Cavalier: Connecting Capitol insurrection to British Civil War and to pandemic

Being a history buff, I tend to look things in historical perspective.  While the Capitol was being seized by the White House-incited mobs, Oliver Cromwell and Charles I came to my mind.

While visiting London 5-6 years ago, I noticed there were only two statues in the yard of the Parliament; one is Henry II, the other is Oliver Cromwell (see photo right).  The fact/design that he still needs a lion to protect him tells a lot.

I know it is inappropriate to liken Trump’s White  House to Charles I royalist and Nancy Pelosi’s Congress/Capitol to Oliver Cromwell’s Parliament.  But . . .

I hold the view that the Capitol insurrection and America being the worst in the whole world when it comes to pandemic control are related, the two manifestations of the same thing（一體兩面）.

The word “cavalier” (lack of proper concern, disregard of others’ interest, high-handed, arrogant, supercilious) connects these two things and events.

Cromwell’s Roundheads (Parliamentarians) first used “Cavaliers” to describe the wealthier supporters (knights) of Charles I, with a negative tone of contempt.  The term was later adopted by Royalists themselves.

Chris Christie

After spending seven days in an intensive unit before recovering from COVID-19, the former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie implored Americans to wear masks and take the pandemic very seriously.  "The ramifications are wildly random and potentially deadly.  No one should be happy to get the virus and no one should be cavalier about being infected or infecting others."  He said.

Christie used “cavalier” to describe those so-called pandemic deniers, treating it with indifference or even with contempt.  The cult is led by Trump, and unfortunately many Republicans “follow the leader” blindly or as Chinese say 被牽著鼻子走。

So everything comes into place. The mobs that seized the Capitol are Trump’s people who, like their leader, take cavalier attitude toward the pandemic, so they are the Royalists, the Cavaliers. The price we pay is America being the worst when it comes to the pandemic control. Trump indeed achieved the “America First” which is not only a slogan but a reality.  America, the “shining City upon the Hill”, its storied democracy was once marveled, envied and emulated by the world, now scorned, mocked and mourned.

I firmly believe that most of the more than 74 millions that voted Trump did it for various reasons, political or otherwise, some of them I personally embrace, thus I treat them with respect and understanding.

My argument against Trump is entirely not political.  To paraphrase Fou Lei (傅雷）from the letter to his son, Fou Ts’ong (傅聰）:

First you must be a person, then a public servant, and then a politician, and only then can you be a President.

Fou Ts’ong said in one interview, “Even now, I believe in this order — that it should be this way and that I am this way.”

Not a thread of moral fiber can be found in Trump’s very being.  He failed the first step as a decent person.  His character fault lies in his narcissistic personality and lack of empathy and compassion. A powerful politician without morality is a dangerous thing.

Learning English and telling story: fiddle and husband

fiddle

When violin is used to play folk music, it is often called “fiddle”, informal use of which also means “cheating and defrauding”.

We all know Churchill was an “accomplished” painter. He loved painting; he said in his Painting as a Pastime, “When I get to heaven I mean to spend a considerable portion of my first million years in painting, . . . To be really happy and safe, one ought to have at least two or three hobbies, and they must all be real.” So one time he took up violin and had to put it down in no time.

One of the numerous Churchill's biography books I read is “Churchill: an informal study of greatness”, in which I read the following paragraph, which is the best example of using “fiddle” for both of its meanings (violin and cheating).

It is not widely known that Churchill, in a period of political crisis, once bought a cheap violin and essayed to prepare himself for the concert stage. The fancy passed. Unlike bricklaying, the musical art was tougher than it looked. About all he got out of it was a witticism from Philip Snowden, a government opponent, who said, “I understand that Winston has taken up a new pastime — fiddling, and very appropriate, too.”

Churchill and Philip Snowden for many years were political enemies. But in his Great Contemporaries Churchill had kind words to say of him.

