Duquesne University

Memories are stashed away for a rainy day. Today -fancy that- it is raining in Madrid, European Union. And as I am feeling a bit under the weather ("I am not too Catholic today", is the equivalent expression in Spanish), I have winnowed old memories (to separate the chaff from the grain) mainly because I have read that Antioch College is closing down. And I was thinking how very close Pitt came to that, once upon a time, under Chancellor Litchfield (his signature is on my MA Diploma) and then, one thing leads to another, I was remembering my days, years, at Duquesne University (Spiritus est qui Vivificat), while reading Spinoza and thinking of the days that are no more, and wiping idle tears I know not what they mean... I guess that in more ways than one I am what I am because of Duquesne University. A great university indeed. I'll tell you more some other time.

At Odds with/over Language, Again.

In Levine Breaking News, June 7, 2007, I read the following:
"A broad immigration bill to legalize millions of people in the U.S. unlawfully failed a crucial test vote in the Senate Thursday..."
Le me ask:
to legalize millions of people unlawfully?
people in the US unlawfully?
the bill failed a crucial test vote unlawfully?
I'm all mixed up. Per usual.
The use of language is unpredictable and chaotic.

4 Traits about Myself.

I've been asked, urged, to write 8 things about myself... I'll just write down 4, half. Perhaps soon I can think of 4 additional ones, to complete the 8. Let's give it a try and see:
1. I'm an early-riser, an early bird, mainly because it's been said for centuries that "the early bird catches the worm" (I love worms!) and also that "early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise". I am healthy, but poor and rather stupid. When I was about 13 I bought an alarm clock in order to wake up at 5 am. This habit may be because I am at my best in the morning, full of pep, energy and ideas... which flag as the day progresses.
2. Dr. Frances Collechia, Duquesne University, wrote a letter of character reference where she pointed out that my main and possibly only drawback, defect, weakness, was PROCRASTINATION. And she hit the nail on the head! This illness is a lifestyle for me. It is defined as self-destructive behaviour, like a drug, a sort of paralysis, and task aversion... and I suffer from it, and a lot. To do away with procrastination is one of my New Year's resolutions... every year! A consolation of sorts is that this malady has affected mankind for ages, as the old saw testifies: "Do not put off till tomorrow what you can do today".
3. My sense of humor is weird at best, a trait -good or bad, depending- I just cannot help confronting others with. Is it a defense mechanism? Is it a surrealist way of staring most daily situations in the face? Is it a way of stretching situations to a breaking point? I just don't know. But I cannot help it. Often I find myself in odd social dire straits because of my light attitude towards things and people. Always pulling a straight face. Humor and a straight face go together, like chickens and writers.
4. I lost my patience a while ago, and I've been trying to find it, but can't. At the slightest provocation, I jump at the throat of others. This is terrible and I hate myself for it. To allow others to control my emotions is a real sin. I am at their mercy, imagine! But I am still trying to find my patience and self-control. If at first you don't succeed try, try, try again!

Madrid Book Fair

Spanish publishers are whiners at heart. They are for ever lamenting the fact that Spaniards do not read, and buy, naturally, few books, in spite of the fact that over 70,000 new titles come out every year in this small country of only 44 million people. No small feat! Yet... yesterday I went to the Retiro Park to visit the Book Fair... throngs made it difficult to walk or see, let alone peruse the books that filled the booths (over 400, I think) of different publishers and bookstores. This should give the lie to all those whiners, I think!!
It was a joy, almost bliss, to walk among people of like tastes as mine!
I went to visit Fernando Sánchez Dragó (check his website and blog) and bought his latest title: Libertad, fraternidad, desigualdad. I had to wait in line in order to have the book signed.
I missed Lorraine there, but I knew she was lurking around in spirit, on a quick visit from Naples, Florida. And she whispered in my ear... words of yesteryear.
I just thought I would let you people in on this, just in case.

