Sigh. Too true. I think I am now ready to break down and start using Freedom.
My good friend, Ros, found this bit of humor at We Blog Cartoons (and I somehow missed it when she posted it). Dave Walker created the cartoon.
Category Archives: Humor
One final language t-shirt from the translation conference
I’ve seen this before, but it’s still fun.
I’m back home now and after I get caught up on emails (and sleep), I’ll post some thoughts from the translation conference.
More than another Crumb under the table
Much has been said about Crumb’s new Genesis comic. I’ll leave that to others to comment on.
Instead, I want to highlight another graphic novel that’s been around for a few years, but which you may not be familiar with. The Jewish Publication Society released JT Waldman’s Megillat (Esther) in January 2006. It is still worth your time to check it out.
The publisher’s website has a number of links to reviews. An exceptional review (not listed on the publisher’s site) was written by Richard McBee for the Jewish Press (found here). I also direct you to the Waldman’s website which has an extensive preview of the comic.
Waldman’s work, unlike Crumb’s Genesis, includes the Hebrew text (in the frames and margins of the comic), which makes it useful for using in language learning.
This image is from the author’s preview site where you can scroll through pages of an extensive preview.
You know you are at a language conference …
when you see people wearing t-shirts like this:
So much fun having 240+ language/translation people in one room eating together. More later.
“Mixed Message” or “You can have it all!”?
Since NPR did not think it was too early to start highlighting the Christmas retail shopping season, I figured it would not be too early to pass on this holiday-must-have for the upcoming Hanukkah/Christmas season.
Source Criticical Analysis of Ancient Mythic Text
In August, Rob Kashow highlighted an important redactional and source critical analysis. I want to point to another worthy contribution. Mark Shea, who blogs at Catholic and Enjoying It, wrote a tremendous source critical article on an ancient text that some of you might be interested in (some of you, who keep up with the literature will no doubt already be familiar with this contribution). With his generous permission, I reproduce the text of that article here for those who have not had the opportunity to read it. Please visit his blog, where the tagline is, “So That No Thought of Mine, No Matter How Stupid, Should Ever Go Unpublished Again!” Jim West would be proud (or jealous).
Experts in source-criticism now know that The Lord of the Rings is a redaction of sources ranging from the Red Book of Westmarch (W) to Elvish Chronicles (E) to Gondorian records (G) to orally transmitted tales of the Rohirrim (R). The conflicting ethnic, social and religious groups which preserved these stories all had their own agendas, as did the “Tolkien” (T) and “Peter Jackson” (PJ) redactors, who are often in conflict with each other as well but whose conflicting accounts of the same events reveals a great deal about the political and religious situations which helped to form our popular notions about Middle Earth and the so-called “War of the Ring.” Into this mix are also thrown a great deal of folk materials about a supposed magic “ring” and some obscure figures named “Frodo” and “Sam.” In all likelihood, these latter figures are totems meant to personify the popularity of Aragorn with the rural classes.
Because The Lord of the Rings is a composite of sources, we may be quite certain that “Tolkien” (if he ever existed) did not “write” this work in the conventional sense, but that it was assembled over a long period of time by someone else of the same name. We know this because a work of the range, depth, and detail of The Lord of the Rings is far beyond the capacity of any modern expert in source-criticism to ever imagine creating themselves.
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Deutero…
James McGrath just posted his thoughts on the difference between “Deuteronomistic” and “Deuteronomic” history (and explains why he prefers Deuteronomic History) at Exploring Our Matrix.
Well, when we were in seminary, my husband* and I (and a few of our friends, whose names I have kept anonymous for their own protection…unless they want to claim their brilliance in the comments below) had some late nights studying such material which yielded the following list. We hope you won’t find them too Deuteronomiculous.
Deuteronomania: an obsession with finding deuteronomical historical references.
Deuteronomonopoeia: all the references to Babel in the Old Testament
Deuteronomaly: a deuteronomomic reference that just shouldnt be there
Deuteronomalicious: the attitude of opponents of the theory of deuteronomical history
Deuteronomono! What Saul yelled as he lept onto his own sword.
Deuterognome: little idol statues found on Israelite front lawns.
