Month: November 2016

Ah, Mlle Demoritto, this question causes me amusement, because it betrays your lack of Anglo-Saxon repression.

The Anglo-Saxon proverbial expression is, there are three topics that one should never bring up for social discussion: Sex, Politics, and Religion. All three are regarded as too hot.

This is obviously a culture-specific judgement, and different cultures and individuals will have completely different opinions. Some cultures, and a lot of people, are quite ok to talk about sex. In countries without a sectarian divide, or where there is long-entrenched freedom of religion, religion will be far less toxic—unless individuals are True Believers, trying to convert everyone at the dinner table.

The same actually goes for politics. In Greece, my childhood memory is that discussing politics was more an entertainment, an excuse for people to gesticulate and mock argue, than something serious and deadly (although there was an undercurrent of that too).

So the answer to your question really depends on the culture of the “we”, and on how much of a True Believer (moral, religious or ideological) “we” are.

In their answer to A celebrity had his assistant call to schedule a date with me. Should I be offended?, Sam Murray details their rather agreeable experience of having their one-time Celebrity Fuck Buddy (CFB) arrange dates through an assistant. After all, the CFB was hardly to be trusted to arrange dates on his own.

In comments, Sam added that they found the prospect of arranging logistics pretty hot themselves:

Haha. I like planning weirdly enough. Making reservations is like a blood sport for me. Party of 7 at 8pm at balena on Saturday night? Consider it done. Coordinating hotel reservations with flight times with restaurants with tours with car rentals? I am getting aroused just thinking about it. Lol.

So…

https://www.quora.com/A-celebrit…

I’m sorry to say, Sam, but the paparazzi have been leaking footage of you with your CFB (celebrity fuck buddy). Only fair you should know:

In this cartoon, the role of the CFB is being played by Tom Selleck. Or Eric Braeden. Since I can’t actually draw, I need all the visual cues I can get.

Yes, reverse engineering the present tense from the aorist passive takes some practice. Learn the major verb classes so you can recognise the tense endings.

The present tense here is τάσσω, “to place, to order”.

Well, both do indeed occur in the New Testament. “Crucify” σταυρόω is the usual verb, but Galatians 3:13 uses ὅτι γέγραπται Ἐπικατάρατος πᾶς ὁ κρεμάμενος ἐπὶ ξύλου “for it is written: cursed is he who hangs from a pole.”

Galatians 3:13 uses hangs from a pole to refer to Jesus, but in fact it is quoting Deuteronomy 21:23: you must not leave the body hanging on the pole overnight. Be sure to bury it that same day, because anyone who is hung on a pole is under God’s curse. Deuteronomy is referring to death by hanging from a pole. Acts 5:30 also uses that expression to refer to the crucifixion, and the commentaries explain it as an allusion to the same source.

Greek Orthodox hymns generalise this quotation to refer to the crucifixion, on both Holy Thursday and Good Friday: see Επί ξύλου κρεμάμενοι όλοι μας. But translating crucifixion on a cross into hanging on a tree is hardly rare in different cultures. I’m pretty sure it shows up in Old English, though I’m not finding the source on Google.

Some astonishingly good answers, particularly Ben Kelley and Melodie Neal.

To a European, we are clearly New World, and closer to the US than to Europe, as others have explained. Melbourne is more European (and it has gotten even more European since the 90s, with the promotion of foodie culture and laneway restaurants in the CBD); but that doesn’t make it very European.

We are still a long way from anywhere, and relatively isolated geopolitically if not commercially. Our cityscapes are still spread out and very suburban compared to Europe. We still have a dearth of engaged citizenry and public intellectuals; which is why Waleed Aly is too good for us (and I’m happy he’s gotten himself a commercial infotainment forum). White Australians have an acute dearth of history. Traditional Anglo-Australian (“Aussie”) culture is somewhat on the wane, which is not really a positive development, and likely more a victim of globalisation than of us ethnics.

OTOH: we are not weighed down by history, just like the US isn’t. We still pay some lipservice to egalitarianism; class is emerging (popular derision of “bogans”), but it’s nowhere near as entrenched as it has been in at least some of Europe. We are a placid, confident place to live, though not as placid or confident as we used to be. We are no longer a cultural wasteland. Clive James, bless him, was part of a mass exodus of intellectuals to Britain in the ’60s; he’s recently admitted that they were too stupid to recognise that there was a cultural upsurge happening just as they left, from the new European migrants.

