Name this impressive obsession

I've been with the lovely folks at St. John's Mercy Hospital recovering from the vapors of having an election go my way.

Which has me wondering what DSM category they'd put this particular obsession under. Is it animal or mechanical, and really, what goes on behind closed doors up to 20 times a day anyway? Not that there's anything wrong with that.


Very Smart Squirrel - More free videos are here

Sarah Palin's Unntentional Comedy Amazes and Delights

Norm over at One Good Move, posted a link to this bit of brilliance from Language Log. Years ago, I majored in Literature and Language, a bit of study which included an emphasis on linguistics. Perhaps that's why I belly laughed at this erudite commentary. Anyhoo, it brightened my day considerably, so I'll share it with you in full for your personal edification.

Blurt and babble

November 18, 2008 @ 1:18 pm · Filed by Geoffrey K. Pullum under Language and politics




Mark struggles to maintain some sort of balance to counter the amateur linguistics we see in the press concerning the language used by political figures, even to the extent of trying to defend Sarah Palin's often incoherent public pronouncements. But I think she'll continue to outflank him. Here's a recent quote, from the Larry King show (on display in the Doonesbury site's "Say What?" feature over the last few days):

If there is anything that I can do in terms of assisting there and allowing the credence, the credibility that that great vocation, that cornerstone of our democracy called the press, if I can help build up that credibility in the press and allow the electorate to know that they can believe everything that is reported through the airwaves and through print, I want to be able to help.

I'll grant you that credibility is a replacement, signalling a return to fix what she felt was a false start with credence; and that cornerstone is a replacement for another false start with vocation; and that if I can help is a third repair effort, restarting the whole passage that began with if there is anything that I can do in terms of assisting. And certainly, we all make at least some mistakes and repairs in our sentence planning, roughly of the same sort as these. But if I have understood the above 69-word utterance correctly, all Palin was trying to say was "I'd like to help build press credibility." That shouldn't be such a difficult thing for a journalism major to express orally after some experience in state politics.

I have to confess that I don't think anybody who regularly engages in this sort of chaotic blurt-and-babble speech in interview situations can be regarded as suited to a position involving political leadership or executive responsibilities in the government of a democracy.

I think being so utterly unable to explain what one wants to say is truly and reasonably regarded as a defect in one's qualifications for office — partly because being so inept at talking in a controlled and sensible way strongly suggests that there was no sensible thought back there, and partly because even if there were sensible thoughts back there somewhere, a leader needs to be more skilled at articulating them.

Having a president who regularly spluttered and stumbled like this when speaking off the cuff is part of what made the past eight years so awful for those who would like to be proud of the USA and its leadership.

It isn't primarily about Palin's politics: I cringe when I hear Democrats floundering to this extent too. Ted Kennedy has on occasion attained a degree of incoherence comparable to that of the Palin quote above (remember the classic Doonesbury strip: A verb, Senator, we need a verb!). I just think it means these people are underqualified for public life (albeit perhaps not vitiatingly so), and pointing that out is a legitimate criticism of a candidate's ability to do the job, just like presenting evidence of the candidate's venality or dishonesty would be.

Well, I say it's not primarily about Palin's politics; but of course it soon would be if I were so foolish as to open the comments area on this post. But I (have you noticed this?) am not foolish. By the way, to fully understand the scholarly achievement that Mark's careful and dutifully unbiased analysis represents you really need to contrast it with something like (what Language Log reader Jonathan Lundell pointed out to me) Wonkette's remarks on Palin's "hellish, primordial shitheap of misplaced modifiers, abrupt switchings of tense, and sounds that simply are not words … And gerunds … so many gerunds in places that do not need gerunds" (she refers to what The Cambridge Grammar calls gerund-participles; a commenter called Capitol Hillbilly says pompously that "she doesn’t know the difference between a gerund and a garden variety participle", but in fact there isn't one). Wonkette does not have the same duty of scholarly care and linguistic exactitude as we do. They can be polemical. They are Wonkette. We are Language Log.

And because we are, just one more linguistic comment. A commenter at Wonkette called Ivenson says: "Gave up when she said 'you guys are wanting to dissect the past'. Awful passive voice manner of speech, she looks terrified." Terrified she may be, and look. And awful her manner of speech perhaps is. But You guys are wanting to dissect the past does not contain any instance of the passive voice at all. As is customary in popular discussions of syntax, the passive voice is being blamed for things it isn't guilty of. Remarkably few educated Americans can accurately distinguish passive clauses from active ones. They use the term "passive" to allude to some extraordinarily vague and broad notion that has something to do with not being very specific, and in particular not being specific about agency and responsibility for actions. You can find this discussed in a large number of Language Log posts about the passive that are listed here.

MIT Logo in Origami -- Applied Science

My former business partner has a boy at MIT on full scholarship. I can only hope he's up to similar amazing endeavors.

Prepare to be well and properly amazed. This is genius.

Scott McLellan: Bush Authorized Outing Plame

Geez, it never stops, does it?