Afterwards it fell to my lot for seven years to wrangle with him about finance as Chancellor of the Exchequer, or in opposition to his Chancellorship, and we hit each other as hard as we could within the wide rules of Order. But never have I had any feelings towards him which destroyed the impression that he was a generous, true-hearted man.

The article about Philip Snowden ends with, (the "famous lines" come from a poem with a title of "England: an Ode"

The history of Parliament will not ignore the scene when the House of Commons rose to their feet in enthusiasm as he recited the famous lines:

All our past proclaims the future: Shakespeare's voice and Nelson's hand, Milton's faith and Wordsworth's trust in this our chosen and chainless land,
Bear us witness .. .
Come the world against her, England yet shall stand!

husband

Everyone knows what “husband” is, here are a few examples of using “husband” as the meaning of “to use resource economically; conserve”.

In his The Confessions Rousseau wrote about his encounter, while as a teenager, of a sexual abuse from a priest. I am not showing you the content of his description of the abuse, as it is not the intention of this post. In fact, he mentioned this kind of sexual abuse on another occasion. The sexual abuse scandal of the priests is apparently not a modern thing.

Conscious that my funds were nearly exhausted, I husbanded the miserable sum that still remained. . . . The weather was fine, and one evening when it was very hot I decided to sleep out in the public square. I had already settled down on a bench when a priest, who was passing and saw me lying there, came over and asked me if I had nowhere to stay. I confessed my plight, and he seemed touched by it. He sat down beside me, and we talked. His conversation was pleasant, and from what he said I conceived the highest possible opinion of him. . . .

The following is how Churchill wrote in his World War II memoir (this is what propelled him to get a Nobel Prize in Literature) explaining how nearly 400,000 British soldiers (a small fraction was French soldiers) could be evacuated from Dunkirk.

However, very early on the 25th [5/25/1940] a fresh directive was sent from Brauchitsch as the Commander-in-Chief ordering the continuation of the advance by the armour. Rundstedt, fortified by Hitler's verbal agreement, [Hitler visited his headquarter 5/24/40] would have none of it. He did not pass on the order to the Fourth Army commander, Kluge, who was told to continue to husband the panzer divisions. Kluge protested at the delay, but it was not until next day, the 26th, that Rundstedt released them, although even then he enjoined that Dunkirk was not yet itself to be directly assaulted. . . . It is therefore certain that the armour was halted; that this was done on the initiative not of Hitler but of Rundstedt. Rundstedt no doubt had reasons for his view both in condition of the armour and in the general battle, but he ought to have obeyed the formal orders of the Army Command, or at least told them what Hitler had said in conversation. There is general agreement among the German commanders that a great opportunity was lost.

Delicious

When we say ‘delicious’ which is almost always used in describing the foods exclusively. It didn’t escape my notice that when the literary figures use it, it describes almost anything and everything except the foods. I will use many examples to make my point.

In his The Confessions, Jean-Jacques Rousseau did use 'delicious' on food, but it is “food for my thoughts”: Rousseau is brutally honest in saying not only what he did, but also what was in his mind.

Rousseau first met Mme de Warens, a Swiss aristocrat (Rousseau is also from Geneva) at age of 16; she（12 years his senior, dismissed her husband 2 years earlier) took him in under her wings, sort of giving his first education (Rousseau said he was her “pupil”). She eventually initiated an intimate relationship, sharing a bed for many years. Rousseau called her “my Mama”, she him “my little one”.

Rousseau wrote the following paragraph when he was returning to see Mme de Warens, thinking about how kind she treated him and loved him, this “food of my thoughts” evoked a “delicious” imagining.

“I looked on myself as the creature, the pupil, the friend and almost the lover of Mme de Warens. The nice things she had said to me, the slight caresses she had bestowed on me, the tender interest she had seemed to take in me, and her friendly glances, which seemed loving glances to me because they inspired me with love – all this was food for my thoughts as I walked on, and gave me delicious imaginings.”

