Friday

[nightdog_barks]

Sunny and warming up -- 61 right now (16.11 C), and it's supposed to get up to 67 or so today. Will probably go get a haircut and stop by the store. A little earlier there was a wren in the house -- I have the back door open a bit, and one found its way in. It investigated the Norfolk pine that's close by, then flew under the kitchen table and peered underneath the top. Then it sat on one of the chairbacks for a moment, and finally departed in a whir of wings. That's what they always do (this has happened before) -- they come in, poke around for a minute, then fly back out.

So. Here's another bit from The Possessed, occurring after a distant uncle of Elif's had married an Uzbek beauty named Lola:

Everyone would always ask my uncle: "How do you live with someone you can't communicate with?" And my uncle always shouted: "Uzbek Turkish is very close to our Turkish language!"

I hadn't believed my uncle, partly because he was crazy -- hadn't he spent his later years in a gardening shed in New Jersey, writing a book about string theory and spiders? -- and partly because, in my experience, Turkish people thought that every language was close to our Turkish language. Many times I had been told that Hungarian was related to Turkish, and the Hungarians and Turks descended from the same Altaic peoples, that Attila the Hun was Turkish, and so on. When I went to Hungary, however, I discovered that Hungarians do not share these beliefs at all. "Of course we have some Turkish words in our language," they would say. "For example, handcuffs. But that's because you occupied our country for four hundred years."

Comments

[blackmare-9.livejournal.com]

Oh, my.

That excerpt, about words for "handcuffs" and centuries of occupation and all ...

... I can smell the heady scent of brewing AUs from here.

And on that note I really must be going, as I am due at the gallery in ten minutes. Fortunately, that's only a few blocks from here.

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

Heh. Batuman has made me laugh out loud (for real) at least three times over the course of 180 pages, and this was one of them. I just loved this confusion of perception and reality and history all bumping up against each other, with the Hungarians going "Um, NO."

AUs? I have no idea what you're talking about ...

*shifty eyes*

[pwcorgigirl.livejournal.com]

But that's because you occupied our country for four hundred years. Hehee! I just love these quotes you're finding.

It's sunny and a little warmer today, which makes it pretty pleasant if the wind isn't blowing. This was errand day for me, which took about three hours and included a stop by the office to bring in the mail and check messages, since I wasn't there yesterday.

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

I just got back from running around, although it wasn't much of around, since all I did was get a haircut and stop by the store. But the haircut is such a relief! And it's just amazing outside -- 68 degrees and hardly a cloud in the sky.

:-D

[felis-nocturna.livejournal.com]

Love your wren visit. Wish this could happen to me, but living in an apartment house in the middle of the city, the only animal visit I've had today was a spider in the bathroom. Also, your Chango comment on Mare's thread made me smile. Reminded me of one of our cats at home, running away from... a mouse.

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

We have lots of birds here, and so that's really nice. When we lived in Tokyo some years ago, we were in an apartment in the middle of the city -- just about all we ever saw were enormous crows (karasu) that were basically big enough to carry away small children. *g*

[felis-nocturna.livejournal.com]

Crows! I like corvids, especially ravens and crows. (And I just now discovered that your beautiful blue jays (which I looked up when you mentioned them some time ago) belong in that category, too.) There are a lot of hooded crows (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooded_Crow) around here and I'm always happy to see them. Otherwise we have a lot of sparrows and siskins lately.

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

... wait a minute, where are you? For some reason I had you placed on the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, but you can't be there and not have blue jays, and the hooded crow is a European bird!

Obviously you don't have to tell me where you are -- I'm just surprised because I had you so firmly fixed somewhere. Hee.

[felis-nocturna.livejournal.com]

Heh! Yes, the hooded crow is a European bird indeed, and that's where I am. Germany to be precise. Now I'm really curious why you had me fixed... and I do find your icon very appropriate. *g*

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

I think I had you confused with someone else who is just outside of Boston, and I didn't think you were a Canadian or a Brit because I couldn't remember you spelling things with a "u". *g*

I've not been to Germany, but Mr. N has, back in the '90s. I believe he was somewhere just outside Munich ...

[felis-nocturna.livejournal.com]

because I couldn't remember you spelling things with a "u"

Ha. I do that at times, because we were taught British English at school. But the impertinent LJ spellcheck tells me it's wrong every time...