Language notes from the slopes of E-15.

[Wilson Gray]

Do you recall Jules Feiffer's cartoon characters, Bernard Mergendaler
and his nemesis, Martha, The (i.e. his) Monstrous Mother?

My version kicked earlier this year, 74 years too late to do me any
good. A mean, vicious, spiteful, straight-razor-tongue-totin, 'oman,
to paraphrase slightly Tony Joe White, to the very end.

The Rumanians - yes, I know that it's now officially R_o_manians, but
I petulantly don't care; I knew them when - have a saying:

"The tongue has no bones, but it breaks bones."

Nearly chose that as my epigram. But Samuel Langhorne is so "spot-on,"
to coin a term, that I couldn't resist.

An aside for those who have failed in their various attempts to track
me to my lair, either here or in Greater Boston (as coincidence would
have it, the afore-mentioned Hoskuldur, though a former classmate and
*already* in Boston, is among those who have metaphorically died in
the attempt): social-avoidance disorder ("pathological shyness," a
term that I made up, is an acceptable alternative, two of my shrinks
have assured me; until last year, there was no recognition of this as
a real disease, so there was no term for it In The Book), normally, a
fairly trivial disease, if treated before puberty. Unfortunately, it's
essentially the mirror-image of Asperger's syndrome. Since Larry is
the only person here whom I *already* know personally, it's a good bet
that he's the only person here that I will *ever* know personally.

Thangs be that way.

-Wilson

On Fri, Jun 25, 2010 at 9:40 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Language notes from the slopes of E-15.
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Yeah, "failed to achieve greatness."  By whose standard?
>
> JL
>
> On Fri, Jun 25, 2010 at 9:13 PM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: Language notes from the slopes of E-15.
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> That name sounds familiar, and not from professional exposure. I think my
>> daughter had a class with him.
>>
>> Come to think of it, it's a double dactyl. Uh-oh....
>>
>> m a m
>>
>> On Fri, Jun 25, 2010 at 7:26 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > It's also a good bet that any Icelander that you encounter will have
>> > heard of any other Icelander of any note, e.g. "famous in the field."
>> > At M.I.T in the '70's, I had an Icelandic classmate who is now
>> > somewhat known in the field. In the '80's, I encountered a random
>> > Harvard undergraduate from Iceland. When I started to tell him about
>> > my former classmate, he interrupted, saying, "Of course! You're
>> > referring to Prof. [Hoskuldur] Thrainsson!" He went on to explain that
>> > Iceland is such a small country, without a lot happening, that, in
>> > effect, the entire population has already been (in)famous, locally,
>> > for at least fifteen minutes. It was very likely that, if I met
>> > another Icelander and mentioned my interlocutor's name, that Icelander
>> > probably would be at least familiar with it - Local Boy Makes Good!
>> > Admitted To Harvard! - and, perhaps, might even be from the same
>> > 'hood.
>> >
>>
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>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
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--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
–Mark Twain

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