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[Loren A. BILLINGS]

Recently Genevra Gerhart <ggerhart at wolfenet.com> wrote the following to
this list:

"Reminds me of a song -- something about loving the one you're near if
you're not near the one you love."

The song's lyrics are most likely the following:

      If you can't be with the one you love
      Love the one you're with

This song appears in the album _Four way street_ by the group Crosby,
Stills, Nash and Young (and possibly elsewhere originally).  I believe this
song was written by either Graham NASH or Stephen STILLS.

Even more apropos to the situation is the following Russian saying:

      Na bezryb'e i rak ryba.

Incidentally, there's been a debate of sorts about along these lines in the
subfield of Slavic linguistics:  A couple years ago (by now) Olga YOKOYAMA
wrote a "Reflections" column in _Journal of Slavic linguistics_ suggesting
that linguists should make themselves more valuable to their literature
colleagues by doing things (planning and teaching courses on, researching,
etc.) ways that linguistics helps the study of literature.  In the
following volume's "Reflections" column Steven FRANKS responded that you
must follow your heart; if literary pursuits aren't your forte, then don't
engage in them.  More to the point, for a couple years now there's been a
panel at AATSEEL on "non-Slavic languages" where there have been talks, for
example, on Georgian (Tracy Holloway KING) and languages of the (Russian)
Far East (Lenore GRENOBLE).  I'm not sure if this panel continued at the
Washington meeting; I wasn't able to make it.



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Loren A. BILLINGS, Ph.D.  (e-mail:  billings at rz.uni-leipzig.de)

Institut fuer Slavistik                Home address:
Universitaet Leipzig
Augustusplatz 9                        Funkenburgstr. 14
D-04109 Leipzig                        D-04105 Leipzig

my office phone*: +49 (341) 211 8165   home phone:  +49 (341) 980 7227
dept. secretary:  +49 (341) 973 7450
dept. secretary:  +49 (341) 973 7454
dept. fax:        +49 (341) 973 7499

[* if this line is busy, try +49 (341) 211 8164, but let it ring 10 times!]
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