Happy (Birdy) Halloween!

Here's a very nice little animation for Halloween! Enjoy.

"Reporting" shouldn't just be parroting

At the LA Times, Michael Hiltzik looks at a woman whose health care plan was cut and who's been on a lot of tv news shows complaining about it.

Surprise! (Not really.) He finds that if she doesn't accept what Anthem Blue Cross tells her, she can in fact replace her pretty crappy, definitely sub-standard plan with a much better one for a small increase over her current premiums, and a somewhat better one for less than her current cost.

It wasn't hard for him to go to California's health exchange and find that out for her.

When she told Channel 4 that "for the first time in my whole life, I will be without insurance," it's hard to understand what she was talking about. (Channel 4 didn't ask.) Better plans than she has now are available for her to purchase today, some of them for less money.

The sad truth is that Cavallaro has been very poorly served by the health insurance industry and the news media. It seems that Anthem didn't adequately explain her options for 2014 when it disclosed that her current plan is being canceled. If her insurance brokers told her what she says they did, they failed her. And the reporters who interviewed her without getting all the facts produced inexcusably shoddy work -- from Maria Bartiromo on down. They not only did her a disservice, but failed the rest of us too.

Exactly. The story - here or about WMD or civil rights or anything - isn't "what this person says". Because "this person" is often wrong.

Happy Halloween

Ignoring the grammar

In an article I'm using in class, an interview with a Russian novelist, he is asked if he thinks state subsidies will help literature. He answers that he believes they will only repeat the Soviet experience. He would hope, he says, that state funding would go to films that would showcase Russian culture and art, but he doubts it.

Но боюсь, что госзаказ будут получить такие филмы как «Распутин».

But I fear, that state money are going to get such films as Rasputin.

He doesn't like Rasputin because it practically turned the man into an angel. What I don't like is the way my students translated the sentence. Almost all of them put "I fear that state funding will receive such films as Rasputin" and that's just wrong.

Now, in English we can't write "state funding are going to receive such films". Even though the grammatical endings are correct for what this is - an inverted sentence, object - verb - subject - English speakers are going to interpret that as bad grammar and translate it in their heads the same way my students did. What's in front of the verb is the subject, and that "are" must be an error.

Problem is, in Russian this is a perfectly normal (though not neutral) sentence. Placing the subject at the end can be done (as here) to put extra stress on it, or (as here, too, to a lesser degree) for information structuring (the preceding sentences were about state subsidies, and the following ones were about the movie Rasputin), or even for syntactic purposes (say a very long relative clause was going to modify the subject). The translator's task is to produce an English sentence that both transmits the correct information (in this case that "such films" will be where the state funding goes) and the proper emphasis or emotion.

Here, you want to either flip the action of the verb (instead of "are going to receive" try "are going to go to" - same action, funding to film, but with the actors reversed so that "films" comes last), or try a focusing device (it's films like Rasputin that will receive the state funding).

My task is to make my students aware that they're being betrayed by their English background: just because plain vanilla Russian is almost always SVO doesn't mean that all Russian is. In fact, the higher the level of the text - anything beyond simple "just the facts" reporting of events - the less likely it is that the word order will be SVO. They know the grammar - if I ask them what case a noun is, or what number the verb is, they can tell me. They just don't pay any attention to when they read.

And that means they don't really understand what they're reading. So they might be able to answer multiple choice questions (if their interpretation isn't on of the distractors), but they can't translate.

Hey, Kathie!

And the first answer today is: Portugal!! (Of course, it's about them getting kicked around by England... but still! Portugal!)

(Can Alex really not know what a barista is?)

Look. It. Up.

I assigned my students an interview with an author as one of their texts. This passage was in it:

Эфиру и посвящён мой роман, хотя там вполне чёткий сюжет: история «литературного негра», который из Москвы переехал в маленький приволжский город и пытается приспособиться к новым условиям жизни. По сути, это плутовской роман, то есть один из способов сделать философские понятия доступными для неподготовленного читателя.

