in a brain cell for later. I do have a short stack of Ngaio Marsh mysteries waiting for me on a side table within reach, I think you are the one that recommended her many moons ago. I've read a few of them but the rest are waiting (and gathering dust Smile )

TY for the OT.
edited for a non

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enhydra lutris's picture

today requiring carck of dawn garden intervention and inordinantly obstinate frost scraping on the truck windows before an early morning grocery run. I dug for my almost never used frost scraper, a cheapo plastic taping knife and found an accidental momento, a purpose built logo emblazoned glove-box windshield scraper from the time we almost got snowed in at the Tenaya Lodge while attending a wildlife rehabbers symposium. Heh. First time I ever drove with chains on, and hopefully the last.

Good wishes for Kate's labs, I assume you don't have the results yet.

Acquariums can be fun, but do require paying attention. It isn't just betas that can go berserk. I had a 10 gallon tank with 2 Angelfish and tried to make it a community tank. Kept losing fish. Fussed and fretted about the food, water, aeration, plants and such until one of the Angels turned up dead too, with wounds aplenty. The larger Angel was eating or at least attacking everybody else.

Curious - what's Korean for "round-eyed ignorant asshole"? Heh.

Thanks for the OT.

be well and have a good one.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@enhydra lutris Curious - what's Korean for "round-eyed ignorant asshole"? Heh.

I don't think they'd tell me that.

Wink Wink Wink Wink Wink

As another person who lives in a place where it rarely freezes, I feel ya about the garden. Kate found a cool DIY where people bought cheap dollar-store plastic umbrellas and took the ends off and drove the stick part of the umbrella into the ground. The plastic top of the umbrella then neatly covered the plant.

Course it wouldn't work if the plant was above a certain size, but seems like a nifty idea.

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4 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@enhydra lutris

there's been no significant fluctuation for some time now.

Officially, she is now "long-term, stable," which is great news.

If it weren't for COVID, we could contemplate travel at this point.

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6 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver