pensoj aliatagaj
a.out
Thompson's PDP-7 assembler outdid even DEC's in simplicity; it evaluated
expressions and emitted the corresponding bits. There were no libraries,
no loader or link editor: the entire source of a program was presented to
the assembler, and the output file - with a fixed name - that emerged was
directly executable. (This name, a.out, explains a bit of Unix etymology;
it is the output of the assembler. Even after the system gained a linker
and a means of specifying another name explicitly, it was retained as the
default executable result of a compilation.)
Source: The Development of the C Programming Language - Dennis M. Ritchie
Adverbs
The -ly ending which is now so characteristic of adverbs was originally
a noun, lic, meaning body or shape. From it we get the
word like - of the same shape. It then came to be used to make adjectives
from nouns, usually in the weakened form of -ly. Thus manlike
and manly are of identical origin. When the original meaning had been
more or less forgotten, the ending was also used to make secondary adjectives
from existing adjectives. Thus we find glædlic along with
glæd (glad) and even fæstlic along with
fæst. The Anglo-Saxons often used the instrumental cases of
these words - either the simple or the compound ones - to modify verbs and
adjectives as well as nouns. They could thus say either "He sang
glæde" or "He sang glædlice". Grammarians often
say that this caseform "developed into an adverb", but there was no perceptible
development; our ancestors were simply broadminded about their modifiers.
During the Middle English period the feeling somehow arose that the
-ly ending was the natural way to form adverbs, and the general pattern
for such pairs as beautiful-beautifully was firmly set. Some old
adjectives in -ly remained, and still do - manly,
friendly, goodly, and so forth; and the adverbial use of some
of the short forms such as fast and hard continue to be
recognized...
Source: The Roots of Modern English - L.M. Myers
Ain't
Eighteenth-century users [of the English language] had a greater choice of
contractions than [we do] now. As well as can't, don't,
isn't, and the like, there was han't (sometimes hain't)
for have not and an't for are not and am not.
An't, first recorded in 1723 in print in America though probably older,
evolved in two directions. Rhymed with taunt, it took on the spelling
aren't (the r being silent, as it still is in British English). Rhymed
with taint, it took on the spelling ain't. There was nothing
intrinsically superior in one form or the other, but critics gradually developed
a distaste for ain't.
Source: Made in America - Bill Bryson
Apatosaurus
Apatosaurus is not as well known as Brontosaurus,
but they are one and the same animal. Brontosaurus was well
known because several relatively complete skeletons of gigantic
proportions had been found and displayed worldwide. However it
was later found that the fossils named Brontosaurus were
identical to those of Apatosaurus, which had been named
earlier. Under the rules of nomenclature, an animal can have only
one name— the first published one. Brontosaurus,
therefore, is no more.
Source: A Guide to Dinosaurs - Brochu, Long, McHenry, Scanlon, Willis, and Brett-Surman
Bacon and eggs
If we had some bacon, we could have some bacon and eggs, if we had some eggs.
B
Challenged by McIlroy's feat in reproducing TMG, Thompson decided that Unix
- possibly it had not even been named yet - needed a system programming
language. After a rapidly scuttled attempt at Fortran, he created instead a
language of his own, which he called
B.
B can be thought of as C without types; more accurately, it is BCPL
squeezed into 8K bytes of memory and filtered through Thompson's brain.
Its name most probably represents a contraction of BCPL, though an
alternate theory holds that it derives from Bon [Thompson 69], an
unrelated language created by Thompson during the Multics days. Bon
in turn was named either after his wife Bonnie, or (according to an
encyclopedia quotation in its manual), after a religion whose rituals
involve the murmuring of magic formulas.
Source: The Development of the C Programming Language - Dennis M. Ritchie
Be
Old English, spoken from about 400 to 1100, had three verbs for
be: beon, esan, and wesan. They probably
differed in meaning, with beon referring to permanent states and
the other bes to temporary ones [as in the Spanish distinction
between ser (permanent) and estar (temporary)]... In
the Middle English period (1100-1450) they merged into one verb...
