Today, I have already rated a "Wow!," an "Awesome!," a "Thanks, you've been *really* helpful!" and a "You made my day!"
Sometimes, I really, really love my job. ^_^
Next time you get a question answered, don't forget to thank your local reference librarian. You'll probably make his or her day. ; )
This is kinda cool... an increasing number of TV shows are drawing inspiration from real-life issues and news... this site (part of a larger site devoted to understanding today's news in general) selects popular (and recent!) fictional shows and presents a neat precis (with appropriate links) to the hot topics presented. So, go take a look at FootnoteTV.
And, completely unrelated (except that both were inspired from reviews in the May 2005 Choice): check out the work of Jim Sanborn (I know it's a stub, follow the external link). Is he an artist, or an author...? Either way, he turns text into art. Check it out! (Particularly his word projections. I WANT one.)
So, KT IM'ed me from her phone...
KT: On phone. what's a Naze?
Me . o O (Naze? She didn't mean "maze" did she? No, no, of course not, that's easy... er... weird spelling of nose? The Japanese for why? (Just as a note-- "Naze nani..." sometimes gets translated as "The how and why of...", but technically, the two words mean "why" and "what" respectively.) Isn't there an Indian tribe...? no, wait, that's Nez, and that's just another nose word, anyway....hm.)
Me: Context?
KT: It was a street sign... Eldman's Naze
Me: Hm. Naze is an Old Norwegian word for "headland or cape." Named for the short-form of a cape at the southern tip of Norway called Lindesnes.
KT: Heh... Interesting
That's me. The drive-by librarian.
And just to round out the "two new things" part of this-- a neat little linkie on the dictionary page revealed that "naze" is essentially the same word as the Middle English "ness" (as in Loch Ness). Cool, neh?
Okay, this is a shameless (tho' cited!) steal from Booklist.
Booklist had an interesting article recently called "Blogs over Baghdad" (4/1/2005, p. 1339, if you're curious), discussing the increasingly popular phenomenon of blogs-into-books. The article (as you might guess from the title) highlights blogs written by native Iraqis (you know, going about their lives in the midst of a war and writing about it for all the world to read, same as anyone), but they snuck a cooking blog in there, too, just to confuse people. Although there are those who will downplay the value of blogs and bloggers for any number of reasons-- lack of editorial control, dubious journalistic integrity, downright bad writing-- many American publishing companies have been taking an interest in bloggers and have started soliciting them for books (heck, they already *have* a writing sample, after all...).
Booklist talks about three in particular that have spawned books, and (happily) provides the addresses for their blogs also. So, here we go: three blogs, and the books based on them:
blog: Where Is Raed?
book: Salam Pax, Salam Pax: The Clandestine Diary of an Ordinary Iraqi (Oct. 2003)
blog: Baghdad Burning
book: Riverbend, Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq (Apr. 2005)
blog: The Julie/Julia Project
book: Julie Powell, Julie and Julia (due out Sept. 2005)
Oh,boy, the filters are gonna love this entry! Actually, anyone not too interested in my theological ramblings might not care for it, either... but, MY blog, dammit, so here goes....
I'm reading a review of a recent book of British poetry that the author entitled Damnatio Memoriae, which he translated as "Erased from Memory." I found his translation... a little curious. I'd always equated the word "damnation" with things like "condemnation" and "judgement," but the idea of damnation as "erasure"... that's intriguing. I recall a discussion from a theology class in college about a passage of Augustine. (I wish I could find the passage now, but my books are at home, and I'm not turning it up in a quick search... I'm guessing it was either in On Christian Doctrine or his Confessions) Augustine, at one point, talks about Hell as not a place so much as a condition-- one's rejection of God, and the absence of His presence (or, more precisely... existing in one's own shadow, having turned one's back on the light that's ever-present). (For less of a high-brow reference, if you've ever read C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, think of the dwarves at the very end of The Last Battle.)
Anyway, back to my little linguistic mystery... I looked it up (of course). The words "condemn" and "damn" DO have the same root:
damn's etymology: Middle English dampnen, from Old French dampner, from Latin damnare, to condemn, inflict loss upon, from damnum, loss.
condemn's etymology: Middle English condemnen, from Old French condemner, from Latin condemnare : com- (intensive pref.) + damnare, to sentence, from damnum, penalty.
Now, the perceptive will note what I did: same root, damnum, translated with two different senses-- loss, and penalty. HMM.
