Monthly Archives: May 2023

Rang Gaeilge, 23ú lá Mí na Bealtaine 2023

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Duinnín in Áth na Lachan (tuilleadh)

Dineen in Duckford (continued)
  • “Tháinig tú ar an tuiscint sin uait féin, gan leid ó chara léi?”
    ‘Sceith an bhean bhocht uirthi féin go rialta agus go minic, an té a thuigfeadh. De réir mhuintir Ath na Lachan, Bhíodh sí ag ceartú a mbéasa boird agus a gcuid foghraíochta mar a bheadh bean dá sórt. Ach ní raibh aon dealramh in aon chor leis na nodanna a thugadh sí uaithi.     Delias, ambaist, seachas /i>Dahlias! Ar ndóigh is dócha gur thug bean ti éigin uirthi fadó “Tea is served” a rá, seachas “Tay, Missus”, agus gur shíl sí ó shin nar den ghalántacht an ‘a’ leathan. Bhíodh sí ag caoineadh laethanta rachmais, ach is é an siopa a luadh sí, ní hé an teach ná a seoda. Nuair a dheineadh sí tagairt do “Mr. Prunty, my husband”, bhíodh daoine ag magadh faoi aistíl chainte na nDuibhlinneach. Tá’s againn gur nós le daoine bochta i mBaile Atha Cliath an leagan san a úsáid, ach níor den chosmhuintir [d.l. 185] Bella Prunty.’


    ‘You came to that understanding by yourself, without a hint from a friend?’


     ‘The poor woman informed on herself regularly and often, to whom would understand. According to the people of Duckford, she would be correcting their table manners and their pronunciation like a woman of her sort. But her appearance did not match at all the hints she gave. Delias indeed, rather than Dahlias. Of course probably some lady told her a long time ago to say “Tea is served”, rather than “Tay, Missus”, and that she had since thought that the broad ‘a’ was elegant. She would be lamenting the days of prosperity, but it is the shop she mentioned, not the house or its jewels/treasures. When she referred to “Mr. Prunty, my husband”, people used to mock the strange speech of the Dubliners. We know that poor people in Dublin used that version, but not the followers of Bella Prunty.

    leid Hint, inkling; prompt; pointer, clue f
    sceith vomit, burst forth
    béas custom, habit, manners m
    dealramh Sheen, splendour, radiance; Look, appearance; likeness, resemblance m
    nod hint; abbreviation m
    ambaist = ambaiste Indeed! Really!
    seachas Besides, other than, rather than; compared to
    rachmas Wealth, abundance m
    luaigh mention, cite v
    cosmhuintir Hangers-on; followers, dependants; Poor people, proletariat f

    • Léigh tuilleadh

Wheels that are not circles

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Triangle-Wheeled Bike Gives New Meaning to ‘Tricycle’. The inventors

… went back to the drawing board to see if they could come up with a bike design featuring triangular wheels. They succeeded, and unlike the square-wheeled bike, these triangular wheels actually roll like round ones.

This is known as the Reuleaux triangle. I first ran across it in Poul Anderson’s 1963 SF story The Three Cornered Wheel, which I read sometime in high school (1964-68). A stranded spaceship crew needs to transport a heavy object over land. Unfortunately, the use of anything circular for mundane purposes is forbidden by the religion of the natives. However, the use of a curve of up to 1/3 of a circle is allowed for a sufficiently important cause. The young hero figures out that using such a “three cornered wheel” will solve the crew’s problem without offending the religious authorities.

WordTsar

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I read WordTsar Is Reviving the ’80s WordPerfect Writing Experience with considerable interest, but following it up with a look at WordTsar and WordTsar: Wordstar for the 21st Century quickly showed that the first author was not present during the word processor wars of the 1980s. WordStar lost to WordPerfect in that conflict, but still has some diehard fans, the most famous being George R.R. Martin, who still uses it on a DOS machiue. I have been able to run WordStar on FreeDOS, with FreeDOS running on a virtual machine. This was WordStar 4.0, which is now “abandonware,” i.e. free, but without any official support.

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