Beon supplied the base form for be; esan supplied
am, is, and are; wesan supplied was
and were.
Source: Words and Rules - Steven Pinker
Cellphones
Researchers have found that the risk of a car crash quadruples during the
five minutes after a driver places a call on a cellular phone - about the
same hazard as driving at the legal limit of alcohol consumption. Having
a phone in the car, they found, did come in handy after the crash.
Source: 1998 Old Farmer's Almanac, page 18
Chad
Perhaps the most surprising outcome of the USA presidential election
of November 2000 is that America finally learned the meaning of
chad.
Source: Personal Notebooks - William W. Patterson
The Chewing-Gum Tree
On the campus of a small college in the northeast there is an ancient
oak known as the "Chewing-Gum Tree". Its trunk, from the base
to as high as you can reach, is sheathed in a thick layer of hardened
gum wads, the residuum of several decades of ruminating students who
disposed of their spent quids by sticking them to the tree.
Source: The Quest, Nov/Dec 1999
Christmas
"Drive carefully", he said as he opened the front door. "This is a
Christian country and it's the Saviour's birthday. Practically everybody
you see will be drunk."
Source: The Genius and the Goddess - Aldous Huxley
Coal Heat
No fewer than 322 of New York City's 1200-odd public schools are heated by
coal... The Board of Education's reliance on this very inefficient and obsolete
technology makes it one of the nation's largest single consumers of anthracite.
Source: Invention & Technology, Summer 1996
Dates Down And Up
Now, some said afterward that Mr. Gramm was using humor or sarcasm to make a point.
But with politicians, how can you ever know for sure?...
"Well, it seems to me we ought to be encouraged that in the year 1000 they had
to add a new digit, and you had no evidence of economic disruption. And then
the millennium before, we had dates going down, and then they started going up,
and yet no evidence of disruption or chaos in the economy, so if they could do
it then, surely we could deal with it now, it seems to me."
Source: Phil Gramm, Republican Senator from Texas, Humphrey-Hawkins Testimony
Days Were Shorter Back Then
Days were only 18 hours long back in the Proterozoic era, some 900 million
years ago. Charles Sonett of the University of Arizona has studied records
of ancient tidal deposits preserved in rock strata. Like tree rings, the
periodicity of tidal sediments, or tidalites, provide an accounting of ancient
times. Sonett's data, collected in Utah, Indiana, Alabama, and Australia,
shows that long ago the day was shorter, the year longer, and the moon much
closer. As the moon recedes from the Earth (at a rate of 3.8 cm/year) it
continues to slow Earth's rotation, thus extending the day further. (C.P.
Sonett et al., Nature, 5 July.)
Source: AIP Physics News Update #282
Demando de Eŭklido
Eŭklido demandis iun el siaj lernantoj:
Kiun vi ŝatus havi: du pomojn aŭ iliajn kvar duonojn?
Mi preferas la duonojn, respondis la lernanto.
Kial? Ĉu ne estas egale?
Ne estas! Kiam ili estas tutaj, kiel mi sciu, ĉu ili ne estas vermoplenaj?
Source: Matematiko kaj legaĵoj por ĉiuj, de Arnaudov k Arnaudova
(Citis La Ondo de Esperanto, Julio 2001)
Denarius
...silver denarii, common coins equivalent to pennies in Roman times.
Until British currency was decimalized in 1971, "pence" was represented
by "d", an abbreviation for denarius...
Source: Archaeology Magazine, Mar/Apr 2000, page 18
Deutsch als Wunsch-Sprache der Amerikaner?
(Washington,dpa) - Es ist offenbar ein Mythos, aber ein höchst
lebendiger: "Eine einzige Stimme hat 1776 darüber entschieden, dass
Amerika Englisch statt Deutsch spricht", hatte der Schwarzen-Führer
Jesse Jackson den Delegierten des Demokraten-Parteitages in Los Angeles
zugerufen. Damit wollte er klar machen: Auf jede Stimme kommt es an.