Photos San Francisco

I had a real blast In San Francisco with my long strolls, never-ending chats with Laura Lynn, who gave me the red-carpet treatment in every way, boat rides that were much more than fun, tough hikes, visits to bookstores... and enjoyable conversations with Tom and his family (thanks for the watch) and Sergio, a wonderful listener. Thanks everyone for making my stay so nice and unforgetable. I also made a seagull friend, who was very chatty and informative. The bird asked me to take his picture. Hope you like it.

SF Street

Going up and down the steep San Francisco streets was tough. But I seem to be enjoying it here in this photograph.

San Francisco Hike

This is a snapshot taken in San Francisco during a tough hike. I had loads of fun climbing up, and heaps of vertigo coming down. But I made it. More dead than alive! And I had very good company; my mates were professional hikers and mountain climbers. The best.

The Future of Spanish

A few days ago I recommended Mathew Stewart's The Courtier and the Heretic, Leibnitz, Spinoza and the Fate of God in the Modern World, which I have found informative and very good reading. It has an excellent Bibliography of primary and secondary sources in English, French, German, Italian... but not a single entry in Spanish! Alas! No further comment, and you can draw your own conclusions, in the light of the title of this reflection.

Dr. John Simpson (OED) and Proverbs.

Dr. John Simpson, Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford English Dictionary and a world authority on Proverbs, prologued my The New Dictionary of Current Sayings and Proverbs, Spanish and English saying the following:

My introduction to Spanish proverbs occurred when I was working on the letter A for the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs. The earliest piece of evidence I had for the proverb It takes all sorts to make a world came from Thomas Shelton’s seventeenth-century English translation of Don Quixote: ‘In the world there must bee of all sorts’. I think the information has stuck with me all these years because I wasn’t expecting the first reference to an English proverb to come from a Spanish source. I’m not sure why I wasn’t expecting this: after all, English (at least since the Norman Conquest) shares much of its proverb heritage with the countries of continental Europe. But following the trail of many words, I imagined that we would find early references to English proverbs in Latin, or in French, rather than in Spanish.
But this European heritage of proverbs is strong. Many exist in parallel in a number of European languages, as the records of these languages show. Proverbs often arise as a response to the trials and tribulations of human existence, and the European experience meant that a proverb that was relevant to Spaniards, or to the French, may well be equally relevant to the English. It took me several years more to realize that proverbs often arise from adversity. They are often a traditional, stoic response to something that has gone wrong. ‘Oh well, don’t worry: it takes all sorts to make a world’. Not always, but often enough for the proverb to have a significant role in consolation.
Delfin Carbonell’s careful review of the modern proverb in Spanish and English investigates the history of our proverbs, and elucidates their meaning (which is not always as clear-cut as one might expect). Proverbs date from the earliest documentary records and have survived right up to the present-day. They still have a function in contemporary society (how often do they crop up in newspaper headings or in chapter titles, for example?). They connect us with our past, with the thoughts and emotions that our predecessors experienced in situations curiously similar to ours today. And Dr Carbonell is right to draw our attention to the need to work from primary source material. There is a bad old tradition in dictionary writing whereby proverbs are handed down from lexicographer (dictionary-writer) to lexicographer, and this dictionary record can in some cases outlive the existence of the proverb itself in actual speech. By concentrating on living testimony to the proverb (whether in modern books or newspapers, or even on the Internet), today’s editor can highlight those proverbs which are really current today, and can screen out (because of lack of evidence) those proverbs which have drifted out of use and into obsolescence. This necessity to cite real, contextual examples underpins all proper scholarly work in lexicography, and informs sound popular texts based on these. Readers often do dictionary-makers the honour of believing what they write, and so it behoves the dictionary-writer to get things right in the first place.
I shall be interested to see what success the present editor has with his unialphabetical system. As far as I am aware, it is an innovation in bilingual paroemiology (as pedants call proverb study). Any system which forces information on us in a new way is worthy of consideration. Advances in knowledge come from breaking the traditional bounds, and seeing links where they have not been recognized before.