It is the aether that my novel is concerned with, although it does have a rather clear plot: it's the story of a "literaturnyy negr" who moves from Moscow to a small town on the Volga and tries to get used to a new way of life. In essence it's a picaresque novel, which is one of the methods available for making philosophical concepts accessible to the lay reader.

A bit later in the interview, talking about how devalued the concept of literature has become in modern Russia, he says

Потому и получила такое распространение профессия «литературного негра»: многие известные люди, политики, спортсмены, актёры и даже писатели не признаются в том, что за них пишут. Я дам тебе содержание, а ты, негр, придашь ему форму.

This is why the profession of "literaturnyy negr" has become so prevalent: many famous people, politicians, athletes, actors and even writers don't acknowledge that someone writes for them. I'll give you the contents and you, negr, will give it a form.

Without exception they have translated литературный негр as "literary Negro". There might be some excuse for that in the first passage - he might be writing about a black author from Moscow (could be an interesting novel), but in the second? There's a profession of "literary Negro"?

No. The fact is that Russian took the term "nègre littéraire" from the French in the 19th century, and in both of those languages it means "ghost writer". And another fact is that this is extremely easy to find out. So why don't they even try?

Why? WHHHHHYYYYYYYY?

Yes, Mark. Tell us both.

So, you may remember that evil lobbyist Johnny Walker was being confronted by the elk he had wounded. And the elk got its vengeance:



But, my question is: is it bad that I can't wait to hear what Mark's answer is going to be, since the recording was blank?

The Week in Entertainment

Live: A wonderful production of The Nose at the Met. Shostakovich isn't my favorite composer (too discordant), but The Nose is miles better than Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, plus Gogol and Zamyatin mean the libretto is excellent, and funny! And so well sung, with a staging that actually puts the crazy music to good use.

TV: Grimm is back, and one helluva season opener! The Mentalist - unfortunately, Kathy, "Red John: The Final Chapter" seems to be the season arc... The comedies were good. I particularly liked Sean Saves The World and Modern Family this week. Agents of SHIELD continues to be very entertaining and hint at complexities in this not-our world. Orphan Black continues to amaze with Tatiana Maslany's brilliance.

Read: I forgot last week that I had read The Reluctant Detective until I saw it in my Kindle carousel Monday morning. That's because it was eminently forgettable, with a protagonist of the "although I am not a real PI I am nonetheless going to track this SOB down and make him pay by myself and will therefore deliberately withhold any pertinent information from the cops" school. Finished Dissident Gardens. Loved it. Still not entirely sure about that last chapter - did it need to be there? - but even so, it's a wonderful book. Found Ajax Penumbra 1969 and went back for a quick reread of Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, which I read almost exactly a year ago. (Enjoyed the re-read, too.) Also reread Good Omens, because, well, Good Omens. Some oldish myteries - The Elusive Bullet, a short story, and two by Christianna Brand (The Crooked Wreath and Heads You Lose) which were both excellent.

They're not too partisan, oh no

It really got to me the other day to read Justice Scalia's opinion of the two Washington papers (not my ellipsis, by the way).

We just get The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Times. We used to get the Washington Post, but it just … went too far for me. I couldn’t handle it anymore.

Q: What tipped you over the edge?

It was the treatment of almost any conservative issue. It was slanted and often nasty. And, you know, why should I get upset every morning? I don’t think I’m the only one. I think they lost subscriptions partly because they became so shrilly, shrilly liberal.

As you may be aware, from my periodic survey of their front pages, the two are ... not much alike. But if Scalia thinks the Post is a liberal paper, he'd better never get anywhere near something like The Nation. And here's a nice example of which one is "shrill" and partisan and which one isn't: their coverage of yesterday's third and final debate in the Virginia gubernatorial race between Ken Cuccinelli (R) and Terry MacAuliffe (D), starting with what page they put it on:

Chekov's Elk

So, the villain in this "Mark Trail" is an oil company lobbyist named, I kid you not, Johnny Walker. He shot an elk, wounded it, and wouldn't go after it. He's now running from Mark's justice, and is about to meet Mother Nature's brand!