Der US-Kongress soll Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts mit nur einer Stimme
Mehrheit beschlossen haben, Englisch statt Deutsch zur Amtssprache der
USA zu machen. Der Publizist Robert Cullen hat nun in "Washington Post"
versucht, den Mythos ein für alle Mal aus dem Weg zu räumen:
"In einfachem Englisch (nicht Deutsch): So war es nicht!" 1794 habe
eine Gruppe deutscher Einwanderer aus Virgina eine Eingabe an den
Kongress gerichtet, dass Bundesgesetze auch in Deutsch gedruckt werden.
Am 13. Januar 1795 habe das Repräsentantenhaus darüber
debattiert, konnte sich aber nicht einigen. Der Antrag auf Vertagung sei
schließlich mit 42 zu 41 Stimmen abgelehnt worden - das falsch
interpretierte Votum...
Source: Nordamerikanische Wochen-Post
DOS2000
IBM has launched a new PC DOS 2000 that automatically corrects the two-digit
dates that threaten to befuddle older computer systems, and also supports
the European Monetary Union's new euro currency symbol -- a management problem
that could prove even more troublesome for European businesses than the Y2K
problem. According to recent research, there are between 120 million and
150 million people who still use DOS on their desktop machines. "We believe
about half of those are business users," says a manager at IBM's Network
Computing Software division. That figure doesn't include users of Microsoft
Windows 3.1, which includes DOS as a component.
Source: InternetWeek, 27 May 1998
Eads Bridge
The Eads Bridge, as it began to be called even before its completion, had
its official opening on July 4, 1874. The years since have demonstrated the
worth of Ead's confidence in his own talents and the laws of nature... As
a business venture, however, the bridge was a failure... by the time St.
Louis completed its bridge, most Midwestern railroads either were owned or
controlled in Chicago or already ran through that city and saw no immediate
need to route traffic through St. Louis. Without the revenues they had expected,
the members of the St. Louis and Illinois Bridge Company found themselves
holding a beautiful bridge and millions of dollars worth of debt. They declared
bankruptcy in April 1875, not even a year after the grand opening.
Source: Invention & Technology, Spring 1996
Gender vs. Sex
Gender is a grammatical distinction and applies to words only.
Sex is a natural distinction and applies to living objects.
— R. Morris. (Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1996, 1998)
[Gender became a euphemism for sex during the late 1900s.
Since English doesn't have sex-based gender, I like to enter None
on forms that ask my gender.[Later I learned that some languages
distinguish between Animate and Inanimate, so perhaps
I'll start saying Animate instead.]]
Source: dictionary.com
Global Positioning System Y2K-1 Problem
The GPS user-equipment code is in even deeper trouble because of the Y2K
problem, and the breakage will occur well before 1 January 2000. Date, in
the GPS signal standard, uses exactly thirteen bits (these bits represent
a time-unit offset from a conventional epoch date). This allocation is burned
into proms on all existing GPS user equipment. On about 20 August 1999, the
actual date value will overflow this 13-bit type, and the equipment will
fail to produce correct time or position information. Best estimate is that
there are 1,000,000 pieces of user equipment that will be immediately affected.
Everybody who depends indirectly on those pieces of equipment (meaning all
the rest of us) will also be affected. The GPS standards committee is desperately
trying to figure out what to do with the problem.
Remind me not to fly that day!
Source: Risks Digest, Volume 18 Issue 96
Hogging
The warship designer of that period [eighteenth century] was faced with an
intractable dilemma: You could have speed, or you could have firepower, but
you couldn't have that much of both.
For a ship to remain afloat, a force equal to her weight has to be exerted
up against the entire submerged portion of the hull. Over a long time a vessel
built of wood, with its characteristic flexibility, will experience a natural
bowing up of its keel amidships as a result of the constant hydrostatic pressure
on its bottom. The phenomenon is known as hogging since the resulting
curvature in the keel resembles the arch of a hog's back.
This upward pressure of buoyancy is constantly at work on a ship afloat,
year in, year out. It is greatest at the deepest part of the vessel, the
keel. And the keel is weakest where the ship is widest, generally in the
midsection. Left unchecked, a vessel will hog until her timbers can flex
no more; then they will break, and the ship will sink.