Yes, the majority narrative of why multiculturalism is a good thing stops after “um… cuisine”. And there are clear and pressing problems ongoing with our indigenous community, with the xenophobic mistreatment of asylum seekers, and with the twin problems of the failure to integrate Lebanese Australians better, and the stoking of islamophobia that takes that as a pretext.

On aggregate, I’ll still say, our rendering of multiculturalism has translated into a somewhat less rooted, yet open and resilient society. So far.

No. To ask a question, you need to log in. When you login, your account reactivates. So you have to deactivate it again afterwards.

I’ve already broken up with Mary C. Gignilliat on this one. And made up again.

And we’re not even together.

Days? No. Hours? No.

Mehmet Usta is reputed to be the best Turkish restaurant in town. 47 mins. No problem, I’m there.

I think the longest drive we’ve done (that’s me and my wife, not me and Mary) is 1.5 hrs to a Sardinian place in Yea, Victoria. But the pleasant drive in the country was part of the deal.

Because they think a library is not a place of silent study, but a place of either

• group study
• checking your Facebook feed
• socialising
• eating lunch (!)
• or being on the phone to their mates (!!)

Incidentally, having just been subjected to the first three in my local public library, where I came for some peace and quiet,

FUCK THOSE PEOPLE!!!

I don’t care if you’re reciting the periodic table in cute off-the-boat Greek accents. Fuck off and do that at the local café.

The more interesting question is, was it ever thus, and is it everywhere thus? The answer is no. When books were being used in libraries, rather than decorative (so, 20 years ago), there really was a lot less of that.

A commendable initiative, Martin!

I will of course leave out (a) Facebook friends who never actually did anything here, (b) people I actually don’t remember, and (c) people with answers in the single digits.

3 + 7.

1. Michael Lining. 10 answers, 5 followers

He’s a trumpeter and a recording artist, which should have gotten my follow.

Instead, he got my follow for this:

Michael Lining’s answer to How do you feel about Donald Trump winning the election?

He voted Trump, and he explained why, in a forum he knows is anti-Trump, respectfully and intelligently.

A lot of you are freaking out right now. Hell, a lot of me is freaking out right now. But this guy is not the enemy. This guy is your fellow citizen. And I’m very glad he spoke up.

2. Fırat Aktaş. 16 answers, 9 followers

Because I burst out laughing in a tram, reading Why are Turkish men beautiful?

3. Erdi Küçük. 11 answers, 8 followers

Several good answers on Turkish culture and politics. His answer on Is Atatürk the ideal example of Plato’s philosopher-king? has a very insightful sting.

4. Latinists and Hellenists and Linguists:

James Garry. 57 answers, 9 followers

Classics major. Knows his Latin, knows his Classics. Knows stuff. To my fellow Latinists and Hellenists: he’s one of us.

Ioannis Stratakis. 15 answers, 9 followers

The best reciter of reconstructed Ancient Greek I’ve heard, bar none: podium-arts.com. Well across his Classics. Do not be intimidated by the afro in his profile pic.

Gabriel Bertilson. 11 answers, 3 followers

Hellenist and historical linguist. Too few of us around.

Julien Daux. 23 answers, 8 followers

Knows how French and Hebrew work.

James Cottam. 95 answers, 5 followers

Undergrad classicist at Oxon. Glad to know they still teach them well there.

Diana Vesselinova. 38 answers, 7 followers

Bulgarian linguist. And cat owner.

Nick Sallas. 18 answers, 6 followers.

Sensible, well-informed stuff about Greek, ancient and modern, and Greece; I particularly appreciate his perspective as a heritage language learner.

As in George Soros?

Likely Esperanto. “He will soar”. Possibly Hungarian: “Next in line”.

His father was called Tivadar Schwartz, and was an important figure in Esperanto culture (Teodoro Ŝvarc): not so much for stuff he wrote (including under the pseudonym Teo Melas—yes, the guy knew his Ancient Greek: Melas = Schwartz = Black), but because he founded Literatura Foiro, the defining Esperanto literary journal.

Having a Jewish name in pre-war Hungary was not a life-enhancing move, and Theo changed the surname in 1936. The Esperanto Wikipedia (George Soros – Vikipedio) is skeptical whether Esperanto was the prime mover behind the surname change; the English Wikipedia (George Soros – Wikipedia) mentions that the palindrome was also attractive.

George Soros was exposed to Esperanto plenty as a kid, though apparently he is not a native speaker, and he doesn’t speak it now. He hasn’t had much to do with the language since his youth, though the Esperanto Wikipedia mentions he was dragged to From Zamenhof to Soros: A Symposium organised by the Universal Esperanto Association in New York, 2010.