And then there's this: A commenter at The Comics Curmudgeon noted:

…So Johnny Walker is about to be done in by Glenfiddich? Subtle, just like the rich, complex notes that only a truly great single-malt whisky can provide!

The Devil and Antonin Scalia

So, Antonin Scalia, Supreme Court Justice, believes in the devil. The literal devil.

Of course! Yeah, he's a real person. Hey, c'mon, that's standard Catholic doctrine! Every Catholic believes that. ... You’re looking at me as though I’m weird. My God! Are you so out of touch with most of America, most of which believes in the Devil? I mean, Jesus Christ believed in the Devil! It’s in the Gospels! You travel in circles that are so, so removed from mainstream America that you are appalled that anybody would believe in the Devil! Most of mankind has believed in the Devil, for all of history. Many more intelligent people than you or me have believed in the Devil."

And atheist/skeptical bloggers are going "WTF?" and all over the media are columnists saying don't mock him, don't mock him, or He’s absolutely right about the persistence of belief in the devil among American Christians.

However, I'm not at all sure why believing in God is normal but believing in the Devil isn't. Why does one supernatural/invisible/imaginary guy get a pass, but not the other? But that's a theological discussion, and I want to look at two other points that I think are interesting things, neither of which is original with me but neither of which is getting a lot of play. First, Scalia also said he doesn't know who's going to hell, or to heaven:

When I’m dead and gone, I’ll either be sublimely happy or terribly unhappy.

You believe in heaven and hell?
Oh, of course I do. Don’t you believe in heaven and hell? ... It doesn’t mean you’re not going to hell, just because you don’t believe in it. That’s Catholic doctrine! Everyone is going one place or the other.

But you don’t have to be a Catholic to get into heaven? Or believe in it?
Of course not!I don’t know where you’re going. I don’t even know whether Judas Iscariot is in hell. I mean, that’s what the pope meant when he said, “Who am I to judge?” He may have recanted and had severe penance just before he died. Who knows?

If he's going to believe in heaven and hell, at least he can admit he doesn't know who's going where (and he claims his belief in Catholic doctrine doesn't actually influence his votes on things like the DOMA case. Yeah.).

The other is that clearly those who criticize people like Richard Dawkins "concentrat[ing] his attack on fundamentalists, or the like - accusing atheists of attacking some crude version of the sophisticated faith are ignoring the fact that yes, Virginia, particularly in the US, there are people who believe in a literal God and a literal Devil. And they're not rubes. Some of them are on the Supreme Court.

What does the fox say?

I'm sure you've seen the video "What Does the Fox Say" - I'm old, I only just did. But this is what's freaky:

Yeah, I typed in what with the Cyrillic on, and it still gave me 'what does the fox say'. Crazy. (It probably helps that црфе (tsrfye)  isn't the beginning to any possible Russian word.)

Yep. Shouldn't have accepted it.

The question was what does AM stand for. The contestant said "anti-meridiem". Alex said, "We'll take it. Anti- or ante meridiem."

But "anti" with a long I isn't an alternate pronunciation of "ante" (with a long EE) - though the reverse can be true. And "anti" and "ante" are very different words.

Ah... Upon further reflection, the judges have decided not to accept it. Yes! 

The Week in Entertainment

TV: I'm still enjoying the new comedies, especially The Crazy Ones and Sean Saves the World, also the Michael J Fox Show. And Modern Family was funny, too. Watched Toy Story of Terror, which was surprisingly good for a half-hour tv special - good writing and top-notch animation, and they had the whole original voice cast, which was great. The Mentalist - everybody's always an Episcopalian when they get married on tv, ever notice that? I loved Van Pelt & Rigsby getting married, though.Sleepy Hollow managed to completely screw up (again); Roanoke, as they accurately tell us, was 1587 or so - that's not Middle English. That's, like, Shakespearian times. Oh, well. Sleepy Hollow is very much not factual about pretty much anything. Goofily entertaining, though. And Orphan Black, which my DVR has an odd relationship with, missing episodes every now and then, but which is fortunately On Demand, so two this week. This show is astonishingly complicated, and has gotten a bit more graphically violent than I was expecting (poor Vic. poor Donnie), but I am loving it.

