"basket weaving" revisited

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:38 PM -0400 5/25/07, sagehen wrote:
>  >>I'm sure that part of the appeal of referring to frivolous curriculum
>>>as "underwater basket-weaving" is that it sounds *really* ridiculous
>>>if you think the weaver has to accompany the basket underwater.
>>
>>I wonder whether it would sound as ridiculous if it were called
>>"submerged." I have a vague sense that "underwater" might have a very
>>slightly silly or ridiculous tone lurking -- perhaps because
>>"underwater" is not all that far from "underwear."
>>
>>Semper ubi sub ubi,
>>James Harbeck.
>>
>  ~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Underwater ballet, or synchronized swimming has always had an ineffably
>silly look to it IMO, though I don't know exactly why.
>WRT Reed's Paideia & the course it offers, I'd guess it's regarded as
>recreation.  When I was at Reed nearly 60 years ago we had something called
>"Project Week" about halfway through the academic year. Since the scholarly
>demands of most of the Reed curriculum were pretty heavy, it was a welcome
>break.  ( I think it may have morphed into Paideia.)  I got to take a short
>course in calligraphy from one of its greatest practitioners, Lloyd
>Reynolds, during one Project Week.
>AM
>
OT, but...

a girlfriend of mine lo these many (can it be 40? yes, it can) years
ago, a grad student in math at UCLA, had startlingly beautiful
handwriting.  She was a product of Reed and, of course, of Lloyd
Reynolds.  Over the years, I recognized several other students from
his workshop by their writing--quite a aesthetic legacy, and no doubt
vastly undervalued.

LH

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org