Deuterognostic: a pre-pre-pre-Christian cult; responsible for every lie in The Da Vinci Code.
Deuteronomocalifragilisticexpialidocious: If you say it loud enough, you might seem precocious!
Deuteronomalignant: that sick feeling you have the day after your OT exam when you realize you left the most obvious points about DH off your exam essay.
Deuteronomaniac: a DH geek.
Deuteronomesticated: the condition of a former Deuteronomaniac who has just lost interest, to the extent that he no longer sends daily emails to his friends with the subject line: Those Crazy Redactors, Look What Theyre Up to Now!
Deuteronomolicious! That tasty sensation of being done forever with Old Testament History and theology!
Deuteronomasia: making up plays on words based on the word Deuteronomy
DeuteronoMiss: the female redactor of the DH, who is responsible for the intriguing stories, in Judges, of women who put men to shame (Jael/Sisera; Deborah/Barak; Abimelech/that lady with the millstone; Delilah/Samson, etc).
Deuteronomystical: the ecstatic, trancelike state that a person reaches after reading 2,000 pages of OT scholarship in two weeks as preparation for the final.
Deuteronomastication: what the neighbors dog did with my OT notes the day after the final.
Deuteronomerchant: someone who makes their living writing and selling books about the DtH.
Deuteronomercenary: the soldier who takes holy war just a little too far.
Deuteronomishizzolist:South side. Holla.
I always try to do unto others as I would have them Deuternomy
Deuteronymy (1) when both authors of a work assume fictitious names (e.g., the secret Gospel of Jannes and Jambres that David Brown has yet to get his hands on) (2) The figure of speech only found in semitic languages where the dual form of one noun stands for another noun associated with it (go figure).
Deuteroewy: accidently stepping in someone else’s business.
Deuteronomiserable: Trying to remember the difference between Deuteronomic and Deuteronomistic.
Deuteronomystery: Why couldn’t they have come up with a really different word for one or the other?
Deuteronautic: the lost laws of ship-building believed to be original to the book of Deutoronomy.
Deuteronauticalist: 2 Kings laws of ship-building which forbade off-shore sacrifices, laying the basis for the later theonomic application to sanctioning riverboat gamblers by execution.
Deuteronaughty: adjective describing one who has broken Deuteronomic law. e.g., Israel was sent into exile because they had been very Deuteronaughty.
DeuteronoMac: A brand of theology that used to be available in small, medium and large sizes; now you can only get it in large, Supersize, and Megasupersize (cf. OT reading list)
DeuteronoMac (alternate version): A version of the Deuteronomic Law not as widespread as DeuteronoWindows. It did seem to function better, however, across a wide variety of contextualizations. It was even able to sychronize with the IotaPod during the hellenized 2nd Temple period.
Deuteronomasochist one who subjects himself to reading hundreds of pages of painful OT theology
Deuteronosadist one who requires said theology for reading
Deuteronomonastic -someone who spends so much time studying DH that he might as well live in a cave somewhere
Deuteronomnemonic: a cognitive tool for memorizing obscure deutoronomic facts based on catchy word play
*Many thanks to my husband, Mark Traphagen, who blogs at The League of Inveterate Poets for letting me post this silliness here.
Say What?
Just about now, Hebrew students start to complain that Hebrew is so hard. The vocalizations in real text don’t match up with what they memorized on their vocabulary cards. Hebrew just doesn’t “behave” right. So, I give them a little context. I tell them, “If you think Hebrew is hard… try ENGLISH!!”
When they complain about difficulty in pronouncing Hebrew correctly because “the words aren’t following the rules,” I write this on the board:
Cough; Through; Bough; Though; Rough; Bought
(now, think how a non-native English speaker looks at this!)
Then I give them this list:
21 Reasons why the English language is so hard to learn
(I really don’t know the originator of this list, but if you do, please let me know!)
1. The bandage was wound around the wound.
2. The farm was used to produce produce.
3. The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4. We must polish the Polish furniture.
5. He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7. Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
8. A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9. When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10. I did not object to the object.
11. The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12. There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13. They were too close to the door to close it.
14. The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15. A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16. To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17. The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18. After a number of injections my jaw got number.
19. Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
20. I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
21. How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?