Read: Last Train to Istanbul, by Ayse Kulin, translated by John W. Baker. It's an intense story set in WWII, built around the Turkish effort to get the citizens - primarily Jewish ones - back from France before they ended up in Nazi camps. Quite good, filled with wonderfully drawn characters. Began Dissident Gardens by the marvelous Jonathan Lethem. So far it is, as the reviews call it, dazzling.

14 + 1

Congratulations to all the people of New Jersey, especially those who can now marry the partner of their mutual choice.

A paper gets it right

The LA Times notes that

Numerous readers have written The Times to criticize President Obama and congressional Democrats for championing an unpopular healthcare reform law while, the writers say, exempting themselves from it. For example, Daniel A. Cowell of Monrovia wrote: "No one (especially those in Congress) can realistically expect the president to budge on Obamacare. This bill is his lifeblood, his legacy. Yet still, is it asking too much for him to not exempt himself, as well as Congress, from his own health law?"

Regular readers of The Times' Opinion pages will know that, among the few letters published over the last week that have blamed the Democrats for the government shutdown (a preponderance faulted House Republicans), none made the argument about Congress exempting itself from Obamacare.

And then explains why

Simply put, this objection to the president's healthcare law is based on a falsehood, and letters that have an untrue basis (for example, ones that say there's no sign humans have caused climate change) do not get printed.

Bravi, LA Times editors. Bravi.

Alex, leave Russian alone, please

"Vy znaeeteee po ruskee?" Alex asks the contestant, who blinks in startlement before answering that yes, she does.

As I've noted before, Alex's pronunciation of Russian, despite his Ukrainian heritage, is dreadful. And that question? "po-russki" is an adverb meaning, basically, "in the Russian style". You can speak po-russki (говорить по-русски), and you can say something po-russki (как по-русски сказат?) but you don't know po-russki, you just know russkiy (yazyk) (знать русский язык).

(And I'm sure his Russian is better than my French, but then I don't go around acting like I know French...)

HR368, or Why they didn't ever vote

HR 368 vote chart

H.Res. 368: Relating to consideration of the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 59) making continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes

Relating to consideration of the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 59) making continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes.

Resolved, That the House hereby (1) takes from the Speaker's table the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 59) making continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes, with the House amendment to the Senate amendment thereto, (2) insists on its amendment, and (3) requests a conference with the Senate thereon.

Sec. 2. Any motion pursuant to clause 4 of rule XXII relating to House Joint Resolution 59 may be offered only by the Majority Leader or his designee.

This bill was introduced by Pete Sessions (R-TX) on Sep 30. It was passed on Oct 1, 228-199. Essentially it meant that only Eric Cantor or somebody he handpicked could bring a Senate bill for a clean Continuing Resolution - or any resolution - to the House floor for a vote.

Here are the 7 Democrats who voted FOR this:

1. Barber AZ
   
2. Barrow GA
3. Maffei NY
4. Maloney NY
5. Matheson UT
6. MacInyre NC
7. Peterson MN

I'd love to know what the hell they were thinking.

And here are the 9 Republicans who voted NO:

1. Bentivolio MI
2. Broun GA
3. Grimm NY
4. Dent PA
5. Jones NC
6. King NY
7. LoBiondo, NJ
8. Massie, KY
9. Wolf VA.

California chablis ... or is it?

So, Judge Parker, emeritus, and his trophy wife have crashed the wedding cruise of Judge Parker, Jr and his stone-cold-NSA-killing-machine fiancée, April (it's a long story, filled with lies and throwing people overboard). Lots of fun is being had by all, as the senior judge is trying to turn his mega-best-seller into a screenplay while being told his characters are dull by the hired help. You can ignore (though I'm certainly not) the ominous entrance of the Harrisons (she's the "hack reviewer" who panned the judge's latest book, so sparks will certainly fly). Instead, focus on that wine.