Source: Invention & Technology, Fall 1997
Honesteco
Volapukano diras, ke ĉiu volapukano mensogas.
Mazes
Unlike the mazes in later centuries in which one could easily become lost,
these ancient mazes were one continuous path. Typically, the path began at
the perimeter of the maze, spiraled in toward the center, then turned and
spiraled outward again toward the perimeter.
Source: Wheel of the Year - Pauline Campanelli
Medical Care A Good Thing?
The Harvard biological chemist Lawrence J. Henderson once remarked that somewhere
around 1910 the progress of medicine in America reached the point where it
became possible to say that a random patient with a random disease consulting
a physician at random stood a better than a 50-50 chance of benefiting from
the encounter.
Source: The Big Change, by Frederick Lewis Allen
Microsleep
Research is now showing that the alerter is useless. Engineer fatigue studies
at the Illinois Institute of Technology show that engineers can enter a
sleep-like state called microsleep. The researchers were dumbfounded to learn
that engineers acknowledged the alerter far faster during microsleep than
when awake. An alert engineer may take a few seconds to acknowledge the alerter
while he performs some other task. The engineer in microsleep slaps the button
almost immediately. One researcher called it the "not now, dear" syndrome.
Source: Don Phillips, Trains July 1996
Miljara Paco
Serio de teruraj militoj instigis la naciojn al drasta solvo: la starigo
de internacie subtenitaj komitatoj kies tasko estis mortigi la estrojn
de iuj ŝtatoj kiuj ekmilitis pro iu ajn kaŭzo. Tio tiel
sukcese kuraĝigis pacajn solvojn al internaciaj problemoj, ke
rezultis jarcentoj de seninterrompa paco, kiujn oni iom troige nomis la
Miljara Paco.
Source: Tri rakontoj pri la Miljara Paco - John Francis
Milky Way
The first bar to appear under the
MILKY WAY
name was created in 1923 and is known today as MILKY WAY ORIGINAL. From
1936 the Mars company also produced a bar known as FOREVER YOURS, which
was discontinued in 1979. Due to popular demand FOREVER YOURS was
reintroduced in 1989, as MILKY WAY DARK. Consumer studies showed that people didn't
consider the chocolate in MILKY WAY DARK to be Dark Chocolate. Because
of that, and because Mars wanted to reposition the bar to appeal to a
broader audience, it was renamed MILKY WAY MIDNIGHT in 2000.
Source: MILKY WAY FAQ
Mimbres River Bowls
Mimbres [River] bowls [of the Anasazi/Mogollon] seem to have been very personal
items, used throughout one's life. They are often found in burials, inverted
over the face of the dead person; usually a small hole, called a kill hole,
has been deliberately punched through the bottom, as if to ceremonially retire
the vessel.
Source: Smithsonian, November 1996
Mocking Bird
The mockingbird is famous for its song. It does not actually imitate other
birds, but it has such a varied repertoire of its own that it can vocalize
for hours and sound like a whole forest of songbirds.
Source: Wheel of the Year - Pauline Campanelli
Nursery Rhymes
Nursery rhymes, for example, are fastidiously resistant to change... they
are sometimes among the longest-surviving features of any language. "Eenie,
meenie, minie, mo" is based on a counting system that predates the Roman
occupation of Britain, that may even be pre-Celtic... It not only gives us
a fragmentary image of how children were being amused at the time Stonehenge
was built, but tells us something about how their elders counted and thought
and ordered their speech.
Source: Made in America - Bill Bryson
Ohio Valley 1660-1730
For a period of 70 years following its conquest by the Iroquois during the
1660s, the Ohio Valley (Indiana, Lower Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky,
and western Pennsylvania) was almost entirely uninhabited. The Iroquois never
occupied the area but preferred to use it as a private hunting preserve.