Rousseau used “delicious” in describing his day-dreams.

I enjoyed none of those delicious day-dreams that had accompanied me on my last trip. . . . My heart throbbed with joy as I drew near to my dear Mamma.

Rousseau also used “delicious” in describing a sight of a place.

I thought for some time of the Borromean Islands, the delicious sight of which had enraptured me; but I found too much ornament and artifice about them for my inhabitants.

George Eliot loved to use “delicious”, and was almost never about foods. Being a doctor I naturaly study the character of Dr Tertius Lydgate in Middlemarch with meticulous attention. The following is how Dr Lydgate and Rosamond first met. I couldn’t have any better word than “delicious” in describing Rosamond’s sensation at that moment.

Rosamond was proud when he entered the room and when he approached her with a distinguished smile, she had a delicious sense that she was the object of enviable homage.

Eliot likes using “delicious” in describing the state of mind. There are many protagonists in Middlemarch, Dorothea Brooke is a major and fascinating one. The following is talking about the relationship between Dorothea and Will Ladislaw, eventually her second husband after the first one died.

In the month, since their parting Dorothea had felt a delicious though sad repose in their relation to each other, as one which was inwardly whole and without blemish.

Eliot used “delicious” described “evenings” in the garden because of the location, the atmosphere and even the odors/scents.

and the evenings were delicious in that quite spot, when the new hay-ricks lately set up were sending forth odors to mingle with the breath of the rich old garden.

I really enjoy reading “Daughter of Empire” by Pamela Hicks, and always want to read one more time. She is the daughter of Mountbatten, the first cousin of Prince Philip (husband of current Queen Elizabeth II), she was the bridesmaid when the Queen got married in 1947. But then again one may not like it that much unless one is an Anglophile.

My mother made “The Man I Love” an overnight hit in England after Gershwin told her how upset he was that it had flopped in the United States. She danced the Charleston with Fred Astaire, and the rumors that Queen Mary didn’t approve of this kind of behavior made the dancing all the more delicious.

Something prohibiting is made more delicious, the same is also true for a stolen kiss. Mark Twain also did the same thing, using “delicious” in describing all sorts of things Tom Sawyer shouldn‘t have done.

He began to think of the fun he had planned for this day, and his sorrows multiplied. Soon the free boys would come tripping along on all sorts of delicious expeditions, and they would make a world of fun of him for having to work—the very thought of it burnt him like fire.

The smell of Madam Chiang Kai-Shek’s perfume is “delicious”, the delicious scent, so to speak”; the following is from The Last Empress by Hannah Pakula.

Christopher Isherwood, traveling in China with W. H. Auden, met Madame Chiang in the late 1930s. He caught her aura exactly: “She could be terrible, she could be gracious, she could be businesslike, she could be ruthless. . . . Strangely enough, I have never heard anybody comment on her perfume. It is the most delicious either of us has ever smelt.”

The writing of Edwardb Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is classic, the following is an example. One can imagine the “most delicious amusements” are pursuits of sensual pleasure, sumptuous meals, and extravagant indulgences.

A capricious prodigality supplied the want of taste and elegance; and whilst Elagabalus lavished away the treasures of his people in the wildest extravagance, his own voice and that of his flatterers applauded a spirit of magnificence unknown to the tameness of his predecessors. To confound the order of seasons and climates, to sport with the passions and prejudices of his subjects, and to subvert every law of nature and decency, were in the number of his most delicious amusements.

The people quitted their favorite amusements for the more delicious pleasure of revenge, rushed in crowds towards a palace in the suburbs, one of the emperor's retirements, and demanded, with angry clamors, the head of the public enemy.

So enrich or spice your writing using “delicious” like a pro (professional writer).

Why l learn English? To enjoy life

Lu Xun

Growing up in Taiwan, one will not have a chance to read the literary work of a great Chinese writer, Lu Xun (魯迅), whose work was banned for he was considered a leftist communist and was greatly admired by Mao Zedong who said of Lu Xun, “'On the cultural front, he was the bravest and most correct, the firmest, the most loyal and the most ardent national hero, a hero without parallel in our history.'”. However he never joined Communist Party.