John Simpson

Oxford

April 2004

Samuel Johnson, Leibniz and Spinoza.

May I recommend two books I acquired (bought) in San Francisco? They make excellent reading

Henry Hitchings, Defining [the world.], The Extraordinary story of Dr. Johnson's Dictionary, (New York, Picador, 2006).

Matthew Stewart, The Courtier and the Heretic, Leibniz, Spinoza and the Fate of God in the Modern World, (New York, W.W. Norton, 2006).

You are quite welcome!

Back from San Francisco

I had been told that San Francisco was a beautiful City, and indeed it is! But while I was there, wined and dined, toured around and given -really- the red-carpet treatment, I was musing -as I am prone to at times- that all cities are wonderful, that perhaps all cities have something unique to offer the occasional visitor. What of Paris? And Cuenca? And Salamanca? And Pittsburgh, for that matter. But this is not to diminish in anyway the beauty of San Francisco and the charm of Alameda, especially 2105 Alameda Ave., a comfortable and well-kept place where it was my good fortune to stay. Thank you for a great experience.

San Francisco

Guess what? I am traveling to Frisco tomorrow Tuesday. I have been away from the States close to a year and I am looking forward to visit this city. I'll keep my eyes peeled and I'll cock my ears. Of course, I suffer from travelphobia, like Sigmund Freud, so I'll have to brace up and grin and bear it! I'll keep in touch from there. Oh, yes, keep an eye out for El Cultural, El Mundo, next Thursday, in Madrid, which will carry an interview about my recent Diccionario sohez.

Freedom of Language Act

I am a -firm- believer in "freedom of language" which is the shirttail cousin of Freedom of Speech. This freedom affords us the liberty (catch the play on words?) of expressing our convictions, ideas, attitudes... any old way, without regard to formal rules that restrict our language liberty. The old rules of grammar and spelling attack the basic principle of our freedom of language, which is protected, believe it or not, by the Constitution, First Amendment, under Freedom of Speech.
The U.S. Embassy in Madrid sends me -at my request- an electronic Newsletter "Zoom in on the USA, a monthly publication of the USA Mission", put together to help those interested in the US and the English language. Unfortunately I always detect spelling mistakes -not typos- and grammatical and syntactical "faux pas". And as I am very naïve -and a bit foolish- I have pointed this out to them, to those who write it. To no avail, 'cause I guess that the composers have entrenched themselves behind the proposed "Freedom of Language Act", draft in the works by Congress to protect the ignorant, which -I am told- says: "Any government official is free to write the English language in any form and maner (sic) that his/her education, or lack of it, dictates. Thus spelling idiosyncracies, grammatical and syntactical deviations will not constitutte (sic) a transgression. No member of the Government or fereign (sic) service will ever be called to order for using broken English..." And so on and so forth.
If I were a pedant I would say: "O tempora, o mores!"
The Social Security Administration is elated by the news of the proposed Act as they are cut from the same cloth.
But perhaps this Freedom of Language Act -which is my idea and intended as a mild joke- may not be necessary: Common Law protects, aids and abets the new usage and peculiarities of expression.
This may be just a question of age, but I regret the new (?) language liberties and long for the old times... Oh, I believe in yesterday...
(NB. Let me add, just in case, that the Government of Spain is considering a "Real Decreto de Libertad del Idioma" to protect everybody.)