Freed from the pressure of its former human population, the Ohio Country
quickly became a prime hunting territory. Although the Iroquois prevented
permanent settlements, small groups of Shawnee returned frequently to the
Ohio Valley to hunt, so during their many years of exile, the Shawnee never
completely surrendered the claim to their homeland.
Source: Shawnee History (http://www.dickshovel.com/shaw.html)
Pangea, the supercontinent
At various times in the past, all the Earth's landmasses
have been joined. One of those periods spans the boundary
between the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras [Triassic Period
is first part of Mesozoic Era], when today's continents
were joined in the single landmass of Pangea. North
America, Europe, and much of Asia formed the northern part
of the supercontinent [northern continent Laurasia
after breakup which began at end of Triassic Period and
continued slowly during Jurassic Period (first two parts (of
three) of Mesozoic Era)], and the southern part consisted
of South America, Australia, Africa, India, and Antarctica
[southern continent Gondwana after breakup].
Source: A Guide to Dinosaurs - Brochu, Long, McHenry, Scanlon, Willis, and Brett-Surman
Pilipino
On November 13, 1937, the First National Assembly approved a law
creating a National Language Institute to make a study and survey of
each of the existing native dialects, with a view to choosing one
which was to be used as a basis for the national language of the
Philippines... The Institute selected Tagalog to be the basis of
the national language. Thus, on December 31, 1937, President Quezon
proclaimed the language based on Tagalog as the National Language of
the Philippines... Commonwealth Act No. 570 was promulgated on July 4,
1946, when the independence of the Philippines was granted by the United
States. It provides for the use of the National Language as one of the
official languages of the Philippines (with Spanish and English) in
government offices... In 1961 the office of the Secretary of Education
introduced the use of the term Pilipino when referring to the
National Language... [Also see my Pilipino Page.]
Source: Basic Tagalog - Paraluman S. Aspillera
Product Suffixes
...products dating from the 1920s and early 1930s often ended in -ex
(Pyrex, Cutex, Kleenex, Windex) while those ending in -master (Mixmaster,
Toastmaster) generally betray a late 1930s or early 1940s genesis. The late
1940s saw the birth of a brief vogue for endings in -matic.
Source: Made in America - Bill Bryson
Pudding-Haut
Nicht alle mögen diese ledrige Haut, die sich beim
Abkühlen auf dem Milchpudding bildet. Diese Haut
entsteht, weil an der Oberfläche Flüssigkeit
verdampft. Zurück bleiben Stärke und Zucker, und
diese Bestandteile bilden die feste Schicht auf dem Pudding.
Wollen Sie die Hautbildung verhindern, legen Sie vor dem
Abkühlen einfach eine Folie auf den Pudding, so ist das
Verdunsten der Flüssigkeit nicht mehr möglich.
Source: Nordamerikanische Wochen-Post, 13. Januar 2001
Römische Ziffern und das Zifferblatt
Warum gibt es Uhren mit falschen römischen Ziffern?
Die meistern Uhren haben arabische, römische oder gar keine
Ziffern. Bei Uhren mit römischen Ziffern wird die Vier oft als
IIII statt IV dargestellt. Der vermeintliche Fehler ist
auf einen alte Tradition zurückzuführen. Als im 14. Jhd. die
ersten mechanischen Uhren erfunden wurde, konnte ein Grossteil der
Bevölkerung weder lesen noch subtrahieren. Da Addieren für
das gemeine Volk einfacher war, erschien die Vier auf öffentlichen
Uhren als IIII anstatt IV.
Source: 1000 MAL WARUM, Nordamerikanische Wochen-Post
Rossby Waves
Rossby waves are a natural result of the Earth's rotation and a key feature
of large-scale ocean circulation. In animations of altimeter data from the
TOPEX/Poseidon satellite, the waves appear as alternating positive and negative
sea level features traveling throughout much of the world's oceans. "Every
first-year student in physical oceanography learns about Rossby waves. However,
observing them away from the Equator has been extraordinarily difficult,
because they cause changes in sea level of 4 inches spread over hundreds
of miles, and move westward so slowly that a wave may take more than ten
years to cross the Pacific at the latitude of Los Angeles, and more than
30 years at the latitude of Portland, Oregon," said Dr. Victor Zlotnicki,
an oceanographer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA.