It is true that he was a powerful critic of Chiang Kai-Shek regime; he would give Mao Zedong a great deal of headache had he lived under Communist regime. He died in 1936 and the Communist took over the government in 1949. He was simply a liberal dissident by heart.

There was an article in NY Times (8/19/1990) “China’s greatest dissident writer”, in which it said, “the [Communist] party adopted Lu Xun because he opposed tyranny, and so now it would a bit awkward to ban him for the same reason.”

The million dollar letter

In 2013 a letter of Lu Xun, written on June 8, 1934, to a publisher who asked him about learning Japanese. The letter was auctioned off for more than one million US dollars.  It is a short letter with only three paragraphs.  The following is the second paragraph:

學日本文要到能夠看小説，且非一知半解，所需的時間和力氣, 我覺得並不亞於學一種歐洲文字，然而歐洲有大作品。先生何不將預備學日文的力氣，學一種西文呢？

The time and effort needed to learn Japanese to the point that you can read a novel — and not just half-understand it –would be no less, I think, than to master a European language. And there are great European works. Why don’t you, sir, use the energy that would be spent learning Japanese to learn a Western language instead? (The translation is from an article in NY Times.)

It just happened that I shared Lu Xun’s view and has been actually doing it for forty some years.

In the early years when I first came to the States reading Lincoln and Churchill led me to discover the beauty of English language, and subsequently the great work in English in science as well as in humanity/literature/history.

I had to learn English well enough to read and enjoy the English literary work.  Without a school to attend and without a teacher to learn, I tried to select books that most likely can improve my command of English.  I tried to read the books Lincoln and Churchill read, not that I have their faculty.  I also constantly look for scientists who write well, the list of which is getting long.

Growing up in Taiwan I was aware of the perception of many adults that if one will pursue a career in science, one doesn’t have to be good in language.  I later found out myself that nothing could be further from the truth.  American educators got it right; recall the National Merit Scholarship has the verbal score doubled in the PSAT.

So Lu Xun was correct that there are great European works; he was talking about literary work, but there are great works in science and medicine, too.  Or he might be also talking about science/medicine as he studied medicine in Japan in early 1900s.  He also mastered the language of German and Japanese.

Trifecta in the comic strip and in the market

Yesterday I read “the trifecta of dog shame” in the Mother Goose & Grimm comic strip and today I read from a Wall Street Journal email,

“The S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite climbed to a trifecta of records Monday as stocks extended their postelection rally”

“Trifecta” is a relatively new vocabulary, used in the horse race, a “variation of the perfecta in which a bettor must select the 3 finishers of a race in the correct order of finish in order to win.” Triple Crown, so to speak.

Trifecta nowadays is used synonymous to triple, triplet or triad.

Tantalizing 可望不可及: Reading history, learning English

“The ruins of the village of Vaux changed hands thirteen times during March, and yet the fort itself still lay tantalizingly beyond the German reach.”

The above quote is from John Keegan’s (a British military historian) The First World War.  It epitomizes the characteristics of the WWI: stalemate and attrition resulting in enormous casualties for nothing.

There is hardly a day went by without my learning of  how an English word is beautifully and effectively used.  “tantalizingly” here caught my attention.

“Tantalize” originates from Greco-Roman mythology. “Tantalus” was a king who for his sin was condemned to stand on Tantarus up to his chin in water that receded whenever he stooped to drink.  So “tantalize” means “to tease or torment by presenting something to the view and exciting strong desire but continually frustrating the expectation by keeping it out of reach”

The German force very much wanted the fort in Vaux and fought for it ferociously with tenacity and yet couldn’t get it.  可望不可及, so to speak. 