Unialphabet and Bilingual Dictionaries

In checking words in bilingual dictionaries, English-Spanish and Spanish-English, for example, I have always opened the wrong part, the wrong language. It is true that usually I handle three or four dictionaries at the same time. I though this was perhaps my bad luck as it is a fifty-fifty proposition. But ther is no order or system: some have English first, others Spanish first, English second.
I decided to solve the problem and took the bull by the horns -toreador style- and as there is no reason for dividing a dictionary in two parts, I invented -if we can call it that- the Unialphabet system of classification. Why not one dictionary blending blending both languages and using one alphabet? Instead of two different dictionaries in one volume. This way we just open the bilingual wordbook and go straight to the term we want to check. No problems, no mistakes, no wasting of time.
So far I have used this system in two of my dictionaries: "A Spanish and English Dictionary of Idioms" and "The New Dictionary of Current Sayings and Proverbs, Spanish and English", where Dr. John Simpson, Editor in Chief of the Oxford English Dictionary says in his Foreword: "I shall be interested to see what success the present editor has with his unialphabetical system. As far as I am aware, it is an innovation in bilingual paroemology (as pedants call proverb study). Any system which forces information on us in a new way is worthy of consideration. Advances in knowledge come from breaking the traditional bounds and seeing links where they have not been recognized before."

QUICK!!!

Quick, we must make New year's resolutions. The New Year is just around the corner! Plans, resolutions, resolves, determinations, are the motor of our future and we cannot do without them... The first one I'm thinking about is: to stop being a procrastinator. But I've been one for so long it's going to take a lot of effort and might on my part to get rid of this worm that destroys the mind. And: I won't lose my temper. I won't feel sad. I won't despair. I won't think about all the mistakes I've made, and the foolish things I've done in my life. And I'll try to enjoy every moment of the year ahead. A tall order indeed!
Happy New Year, y'all!

Diccionario sohez

For those who are fond of trivia: Larousse published in 2000 my Gran diccionario del argot: el sohez. In 2002 McGraw-Hill published the US edition with the title McGraw-Hill diccionario del argot: el sohez. And now Ediciones del Serbal will publish in February 2007 the new, updated and corrected edition of Diccionario sohez. This definitive edition of Spanish slang has over 9000 entries and 23000 citations from both sides of the Atlantic (from books, newspapers and magazines). The lexicographical presentation of this new edition is an improvement on the previous ones. I am very proud of it.

A good teacher is a joy forever

It's sad to say, but most teachers have no dedication and go into the classroom as if they were entering a lion's cage. They dislike or even hate their students and seldom prepare the class. A truly sorry situation. But there are many exceptions, naturally, and I know of one dedicated and loving teacher: Laura Lynne, and I want to mention her here in thankfulness for what she has taught me along the way, and in so many ways. Teaching is not only delivered in the classroom, and not always comes from one's elders. So, thank you very much indeed.

Lorraine C. Ladish

I have followed her writing career for years and admire her quest for perfection, writing and offering books that truly touch, reach and help people. That is no small feat. It seems she receives letters and e-mails from her readers thanking her for her help. My readers never write to me. But when people take the trouble to let a writer know how thankful they are, that certainly means something, especially from Spaniards who are more given to criticize and blame than praise. And her novels are very intriguing, different and a joy to read. I thought I would let you know.

Fernando Arrabal

Fernando Arrabal was just named "Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur" in Paris. And I am very, very happy about it because it says a lot about the standing of France and Arrabal, both. Great country and great writer. Also because we correspond now and started doing so years ago when I was teaching at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa. and he was almost a nobody (although he was mentioned by Martin Esslin in his "The Theater of the Absurd", a must). Congratulations Monsieur Arrabal... happy to hear about it.

Experts and know-it-alls

One feature I just love about the character of Spaniards is that they know about everything, no matter what. You name it: language, literature, science, law, the US., Outer Mongolia... so much so that one seldom hears "I don't know". Everybody knows, more and better... This is, of course, a far cry from the attitude adopted by Americans who are willing to admit their ignorance and are ready to learn. Sometimes -often- the so-called expert is not qualified with a solid background, but that is irrelevant here. But I am not complaining -I try not to be a complainer or a blamer- quite the contrary, it's wonderful and a blessing to have so many walking encyclopedias around. No need to visit libraries, which is a waste of time... (here). There are experts galore. Amando de Miguel is one such and comes to mind because not only does he speak English "perfectly" (whatever that means), he also pontificates about language although he says he teaches sociology. I envy these people because, in my case, I know less and less as I grow older and the time will come -soon, I am afraid- when I will be sure of nothing at all.