Source: RELEASE 96-71 NASA HQ Public Affairs Office
Sleep Deprivation
In the past century, we have reduced our average sleep time by 20%,
according to the National Sleep Foundation. When all time clues are
removed, people sleep for 10.3 hours per day, the same as monkeys. But
the average American, propelled awake by an alarm clock, sleeps only
seven. Lack of sleep causes numerous car accidents and countless
episodes of crabbiness.
Source: 1999 Old Farmer's Almanac, page 14
Steering Risk
I once heard an airline pilot give a talk where he said that he always has
his wife drive him home from the airport when he is done flying for the day.
The reason for this was that when a plane is on the ground, the rudder controls
(which are foot pedals) are used for steering, and the "steering wheel" of
the plane is not used at all. This pilot said that on more than one occasion
he came close to having an accident in his car because he instinctively tried
to steer with his feet.
Source: Risks Digest, Volume 17 Issue 74
Stone Age Chewing Gum
Teens have been chewing gum since the Stone Age, according to research published
in British Archaeology. Black lumps of prehistoric tar with small
human tooth impressions were found in northern Europe dating from about 7000
B.C. British researcher Elizabeth Aveling says the gum, made from birch bark
tar, had a "strange, smoky flavor".
Source: USA Today
Stonehenge
As recently as a hundred years ago, tourists visiting Stonehenge expected
to knock out chips from the slabs to take home as souvenirs. For this purpose,
a handy mallet was suspended by a rope from one giant upright.
Source: Smithsonian, September 1996
Synthetic vs. Analytical Languages
Old English differs from Modern English not only in its sounds
and its vocabulary, but in the way in which the words are put
together to form sentences. The difference is often summarized
by the statement that English has developed from a synthetic to
an analytical language. A synthetic language is one in which the
relations of words are shown primarily by their inflectional forms.
An analytical language is one in which differences in form have
largely disappeared, and relations are shown primarily by word-order,
supplemented by such "function words" as prepositions and auxiliary
verbs.
Source: The Roots of Modern English - L.M. Myers
[
Analytic is also known as isolating.
Agglutinative is a middle way—
See Morphological typology.
]
Thief of Time
Procrastination is the thief of time. (Edward Young, 1683-1765)
Punctuality is the thief of time. (Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900)
Titanic: Death rates by class and sex
|
|
Male . . .
|
Female . . .
|
|
1st Class . . .
|
66%
|
3%
|
|
2nd Class . . .
|
92%
|
16%
|
|
3rd Class . . .
|
88%
|
45%
|
Source: Women Can't Hear What Men Don't Say - Warren Farrell
Tortillas
Spanish tortilla is an omelet; only in Mexican
cuisine is it a flat round bread made from cornmeal.
Source: Dictionaries and personal experience
Verkehrsampel
Warum gibt es bei Verkehrsampeln verschiedene Farben?
Ampeln gab es schon vor den Autos, doch die erste Verkehrsampel
in unserem Sinne stand vermutlich in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. Die
Farben wurden von der Eisenbahn übernommen. Dort bedeutete rot
soviel wie anhalten und grün freie Fahrt. Manche Ampeln waren
in den fünfziger Jahren noch horizontal angeordnet. Doch die
gegenwärtige vertikale Lage ist eine Hilfe für farbenblinde
Menschen, um so eine bessere Orientierung zu ermöglichen.
Außerdem ist zur leichteren Unterscheidung dem Rot in der Ampel
etwas Orange, und dem Grün etwas Blau beigemischt.
Source: 1000 MAL WARUM, Nordamerikanische Wochen-Post
Viroj kaj militiroj
... komentistoj kaj aliaj ne interesiĝas pri la sorto de viroj:
certe ne, se la viroj estas soldatoj. Soldatoj, kiuj mortas en milito,
ne estas viktimoj. Se propraj, ili estas sennomaj herooj, se malamikaj
ili meritas la morton. La popolo ne priploras ilin. Neniu krom intimuloj
konscias, ke ankaŭ ili estas patro, filo, amato. Ili ne estas
homoj. Ili estas venkitaj soldatoj: milita balaaĵo.