(Many English verbs turn into adjective by adding “ing” to it: ‘tantalize’ is a verb and’ tantalizing’ is adjective)

I was surprised to learn (from Charles) that “serendipity” evolves from an ancient fairy tale.  I bet few people are aware of the origin of “tantalize”.  While I am at “tantalize”, I might as well say something about “tantamount”.

The Lend-Lease is a Bill enacted by Congress, empowering the President to send war supplies to the allied countries fighting the Axis.  This Act was passed (3/11/1941) before America plunged into the war.  It greatly delighted Churchill, who reportedly said the Lend-Lease Act was “tantamount to a declaration of war by the U.S.”

“Tantamount to” is the same as “equivalent to”.

The beauty of the language: Simple is Beautiful

While commenting on the English translation of A Dream of Red Chamber, I often lament the loss of the beauty of Chinese literary language.  But what is the “beauty” of the language?  Is the beauty of Chinese the same way as the English is perceived? I am afraid not.

Hemingway: A lion in winter

I am in no position to describe or define the beauty of Chinese language.  Florid and pompous language in Chinese is considered high class and magnificent or even beautiful.  This may not be true in English: simple and short words are welcome.  As Mark Twain would say, “Damn the subjunctive.  It brings all of our writers to shame.  As to the Adjective:  When in doubt, strike it out.”

The earth moved

Hemingway is a man of letter and also a man of action; he wrote using subjective and verb only.  We read in his For Whom the Bell Tolls, after Robert Jordan (played by Gary Cooper) and Maria (played by Ingrid Bergman) 雲雨巫山 (making love) 一番.

“But did thee feel the earth move?” Robert Jordan asked, and she says yes.

“And it is not thus for thee with others?” Maria asked him,

“No. Truly.”

“Thou hast loved many others.”

“Some, But not as thee.”

“And it was not thus? Truly?”

“It was a pleasure but it was not thus.”

“And then the earth moved.  The earth never moved before?”

“Nay. Truly never.”

“Ay,” she said. “And this we have for one day.”

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Fourteen pages later, under pressure from one of the guerrilla leaders to tell what happened, Maria looks away and says only, “The earth moved.”

雲雨巫山 and 溫存了一番 are Chinese language to describe sexual intimacy tactfully and tastefully; Hemingway’s “the earth moved” reaches the “climax” of English language that simple is beautiful.

Churchill “mobilized English language” to fight Hitler.
I may not be able to define the beauty of English language, but when I see it I know it.  As I said it many times before that reading Churchill and Lincoln led me to discover the beauty of English language.  It should come no surprised that he was awarded Nobel Prize in Literature.

In his first speech in the House of Commons on May 13, 1940, after being appointed as the Prime Minister, Churchill said, using mostly short and simple words.

I said to those who have joined the Government: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”

You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against the monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime.  That is our policy.  You ask, What is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory—victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.  Let that be realized; no survival for the British Empire; no survival for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival for the urge and impulse of the ages, that mankind will move forward towards its goal.  But I take up my task with buoyance and hope. . .

Idiosyncratic idioms

I always think idioms are invented to 欺負 (take advantage of) the foreigners or ones with a foreign tongue, as the meaning of which, more often than not, cannot tell literally from its component words.

“neck of the woods” (neighborhood) is nothing to do with the neck. What’s “raining cats and dogs” (heavy downpour) got to do with cats and dogs?  It is hard to guess “to let the cat out of the bag” is to reveal a secret. If she “has a bee in her bonnet”; she is obsessed.  If a doctor says “it sounds like run of the mill cases”; it means cases being discussed are “average, nothing special”.

Bill Watterson likes to use idioms in his Calvin and Hobbes comic strips.  “give someone a run for the money” means “to be as good at something as someone who is very good”.

“hit the spot” or “hit the bull’s eye” is to be exactly right.

In A Dream of Red Chamber, “雨村閒居無聊” is translated as “Then Yucun, finding time heavy on his hand”, which is a good translation as time seems to go slowly [the heavier the slower the time travels] when one has nothing to do.