I think Sam and Abbey must be the world's worst vintners.

Oh, please

The Fox News teaser (yes, Jeopardy! is on Fox here) said "the evidence that Oreos are just as addictive as cocaine".

Oh, please, I said. Here's what the study showed - for a small number of rats: (1) rats like Oreos better than rice cakes and (2) rats like sugar and fat. A lot.

Note: at no point were the rats offered a choice between Oreos and cocaine.

Money quote:

When rats were given Oreos, a protein called c-Fos was expressed strongly in an area of the brain called the nucleus accumbens, which is well known to be active in pleasure and addiction.

 Wow. Eating Oreos is pleasurable. Do tell.

This is stupid science reporting at its best.

(disclosure: the rats ate the creamy filling and not the cookie. I, on the other hand, do the opposite - and never have, never will buy "Double Stuff"...)

(info on the study here)

3rd Century NRA IS Co-ed

Hey, guys! It's okay. You're still in.

The NRA, that is.

See, the Washington Times has this running feature called "3rd Century NRA". It's a nice   wrap-around with color portrait of this week's pinup, and it's on top of the front page, so it's the first thing you see when you look at the paper.

Until this week I'd thought everyone in the 3rd Century NRA (might be different from the regular old one, I suppose) was a pretty young(ish) white woman.

At least they're still all white.

(Here's one subject's take on it, with example pinup.)(And yes I'm exaggerating. There have been a couple of guys before this week.)

That's a big cow!

So the clue was : since 1970 annual production of this per cow has grown from around 10,000 pounds to around 20,000.

She guessed "meat". The answer is "milk". And I get it: who thinks of milk in terms of pounds instead of gallons?

But really, meat? That would mean that cows were more than twice as big now as they were in 1970. That would have been pretty noticeable, I'd have thought...

The Week in Entertainment

TV: The Neighbors - I wish the duck & elephant show were real ... and "Oh my god, Alien vs Predator! Jackie, wait!" The Michael J Fox Show - again, perfectly cute but nothing special. But MJF, so I'll keep watching. Sean Saves the World - this one's getting cuter. The Middle - I loved Sue's breakdown in the fast food place (It's horrible). Modern Family - Poor Phil and all the egg/bird references. I also (on a friend's recommendation) tried out (thanks, On Demand!) The Crazy Ones and liked it well enough. The supporting cast holds their own with Robin Williams, and the set up is conducive to his brand of riffing humor. It's on the DVR list now. The Mentalist was (again) dominated by the Red John arc - I suppose I might as well stop saying that, right? Not a bad episode, though. (I knew the guy had killed himself, though; it was pretty clear that was why he was running from the cop.) I loved Rigsby's little congratulatory 'and the crowd goes wild' when Cho agreed with him - nice character moment. Sleepy Hollow is getting very complicated. I think I like it. Agents of SHIELD - this continues to be terrifically entertaining. And finally Last Tango in Halifax - wow. I liked that Alan doesn't seem to care and is, in fact, supportive, and is angry at the way Celia treated Caroline. When he told Gillian "Celia reads Daily Mail", that was funny. And those were definitely two awkward dinners. I felt so sorry for Alan - it's a long cry from "like heaven come to earth." But Celia came through in the end, for a real feel-good ending that I admit had me a little teary.

Read: Jhumpa Lahiri's new novel The Lowland, which was excellent, lyrical and haunting - it's no surprise it's a contender for major awards (Man Booker, National Book). And Ancillary Justice, which blew me away it was so damned good. Best science fiction I've read in years. Look for that one at awards time, too.

Assumption ... failed

Oh, Wal-Mart. The reason I don't buy my groceries at you is not because I think you have inferior produce.