So, on to Lewis and Short's Latin Dictionary: sure enough, damnum is given two meanings. In the first sense, it refers to a hurt, harm, damage, injury, or loss (given also as the opposite of lucrum, gain, profit, advantage; wealth, riches). The second meaning is the legal sense, which refers to a fine, mulct, or penalty. So... I can see the second definition growing out of the first, and I find the relationship to its antonym quite intriguing, in this context.
Of course, language meanings change-- my favorite example is the Anglo-Saxon-born doom, which used to be a close synonym of the Norman-French-rooted judgement, which is how we get "doomsday" and "judgement day" meaning the same thing. But still... it's intriguing to reflect back on the Latin here, and look at how the sense has changed... or how an understanding of the *older* sense of a word can inform the modern one, and make it that much richer.
Oh, and thing two... an easy bit, for those who just waded through my linguistic maunderings (and fie on you that just scrolled down!)-- someone at work showed me a site I'd never come across before. LOTS and LOTS of free books online (as in out-of-copyright free, don't expect the latest bestsellers here). I'm impressed by their huge number of available formats, too. Check out Manybooks.net!
Okay, this isn't particularly a newsblog, but this bothers me enough to write about it... I just came across this on wikipedia, and apparently, it's not exactly headlining U.S. news (not that I've seen much *other* big news to push it from the headlines). (About's newsblog links to several papers at the bottom.) The story originally broke in the Sunday London Times. Take a look.
British Report: Bush Administration Cooked Facts
Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) of the House Judiciary Committee wrote an open letter to the White House asking for answers. I hope they get them, but somehow I doubt it.
Black Mask- Jet Li is a quiet librarian is actually kick-butt supersoldier in disguise, who dons a mask to protect the innocent from fellow supersoldier rejects turned criminal.
All the Queen's Men- transvestite British spies team up with a lovely German librarian to steal Enigma from the Nazis. (Hey, I *said* offbeat.)
The Human Vapor- Librarian Mizuno is subject to a scientific experiment gone wrong, and it gives him-- er, turns him *into* gas. (This one actually looks kinda fun, but sorry, not on video. :( )
The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag- Penelope Ann Miller as a mousy librarian who finds the weapon connected to a gangland shooting, and gives herself up as the murderer to get a little attention. (The mouse that roared? No, wait, wrong movie.)
A Regular Thing- Sex comedy about a librarian who meets the woman of his dreams over a book, and she turns out to be a hooker. (Also not on video. This might be a good thing.)
The Librarian: Quest for the Spear- A mild-mannered librarian (technically, an archivist in charge of a *very* rare archive ventures forth to retrieve a stolen artifact.
Miranda- A lonely librarian begins a passionate affair with a woman who is not who she seems to be.
Ophelia Learns To Swim- Wimpy girl turns hero and joins the Council of Superheroines, which includes, among others... The Librarian. (Not Noah Wylie, though.)
Party Girl- Okay, I admit, this is one of my personal favorites, actually, and what prompted this list. Mary (Parker Posey), a rabid party girl, throws one wild party too many and winds up in jail. Her librarian godmother (like a fairy godmother, but smarter ;) ) bails her out. To pay back the loan and prove she can *so* hold down a real job, Mary is challenged to take a job as a library clerk, and finds that proving her worth to her godmother will mean proving it to herself, first.
Personals- Insignificant (HEY!) librarian by day, fascinating-but-deadly murderess by night.
Chainsaw Sally- Quiet librarian by day. Chainsaw-wielding serial killer by night. (Don't these people ever work the night desk?)
Storm Center- I *really* want to see this movie, but unfortunately, it's on on the video market yet. Bette Davis (oo!) as a small-time librarian branded "Communist" who has to fight for her rights and her job after refusing to pull a controversial book from the public library shelves.
Stay Until Tomorrow- Old friend and inveterate drifter Nina drops in on her old friend Jim, a librarian. Crashing for "a couple of days" turns into several weeks, and Nina turns Jim's life-- and library-- upside-down.
Mindkiller- A librarian clerk discovers a manuscript that gives him psychic powers, which he uses to seduce women. Until the girls start developing powers of their own... Much horrible B-movieness. (Hey, I never said they were GOOD, just weird.)
Transylvania Twist- A Transylvanian librarian must collect the fines on a 200-year-overdue book, "The Book of all Evil."
City and Crimes- A down-on-his-luck young man becomes a librarian and gets addicted to thrillers and true crime... and then starts reproducing their plots in real life in a nearby city.
The Mummy- An intrepid librarian gets into a spot of trouble for her bad habit of sounding out ancient Egyptian words while she's translating...
Batgirl- Alright, this one's sort of cheating, because it's a TV show, and it's pretty mainstream. But she *is* a librarian!