En Irako nun kuŝas multaj miloj da mortaj korpoj de knaboj kaj
viroj, pro kiuj la mondo ne ploras. La vera tragedio de la milito estas
la senkompata, senkonscienca, indiferenta detruo de granda parto de
generacio. ...
... Raportistoj kaj komentistoj parolis nur pri la milito inter la
koalicio kaj Irako. Neniu diras ke usonaj, britaj kaj aŭstraliaj
viroj batalis kontraŭ irakaj viroj. Kial ne? La
respondo estas konsterne simpla: Estas memkompreneble, ke
soldatviroj mortigas soldatvirojn! ...
En pasintaj tempoj pluraj scienculoj asertis, ke inklino al milito
estas biologia faktoro en la vira sekso. Por tiu aserto mankas sciencaj
pruvoj. ... La plej decida faktoro estas kultura. ...
En sia libro Awaking from deep sleep (Vekiĝinte el profunda
dormo) la usona psikologo Robert Pasick skribis: Se usonaj viroj
parolas pri intimo, tenero, mildo, ili pensas pri virinoj aŭ
infanoj; preskaŭ neniam pri viroj, krom se ili estas samseksemaj.
Iliaj rilatoj kun aliaj viroj, eĉ se amikaj, preskaŭ ĉiam
havas konkuran elementon. Se estiĝas malkonkordo, la konkuro facile
ŝanĝiĝas al agreso aŭ abrupta rompo de la amikeco.
En momento la amiko fariĝas seninteresa, kvazaŭ la amikeco
neniam ekzistis. ...
... En la usona kulturo la preteco de viroj elimini el sia vivo
aliajn virojn faras ilin eksterordinare taŭgaj por elimini virojn,
kiuj jam estas fremdaj, kiel estas la malamikaj soldatoj. La sorto de
tiuj viroj simple ne interesas ilin. Certe ankaŭ la pli multaj
eŭropaj kaj arabaj viroj estas same indiferentaj pri la sorto de
la malamikaj samseksuloj sur la batalkampo. ...
Source: Leen DEIJ, Heroldo de Esperanto, 16-18 julio 2003
Your Money Or Your Life
[Jack Benny said...] In my opinion (which I value highly) the finest joke
I ever did on radio was this one. Walking home at night. Sound effects of
my footsteps. Then somebody else's footsteps - behind me. Holdup man shoves
a gun in my ribs. He snarls "Your money or your life." There was a pause
while I mulled over the question. He got impatient. "Come on, hurry up."
he says. "I'm thinking it over." I reply, obviously burned up by
this thief's haste.
[Background. Here is how the joke was created. Milt Josefsberg and John
Tackaberry were working on the script...] Josefsberg said "John, I think
I got a funny thief line. There's this holdup man, with a gun, and he says
to Jack, 'Your money or your life.' - But I can't come up with a funny answer."
"Neither can I." replied Tackaberry. Josefsberg began repeating the feeder
line over and over: "Your money or your life. Your money or your life. Your
money...". "Stop nagging," yelled Tackaberry, "I'M THINKING IT OVER." Josefsberg
pounded his partner on the back and said "That is the best line you
ever wrote in your life!". "What line?" Tackaberry asked.
Source: Sunday Nights at Seven, the Jack Benny Story - Jack Benny & Joan Benny
Zen Flies
In San Francisco during the early fifties fly fishing was an important part
of the Beat scene. Widespread interest in Buddhism and nature naturally led
to Zen Flies. It was admittedly a passing phenomenon - as one angler-poet
later explained in City Lights Review: "It got to where the perfect cast
meant no cast. Eventually we just went swimming."
Source: Tricycle, Summer 1997
21 Februaro 1996 de Ailanto kreita, 17 Septembro 2006 modifita.