This is ... interesting

In today's print Washington Post is a story called "Based on a true story: For Hollywood and the audience, it's increasingly just the facts, please, when it comes to dramas".

The second and third paragraphs read:

This week, Tom Hanks will take viewers on a white-knuckled journey through a harrowing maritime abduction in “Captain Phillips,” based on the 2009 encounter of real-life merchant mariner Richard Phillips with Somali pirates. Next week, audiences will watch the British actor Benedict Cumberbatch channel enigmatic WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in “The Fifth Estate,” and Chiwetel Ejiofor deliver a searing portrayal of Solomon Northup in the historical drama “12 Years a Slave.”

Those are just a few of the fact-based films that have arrived and will continue to crowd into theaters during the next few months, a field that will ultimately include “Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” “Fruitvale Station,” “Rush,” “Parkland,” “Blue Caprice,” “The Dallas Buyers Club,” “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom” and “Saving Mr. Banks.”

What's interesting isn't the list. It's the photos accompanying the story.
There are three, large and in color. The top one is Tom Hanks coming out of a ship's cabin. The middle one is Benedict Cumberbatch on a street. And the third, below the fold, is a bunch of white guys in in a doorway from “Parkland”.

Hanks? Check. Cumberbatch? Check. Ejiofor? Uh. Where's Ejiofor?

Why did the Post's layout guy(s) decide not to feature all three of the big names that are most prominently mentioned? Why go with an unnamed ensemble shot from "Parkland"?

I wish I didn't think I knew the answer. Though I don't think it was a deliberate, conscious choice, I do think it was one.

PS: (The online version has a different title (‘Captain Phillips’ and Hollywood’s — and audiences’ — embrace of fact-based dramas, reflecting the article's more in-depth look at that one movie, and no photos.)

The Week in Entertainment

Well, it's been an interesting week, what with the government shutdown and all. Maybe I'll be back at work tomorrow; don't think so, haven't heard yet. But this week...

Live: Two operas at the Met: First, a splendid Norma (though with minimalist, somewhat boring sets) with an utterly brilliant Sondra Radvanovsky in the title role. A not-quite-as wonderful Kate Aldrich was Adalgisa; their duets were stunning. Bel canto at its bel-est (bellisimo-est?) And then a vocally dazzling Eugene Onegin with Anna Netrebko as Tatiana, Mariusz Kwiecien as Onegin, and Piotr Beczala (wonderful voice!) as Lenski. Tschaikovsky didn't write for Netrebko, but if he'd known her he would have - her voice and his music - how glorious.

DVD: Iron Man 3, much better than 2 was, and (courtesy of a very nuanced performance by Downey) an intriguing look at what happened to Tony Stark after "the battle of New York" - PTSD and the whole nine yards. Excellent. Well, with all that time on my hands, I finally decided to watch Torchwood: Children of Earth (so I can watch Miracle Day which I am DVRing). My misgivings aside - and my friend's warnings - I enjoyed it. Yes, they killed Ianto, and that's sad, but it was integral to the story, and important. And my one friend was wrong: maybe Jack didn't say the words, but Ianto died knowing that Jack did love him. He heard what he needed to hear.

TV: And then I started Miracle Day, and it's engaging, too. An episode each of Orphan Black and Last Tango in Halifax, which are both continuing to be great fun, though (of course) extremely different. I watched tonight's, since I very much doubt I'll be called tomorrow (thought I might be) - too bad Celia is so upset about Caroline and Kate (though the previews make it look like Alan is appalled by the depth of her revulsion. The comedies - Michael J Fox was better this week, though they stole the documentary-sit-on-chairs-and-talk-to-the-camera bit from Modern Family, which cracked me up. The funeral for the cat's non-existent, dead wife... Dylan's "Oh, they're cats? That'll make this easier" as he went to dig the grave. The Neighbors - loved the training montage. Sean Saves the World - could do without the soundtrack, but Hayes is funny, so I'll give it another chance or two. Oh, oh - I forgot: Agents of SHIELD,which I enjoyed though it might become formulaic. I do like Coulson, though (and wonder what's up with him and that Manchurian-Candidate "It's a magical place").

