October 31, 2005
five days in DC
Just got back from Washington DC where I attended the big annual American Musicological Society conference. Also got a chance to hang out with an old friend (and make some new ones, as well). It was a lot of fun.
Going back to the east coast reminded me how much I miss it. While I certainly appreciate the natural beauty and wonderful climate that we have here in Santa Barbara, I do miss the change of seasons.
Fall has always been my favorite--there's something wonderful about the crispness of it, that slight edge the air has even on warmer days. There's nothing like that here in South California and it was a little bittersweet to be reminded of what I'm missing.
Posted by edmond at 10:53 AM | Comments (0)
October 25, 2005
Cactuses; or, the Joys of Hypercorrection...
So there was a time when I was really into cactuses. Except, I always called them "cacti".
But that's right! I hear you saying.
Well, it turns out that it's not. Cacti is a big fat lie. Look it up if you don't believe me--the OED is on my side. And, it also turns out, equally false are commonly used plurals such as octopi, syllabi, platypi. Imposters! Fakes! All of them!
Personally, I was outraged--simply scandalized!--to learn that all of the deep conversations I've had over the years about cacti, octopi, and platypi (oh my!) have had the taint of bad grammar.
The idea of pluralizing words ending in "-us" with an "-i" comes from Latin, of course. The problem, though, is that this particular switching of suffixes only applies to a fraction of Latin words (those in the 2nd declension)--none of which, to the best of my knowledge, happen to refer to spiny plants, eight-legged sea creatures, or duck-billed wierdos. You can take comfort, however, in the knowledge that radius really does go to radii in its plural. So all of you math nerds are off the hook.
Anyway, apparently this practice of producing (spurious) Latinate plurals of words that really should just get the normal English "-es" is due to hypercorrection, the same phonemenon that causes people to say "blank and I" all of the time, even when it's the object of a sentence (when me should be used). (For example: "The cactus gave the syllabus to the platypus and I.")
Who cares? Only nerds like me apparently. If this actually is interesting to you I highly recommend the wikipedia article on Hypercorrection. While you're at it, check out the fäntästic ärticle ön heavy-metal umlauts.
Gööd tïmes.
Posted by edmond at 09:24 PM | Comments (0)
October 12, 2005
good conversation, ehh?
Our student union has a Panda Express in the food court. It's not very good food by any measure, but it's still kinda addicting. For some reason I have a habit of stuffing fortunes into my wallet after I eat there.
Posted by edmond at 03:30 PM | Comments (0)
October 10, 2005
And the school year has begun...
UCSB (University of California, Santa Barbara) is on the quarter system so classes don't start until late September. We're now in the third week of term and so far things are going great. This is really my favorite part of the term--classes are fresh and interesting and I'm not yet bogged down with piles of stuff to grade or, equally stressful, papers to write. Of course, it won't be much longer until things start getting crazy again.
Posted by edmond at 03:18 PM | Comments (0)
October 01, 2005
My new 'blog...
Hi,
Now that twasbrillig.org is more than two years old it seemed like a good time to try something new. So I'm starting this weblog as a way to liven up the site a bit--yeah, I know it's been pretty stagnant this past year--and also as a place to provide some occasional updates about what I'm up to at any given time. I'm not sure how often I'll be updating; let's be honest and figure maybe once a month or so at best. But hey, it's better than nothing, right?
So anyway, watch this space.
Ed
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Below is a picture I took a few months ago of Ellwood Beach, which is just down the street from my place. The beach is more than a mile long and completely undeveloped: the ocean's one side and acres of beautiful bluffs and grasslands are on the other. I go running here most nights at sunset--it's hard to believe I actually live in a place that's so beautiful.
Posted by edmond at 10:23 PM | Comments (0)