“born with a silver spoon in one’s mouth” is to say born into wealth and privilege.  In A Dream of Red Chamber we read “胞胎 嘴裡便啣下一塊五彩晶瑩的玉來” (the birth of a son who came into this world with a piece of clear, brilliantly colored jade in his mouth”.) Since this was talking about a prominent family, so I think East and West thought are in the same line.

Color is unique to each culture. “Once in a blue moon” (occurs rarely) and “out of the blue” (unexpected). “Feeling blue” is a melancholy mood.  One should never give a Chinese gentleman a green hat, as “戴绿帽” (wearing a green hat) tells he is being cheated by his wife.  黄色小說 (yellow novel) is often referred to sex or pornographic novels.  After reading D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterly’s Lover, I am not sure I would call it 黄色小說 or not.  To compare Fifty Shades of Grey with Lady Chatterly’s Lover  is to elevate the former.  Call one’s wife 黄臉婆 (yellow face old lady) is very unflattering.

Charles told me there are thousands of set phrases in Chinese and gave some examples, such as 相見恨晚, 招蜂引蝶, 拈花惹草, and  窈窕淑女，君子好逑 , which were first used 2,300 years ago.  Chinese set phrases or idioms are much more poetic and cannot be translated literally.

Transcendent joy for Amanda Knox

Italian Supreme Court acquits Amanda Knox of killing her roommate—a dramatic ending of this 8-year saga. “Transcendent joy” is what her lawyer used to describe this incredible feeling and experience during an interview by CNN Erin Burnett, who likes “transcendent joy” very much and repeated it twice, and the lawyer said “that is not good enough” to describe it.


Amanda Knox

I think “transcendent” is similar to heavenly or otherworldly in this use.

George Eliot also uses “transcendent” well.  I am half way through the Middlemarch.  And the following is how Eliot tells us the relationship between Dorothea and Will Ladislaw (Casaubon’s cousin; Casaubon is Dorothea’s husband, thirty some years her senior) will be a sexual one.  Upon an unexpected visit by Dorothea, this is how Eliot described Will’s response.

“Any one observing him would have seen a change in his complexion, in the adjustment of his facial muscles, in the vividness of his glance, which might have made him imagine that every muscle in his body had passed the message of a magic touch.  And so it had.

For effective magic is transcendent nature; and she shall measure the subtlety of those touches which convey the quality of soul as well as body, . . .”

Eliot also uses “transcendent” in a love scene for Rosamond (before her marriage to Dr. Lydgate).

“She [Rosamond] blushed and looked at him as the garden flowers look at us when we walk forth happily among them in the transcendent evening light . . .”

Scruff: learn the vocabulary reading the comic strip

It was said that Churchill’s vocabulary has been estimated at 65,000 and he used it well, especially the short ones.  He was excited when he first learnt the word “stunt” imported from America.

I may know the word “vicissitude” and how to use it, but I do not know “scruff” is used to mean facial hair after a shave; it also means “one that is worthless or contemptible; ruffian).  This comic strip also has a word “flaunt” for which I wrote a post that is worth your while to re-read.

http://doctorjytsai.blogspot.com/2012/04/on-language-flaunt.html

FDR had to explain to Churchill the word of “lick”: an American favorite,

http://doctorjytsai.blogspot.com/2012/03/americans-like-to-say-lick.html

Revision is the best way, if not the only way, to make writings better

Reading the Today section of the Observer-Reporter last night, I put together Churchill’s sayings on bombing German cities in haste; it was meant to show Churchill’s skill in writing or talking.  I should have used the title as “Churchill on bombing German cities: a poetic justice”.

W.B. Yeats wrote and rewrote his poems and essays all the time.  He even attempted to rewrite his letters before being published if he got the chance; in a letter to his publisher, he wrote, “. . . if your are going to publish any more letters of mine, please let me see them first, I may even, in defiance of all right conduct, improve them.”