The Obama Faith Interview: 2004

The belief Obama describes is my own, sans black church services, yet I label myself an atheist. He's really quite Unitarian Universalist (the grandparents were Universalist before the merger). He's not a literalist and refuses to call himself "born again."

Here's the trancript of the interview, printed in its entirety for he first time ever.

Rowan Atkinson: The Miracles of Jesus

A New World

Obama Family Values

The Obama family. These videos remind me all over again why they're moving to Washington despite every naturally occurring disadvantage that can happen in one three-word name.

Their natural affection is evident, as is their respect for one another. This cannot be faked. When Michelle Obama , talks about "this guy I married, whom I'm so proud of, first of all because he's a good guy," I believe her.

There's a wonderful moment after she introduces Malia and Sasha Obama and their dad, "BARACK OBAMA!" then nothing happens for maybe 20 seconds. When they finally emerge, poor 10-year-old Malia is so painfully self-conscious about all this attention, that she speaks to my inner child, how about you?

Little Sasha wears her happy kid beam, reveling in it all as she roams among her parents' long legs. Before going on, though, Dad's concern is his daughter's comfort, and he lets the crowd wait as he bends down, being sure to lower his mike, and whispers daddy magic that makes her smile her first genuine smile of the evening.

How often do kids really come first like that?

I'm newly reminded of the thrill of a candidate who, as his wife put it, will wake up every morning to make this a better place for all of our children, and will do everything he can to help life be not so hard for regular people.

Think that ever occurred, really, to the Usurper?

I'm including a third video. Stick with me here, because you'll wonder if I've gone all Harlequin on you. I would have chosen different music, and there would be no pink valentine frames with white script. I watched it through, ready for a wince that really never came.

Image after image, their connection reminds me of the John Donne's poetic image of a mature and satisfying love he compares to twin compasses (think geometry) that circle widely, strongly and independently of each other, but when those twin orbits intersect, it's the most powerful and profound meeting of hearts and mind.

It's not moon-June-spoon, gazing into lipid pools so often described as the ideal. When they look at each other, they're equals, a team. We catch their intimacy not because they have it one display, but because it is real. One look at what must have been Annie Lebowitz's photo of a the two, and you get it. They may be the first happy marriage since Truman.

It's when they're looking in the same direction that their mirrored expressions made me cry before it was over.

I'm sure I'm punch drunk from years of being forced to sustain outrage, but I believe all over again in the promise of this exceptional family. Like Malia said in their one and last family interview, it makes the kids feel good when their parents love each other. Me too, Malia. Me, too.

More Dancing, Just Dance the Night Away

The Rambo Tango--Incredible



Korean Modern dance








Body Poppin'

A Cultural Interlude: Dancing, Dancing, Dancing!

What is it with those Brits and pop culture? Frankly, I'd live and die there for the poshness of the accent alone. I feel quite at home and connected somehow.

Do try to stay focused, there are videos to watch in a minute. Did you take your Ritalin?

That said, I'm not so wild about everything Anglo. Their famed fish and chips are just hefty planks of globber best suited for absorbing grease. This grease then doubles in volume before vomiting on a quaint newspaper.

Their syncopated system of "central" heating means never knowing a warm minute without a duvet and a water bottle.

The exchange rate left me with 48 cents, two kids, and no connecting flight in Nashville. The delay was an act of God, they told the angry man who smelled like sweaty fish and chips, and was not covered within their rooming policy. 20 hours since breakfast and I broke my sacred rule of not crying near public transportation. All was well in the end. Their policy extended to mothers and their "babies."

Where was I? Like, have you ever eaten an English Egg McMuffin? There's no tang, no hint of smoked anything--it's a poached egg on a soggy muffin with tasteless cheese for color. And mincemeat? A good mince should numb the gums from a surfeit of clove. I bought a dozen cute little pies for Christmas Day, and threw all but two away.

But look at this pair, the "Cheeky Monkeys," singing and dancing to the communal delight of the British Isles. This is mince with no clove.




I'll just say it. British popular music is predictable, unevolved and banal. The obvious strain for cutesiness doesn't pall on their palate--no, they love all that saccharin ootsiness more at home on Lawrence Welk, may his memory be a blessing, than on anything contemporary. I wasn't charmed, were you?

And Simon Cowell seems to have taken a palliative that made his heart grow nine times its size there in Whoville, UK, while simultaneously removing any faculty for critical thinking. It's about enough to make you puke, if the rick rack doesn't get you first. My what a mean lady I am.

How did the island that gave us the Beatles, The Animals, The Yardbirds, Twiggy, Donovan, The Doors and Davey Jones have so slid down the bell curve? But what gives? And no, I don't consider the Stones a treasure but I love Elvis Costello and The Eurythmics. I'd take a cold shower with Duran Duran to escape the techno/beat/pop sound of popular music over there now.




The Boy Ridiculously Dances - video powered by Metacafe

Now, these are moves.




Walk Dancing - video powered by Metacafe

But then who knew from walk dancing? The prettiest footwork in video today.