Wednesday, March 28, 2007

bumpersticker

I created a bumpersticker that might turn a few heads:

















I imagine people having to consult their home dictionaries.
Several years ago I remember a bumpersticker which mocked the PCness found on other bumperstickers. It went something like this: Nuke the Gay Baby Whales for Jesus.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

teapots no. 15 & 14

Tea time (no. 15 of my slowly growing 2nd set of 100 teapots)











Tea with cat (no. 14 of my slowly growing 2nd set of 100 teapots)

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Drying up Ganesha



"Drying up" is a description that Claude Renault gives to many of his photographs in which women are drying their saris in India. I like his usage of "drying up". Before, I would have said the women are "drying their saris." Now I have added Claude's unique usage of this phrasal verb to my English. As a "native speaker" of English, I have used the phrasal verb "to dry up" to mean, for example, that "the river dried up." Formerly, I would not have used "to dry up" in regards to the act of drying a piece of clothing. However, I like Claude's phrase. In any case, what is true of language use is that language is created by people. Some words or phrases don't make it into dictionaries until lexicographers agree that the word has become part of the English language (like the recent addition of the word wiki to the OED, Oxford English Dictionary). The English we all use on flickr is an excellent example of World English(es) in action. I say that "drying up a sari" belongs in the OED because it is language in use by real people.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

True Generosity

This is a great photo story, one of Evren Sahin's Nepal and Kathmandu photos on flickr.

". . . At the end of our lives, we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made or how many great things we have done. we will be judged by 'I was hungry and you gave me to eat. I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless and you took me in'." -Mother Theresa

[Mother Theresa home in Pashupatinath]