The tyranny of the Gregorian calendar

[pameladean]

Lydy is out of town, and Eric had a cold on New Year's Eve. I had warning signs of a migraine, but Tylenol got rid of the pain, leaving only some of the less unpleasant bits of neurological wonkiness. I was spacy and a little squirrelly (David asked how he was supposed to tell the difference between this and the regular me on those grounds), but I felt able to go out. So David and I went just the two of us to the CD release party for "Shout it Out Loud." I really enjoyed the concert, particularly lollardfish's opening act, but the entire performance was lovely. I have the musical knowledge of an oak stump, but I thought they sounded better than last year -- and I enjoyed last year very much too.

David ended up in a conversation about photography with two people I should have known but didn't, and I clumped up with carbonel, barondave, and Johanna, who may or may not be on LJ, and had a nice conversation. I asked carbonel what part of speech "out" was in the album title, and whether it should really be capitalized, but we couldn't quite figure it out. We wished that cakmpls was there, but not just for that reason.

It was hard to leave that party, but we wanted to go to the Minn-Stf party too. So we drove over the icy streets to kalikanzara's beautiful house in Nordeast. It was a little lowering to walk into the gorgeous red living room with all the woodwork and see only the backs of a lot of people playing games, but I did get to talk to people who weren't playing, like carbonel and cowfan, and John and Jeanne, who are not, I think, on LJ, and Jonathan, as well as to the gamers when they took a break. The migraine made me pretty stupid, anyway. I am very sorry that all the music has leaked out of MinnStf meetings, but that's still where I want to be for New Year's. Richard had brought a sheet of lyrics for "Auld Lang Syne," with the original printed lyrics by Burns, a phonetic rendering, and a gloss in modern English. I got the giggles when we sang, because some people were using the phonetic rendering and some were doing their own pronunciations of the Scots verses, but it was a fine rousing chorus anyway. Seth had brought two bottles of a champagne called Reboot, from Woot Cellars, and I had a glass of that, because it had the most amusing label.

I also talked a little to Matt and Kelly, and had a lot of fun watching their Rebecca, the youngest fan present, who was having her first New Year's ever, resolutely stay awake so she wouldn't miss anything. We went home after she did, but not by much.

I got up earlier than David, because my body was wondering why I hadn't taken my medication. Then I dragged around for a while and suddenly became galvanized and made rosemary shortbread to take to lsanderson's Hair of the Dog party. I was still quite stupid and largely devoid of conversation or liveliness. Larry greeted me by saying, "Pamela, I have lots of things you can eat," so I felt, in any case, that I was bound to eat them. I ended up sitting at the table and talking to whoever happened to come by or sit down. Eric was well enough to come to the party, and he and I talked to Susan and Gavi, whom we were very glad to see; and to carbonel, and a little to dsgood and dreamshark, and also guppiecat. He was the only person from out of town I actually talked to, I think, which was a pity -- failing to talk to the others, I mean; I was very glad to be talking to him. I did get to see the small buttonfish walking around and around and around the house, which was very gratifying. I had been introduced to wema_way the previous night and enjoyed talking, but didn't manage to renew the acquaintance.

I sat in on an entertaining Minnesota Macho conversation wherein the reactions to snow of people who live in climates with less of it were laughed at, though not unkindly; but I was falling asleep by then.

The food was varied and amazing, as always. The most spectacular bits were, I think, the vast platters of roasted duck, provided by Larry, and the radish mice with bonus radish mushrooms, provided by guppiecat. The tails of the mice were the radish roots, and the flat green remnants of the radish stems were their noses, while the ears were circles peeled from the sliced-off bottom halves of the radishes, thus making the white patches on the red mushrooms. The mice were far too cute to eat, but later on carbonel sliced up a mouse and gave me the ears and the tail. The food I could eat included pickled herring, smoked fish, fava bean dip, cashew cheese spread, bread, goat cheese, a sheep's milk cheese with truffles, GOAT BUTTER, A HUGE LUMP OF GOAT BUTTER, many vegetables not carved into cute shapes, and pickled carrot and daikon shreds.

I kept hoping to get less stupid, but I didn't. Around eight or so we packed up the empty pan that had contained the rosemary shortbread, thanked Larry effusively, and went home, taking Eric with us. He and I then watched five episodes of "Battlestar: Galactica." This is his first time through and my second. We hadn't meant to stay up so late, but we kept running into two-part episodes. We finally had to end on a cliff-hanger and watch the semi-resolution the next morning. That finished season 4.0 and left us ready for 4.5. We had to have a discussion of various elements, too, before actually getting to bed.

I am no longer any stupider than usual, but I am certainly behind on a lot of things.

