I haven’t seen This is Spinal Tap but I am a big fan of Harry Shearer’s Le Show, a weekly podcast. For the last few months, one segment has been about the misuse of so: People use it to start sentences that aren’t about consequences (“So we were standing there minding our own business. . . .”). I wrote Shearer to say he should change the name from Le Show to Le So. Not long after that, he ended the so segment with “here on Le So“.
Category: Everyday Humor
Queen Late
When a Chinese friend of mine was in first grade, she was habitually late for school. Usually about ten minutes. Her mom took her to school on a bike. One day she was 20 minutes late. The door was closed. My friend opened the door. “May I come in?” she asked the teacher. The teacher came to the door. She took my friend to the front of the class. “Here is Queen Late (迟到大王),” she said.
Everyone laughed, including my friend. She thought it was a funny thing to say, not mean. The name stuck. Many years later, she was called Queen Late by those who knew her in primary school. Her teacher was not a great wit. Other students at other schools were called the same thing. It was/is a standard joke.
Sometimes I think Chinese have, on average, a better sense of humor than Americans, but who really knows? A more interesting contrast is how lateness is handled. At UC Berkeley, about 20 years ago, I attended a large lecture class (Poli Sci 3, Comparative Politics) taught by Ken Jowitt, a political science professor. Jowitt was considered an excellent lecturer, which was why I was there, but he was also famous for being hard on students who came in late. When I was there, a student came in late. Jowitt interrupted what he was saying to point out the offender and said something derogatory. I don’t remember what Jowitt said but I do remember thinking — as someone who also taught large lecture classes where students came in late — that he was making a mountain, an unattractive mountain, out of a molehill. It didn’t occur to me to wonder how he could have dealt with the problem in a way that made everyone laugh.
Christmas Trees at Buddhist Temple
Gary Shteyngart is a Very Funny Guy
I heard Gary Shteyngart (latest book Super Sad True Love Story) at the Beijing Bookworm. No better job of authorial self-promotion have I seen. He was born in Leningrad in 1972, he grew up hearing jokes from his parents. For example: The 1980 Summer Olympics were in Moscow. At the time, Brezhnev was in charge. He was going senile. At an Olympic ceremony, he gave a speech. His hands shook holding the text of his talk.
“Ohhhhhh…..” he read.
He paused.
“Ohhhhh…….”
He paused.
“Ohhhhh……”
An apparatchik ran up to him. “Senior Comrade Brezhnev, those are the Olympic Rings!”
The moderator asked Shteyngart what he thought of Putin’s plan to require every Russian teenager to read a specified 100 great books by graduation. “These things never work,” said Shteyngart. “American cities have done this. Everyone’s supposed to read a certain book, usually To Kill a Mockingbird. Never tell someone what to read.” However, he said one of his favorite authors is Karen Russell. (For a New Yorker podcast, he read a story by Andrea Lee.)
I asked about his favorite TV shows. He mentioned The Sopranos, The Wire, and Breaking Bad. “Who would have guessed that TV would become a great art form?” He is writing a show for HBO about Brooklyn immigrants.
I learned that he was interviewed by a magazine called Modern Drunkard. The interviewer — not Shteyngart — mentions an Russian saying: “The church is near, but the road is icy. The bar is far away, but I will walk carefully.” How true.
Assorted Links
- The art and science of miso. High-quality miso from Massachusetts.
- A former BMJ editor on research misconduct. Biased reporting of research.
- Health-care CEOs are America’s best-paid executives. “John Hammergren, chief executive of McKesson Corporation, . . . took home $145,266,971 in 2010. McKeeson is . . . is the largest pharmaceutical distributor in North America. . . Ronald Williams, boss of health insurance giant Aetna, made $57,787,786 in 2010. . . . Since he became CEO, Aetna’s stock price declined by 70%.”
- “How one man got away with mass [scientific] fraud.” I agree with almost none of the opinions expressed in this article, but the facts are interesting.
- From here: Compare the number of articles written by an average physicist and an average mathematician:
- Physicist: The first announcement, the second, correction, detailed version, and the crucial error found. [5 articles]
- Mathematician: The proof. [1 article]
Thanks to Alex Chernavsky and Casey Manion.
New Word: crapeterian
At Christmas dinner I learned a new word:
crapeterian. n. A vegetarian who eats crap (e.g., Doritos, candy, doughnuts).
UC Berkeley Joke
From a Berkeley professor: “On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we have budget cuts. On Tuesday and Thursday, student protests. On the weekend, police brutality.”
The Verb “To Google”
I visited Google New York a few years ago. In conversation, an engineer used the verb to google — just like everyone else. Slightly amusing. Today I used the verb to google in an email. Gmail told me it was misspelled! Google is okay but google is not in their dictionary. Too modest!
Beijing Earthquake
Last week an earthquake centered in Russia was strong enough to be noticed in Beijing. A friend of mine, a designer for Sony Ericsson, was on the 22nd floor of a 27-floor building. She felt the building sway. Everyone rushed downstairs. She was the only one carrying a laptop. Her colleagues told her she was stupid: The company owns that laptop.
How to Start a Talk
A recent talk at the London School of Economics by Carne Ross, author of a book called The Leaderless Revolution: How ordinary people will take power and change politics in the 21st century, began with this:
I was preparing the talk this afternoon at my beloved cousin’s, where I’m staying. ’cause I don’t live in London anymore. She said, “How are you, Carne, how are you doing?” I said, “I’m a bit nervous, to be honest.” She said, “Don’t worry, Carne, I’ve heard lots of bad talks at the LSE.”