Hemingway revised the ending (the last page) of A Farewell to Arms (his World War I experience) 47 times.  He once said it had been rewritten “39 times before I was satisfied.”  After 30 times I bet he himself lost counts.  When asked the reason for writing so many endings, he responded: “Getting the words right”.

I read A Farewell to Arms twice, but couldn’t finish watching the movie.  I watched the movie For Whom the Bell Tolls many times, but never read the book.

Do not procrastinate if you need to write something as you will need time to revise to improve it.  If Yeats and Hemingway had to do it, you, too.  Revision is the best way, if not the only way, to make it better.

Language is the generation gap

This September 22 ZITS comic strip shows why Jeremy’s parents cannot communicate with him when they still say “it sucksth”.

Pray was commonly used as ‘please’ (in more earnest plea), less commonly used nowadays, though.  When “Churchill was back” as the First Lord of Admiralty at the outbreak of WWII; he sent out a series of memoranda that became known as the First Lord’s Prayers as they frequent opened with “Pray inform me . . .” or “Pray why has . . . not been done?”.

In a letter to her brother, Austin, Emily Dickinson wrote,

Prithee, my brother,
Into my garden, come!

Prithee is “pray thee” = I ask you, please

This link is to a related topic in my blog,

http://doctorjytsai.blogspot.com/2012/03/americans-like-to-say-lick.html

No luxurious house, but a luxuriant garden

Luxurious conveys the ideas of comfort and indulgence.  Luxuriant implies vigorous or rich growth; a luxuriant garden is a lush one; as luxurious to luxury, so luxuriant to exuberance.  We do not have a luxurious house, but a luxuriant garden.

These photos of tomato and Taiwanese pumpkin (台灣南瓜) gardens were taken in not quite a month apart, attesting my claim of a luxuriant garden.

6/28/2013

6/15/2013

With garden work consumed all my spare time, I can hardly have time writing garden post, let alone other topic.  I will talk about Shakespeare’s use of ‘luxurious’ as this post will be labeled ‘language’, too.
In Act IV Scene 3 of Macbeth, Malcolm, trying to test the loyalty  (to Scotland) of Macduff, talks about himself, referring himself as a third person, using all negative characters to describe himself, implying he is not fit to be the king.

Malcolm (to Macduff):
I grant him bloody,
Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful,
Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin
That has a name.

In this case, ‘luxurious’ means lecherous, sensual or lascivious. 

The Bard also use ‘luxurious’ for the same meaning in Act IV Scene 1 of Mcuh Ado About Nothing,

Claudio:

She knows the heat of a luxurious bed,

Her blush is guiltness, not modesty.

6/27/2013

teensy-weensy and itzy-bitzy

This post shows why I like to read the letter-to-the-editor at the Wall Street Journal. I think

teensy-weensy, 
teeny-weeny, 
itzy-bitzy, 
itsy-bitsy 

all mean “very small” or “tiny” or what a serious physicist would call infinitesimal (so small as to be almost none)—a concept needed in studying calculus.

Lackluster in our garden and Shakespeare’s language

lustrous (the word was also coined by the Bard)

These photos show the lackluster tulips and hyacinths, comparing with the brilliance and glitter (i.e. luster) in their glory.  It is estimated that Shakespeare might have invented 1,700 words and “lackluster” is one of them.  If he ran out of words, he made one.

In his As You Like It, we hear Jacques says,

And then he drew a dial from his poke

And, looking on it with lackluster eye,

lackluster

The Bard used “lackluster” here to describe looking at the watch (that was pulled out from the bag) solemnly or seriously.

Lackluster is nowadays commonly used to indicate dull, uninspired; lacking liveliness or enthusiasm, such as "looking into space with lackluster eyes"; "a lackluster pipeline news for a pharmaceutical company may  lead to languid share price" (Apple's net income number is anything but lackluster!); "the lackluster performance disappointed the fans".

lustrous

lackluster