I'm still rearranging bits of what will be Chapter 7, and writing a new bit that has to be Just So. I'm sure I'll be complaining about that for some time to come.

I don't think in decades, but I do wish all my friends well in the near and far future.

Pamela

Comments

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

It being the Gregorian calendar we use, that's the tyranny you notice, but in fact any concept of holidays at particular times, by some calendar or other, is equally arbitrary and tryannical.

Alternatively, it's the tyranny of the seasons that causes us to have celebrations around now.

[pameladean]

"The tyranny of the calendar" didn't quite sound right somehow.

And yes, of course the ultimate tyranny is that of the seasons, and the earth's pesky habit of rotating, and having a tilted axis, and all the rest. Not that I want to go messing with any of that, mind you.

P.

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

what part of speech "out" was in the album title

It's a verb particle, which combines with the verb to create a compound verb, aka phrasal verb. It's a fascinating but often overlooked part of English grammar. Compound verbs are quite common in English (put up with, throw out, throw up, look down on, get over, etc.), and are yet another English challenge for language learner.

The particles are frequently prepositions, leading to that classic quote about the ridiculousness of trying to avoid ending sentences with them. An additional confusion is that they're often combined with true prepositions (put up with, look down on). The metaphor of the particle/proposition is often, though not always, still evident. Sometimes they seem entirely arbitrary, thus driving language learners nuts.

Now have some fun coming up with lists of phrasal verbs!

[pameladean]

Oh, good. Jonathan and I thought we had figured that out, but it was one in the morning by then and I had forgotten about it. Thanks!

Now, then, does it get capitalized, or not? (I think the rules for capitalization in titles are wonky, but I'm still curious.)

P.

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

Ah, well for that question you do need a copy editor, or at least a style guide. I am merely a linguist. My gut reaction is yes, but what do I know?

[pameladean]

Yeah, that was kind of my reaction, too.

P.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

Yes, it gets capitalized. The only way it wouldn't is if it were a preposition, which is certainly isn't in this case.

[pameladean]

Thank you, o editor!

P.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

Nah, just a writer. I had to ask about this one often enough that I know it, though.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

That's my take on it, too.

Of course, it's a matter of style, and "style" can be almost anything: for example, only words of four or more letters are capped, no matter what their function. (I think that would be a bad style, but that's nothing more than MHO.)

[guppiecat]

My view is that everything should be capitalized in titles, even the "A"s and "The"s. It may not be right, but it's at least simple and consistent (which, to my mind, wins out anyway.)

(In the interests of fairness, though, I will point out that I do tend to overuse commas and parentheses (so may not be the best source (on this issue, anyway)).)

[pameladean]

That's actually what I think, too. I think titles look dumb otherwise. In fact, the album title looked dumb, though correct, which is what started me wondering.

P.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

Why wouldn't "it" be capitalized?

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

The particles are frequently prepositions, leading to that classic quote about the ridiculousness of trying to avoid ending sentences with them. Now I think you've explained how we got 'upchuck.'

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Well, now. Yes, that it's a particle is one interpretation: the verb [phrase] is "shout out," with "it" as its object. But then shouldn't the last word be "loudly," as it clearly is an adverb modifying "shout out"? Not necessarily; contemporary dictionaries accept both "loud" and "loudly" as the adverb (haven't checked the OED for historical usage).

My alternative: "out" goes not with "shout" but with "loud"--"out loud" (meaning "aloud," opposed to "silent"), also an adverb. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate, 11th ed., dates this adverb to 1821. "Shout"=verb; "it"=object; "out loud"=adverb: I prefer this explanation.

In either case, cap it.

[carbonel]

Particle, heh. I know I'd said the word "particle" in there somewhere in the discussion.

[pgranzeau.livejournal.com]

I keep wondering why the Gregorian calendar didn't restor the seasons to the original Julian dates--at Rome in 46 BC, December 25 was the date of the winter solstice. Instead, Gregory decided to return the calendar to the 4th Century, leaving the date of the solstice three or 4 days early (depending on longitude).

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

It sounds like great fun, and as always makes me jealous for face to face gatherings.

Wishing you good luck on chapter seven, and the rest of the book!

[orcaarrow.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear you had a good time.

I hope the novel keeps working for you. I can only imagine the agony you're going through working on this.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I love goat butter. Symapthies on the being stupid; it sounds like at least you had a good time within dratted physical limits.

[careswen.livejournal.com]

A most excellent report of good times! I'm glad that you had enjoyments, in spite of adversities. I always seem to find out about these events too late to squeeze them into my calendar; do you think the concert will be an annual tradition (as I recall that it also happened last year)?

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

There's Loose Talk of it happening again.

K.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Happy New Year!