Read: The Incrementalists, a hard-to-describe sf novel about a small group of people who live for centuries - moving their memories into new bodies, where they may (or may not) overwhelm the new host - making the world a little bit better. Well, really it's about what happens when one of them commits suicide and is "stubbed" into a recruit by her lover ... and none of them are what you, or they, think. Steelheart, an exploration of what happens when some people gain superpowers. It's not pretty, but the book's good. Finished This Is How You Die, the second Machine of Death collection. The Perils of Sherlock Homes, a collection of stories by Loren Estleman. Fighting for Life, a memoir by S. Josephine Baker, the woman who basically created Public Health in this country, saving the lives of 90,000 inner city children, and fighting against the damage that widespread urban poverty and ignorance caused to children, especially newborns - a fascinating read.

Train karma?

I went up to New York Friday (since the tickets were already paid for) to see Norma and Eugene Onegin. My friend that goes to the matinees with me came up on Saturday for Onegin and we went home together afterwards. The train she was on had to get a new engine in Philadelphia, so she was about 45 minutes late - in plenty of time for the curtain, in time to eat lunch in fact. But then on our way home we stopped in Perryman - not a station - and eventually learned that the signals were out on the drawbridge. I honestly didn't realize the train went over a drawbridge. (I think it's the Curtis Creek bridge.) Anyway, we had to wait for just over an hour while they fixed the lights. At least the train is a pleasant thing to be stuck on.

Grading the peever

This is simply brilliant. Peter Harvey at Lavengro looks at a letter to the Guardian complaining about David Marsh's column on "grammar rules" you can forget. He begins:

It seems to be an iron law that when pedants make their pronouncements on the English language they succeed in parading their own ignorance before the world.

Read the whole thing. It's a joy.

Aloha, Narnia

None of them recognized Aloha Oe? It wasn't like they had to spell it!

And then, Children's Book Series: "The impetus for these books came from a vision the author had of a faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in a snowy wood" is Final? If none of them had gotten The Chronicles of Narnia it would have been a major facepalm. (Especially since "the Narnia series" was accepted as correct.)

Why is Congress still getting paid?

I'm sure you've seen all the memes and graphics demanding to know why Congress is still getting paid, or saying they should get minimum wage, or be furloughed too. I know I have - and I'm already sick of them.

Can anyone explain it, people ask plaintively, like it's some huge mystery.

Yes. I can explain it. It's in the Constitution. Originally intended to prevent them from voting a pay raise for themselves, the 27th amendment means their pay cannot be changed until a House election has taken place - so FY2015. Even assuming this particular House would vote to take away their pay during a shutdown (it is like other fixed expenses), by law it couldn't take effect in time to actually dock their pay.

This is simple. Annoying, but simple. Please people, direct your anger at stuff that can actually be changed.

And all those pictures and rants? It just makes me think you don't actually know the Constitution very well. 

PS: Congressmen can't "retire with full pay" after one term; they're either CSRS or FERS employees. Congressmen do pay into Social Security. Congressmen aren't exempt from prosecution. Congressmen aren't "exempt" from the ACA (Obamacare); they simply already have health insurance, which means they don't need to get more. Nor do you, if you have it already.

Phillips? Phillips???

Seriously? The name of the inventor of the screwdriver with the cross-shaped tip? That was Final Jeopardy?

Oops

I pity anyone who uses the Maryland MTA site to plan their trip and who doesn't know about things NOT in the MTA system. For instance, here's the map I was shown when I went to double check times for Cromwell Station to BWI Amtrak: a one hour trip via the 17 bus:



Thing is, there's a shuttle from the airport - which has a light rail stop right next to it - to the Amtrak station. Trip is about 25 minutes, more like 10 if you're lucky connecting. But it's not an MTA shuttle, it's an airport shuttle, so it doesn't feature in their trip planner:



They did point out it was only 12 minutes by cab...