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Monday Night Irish Class, June 6, 2011

Irish Class, June 6, 2011

Rang Gaeilge, 6ú lá Mí na Mheiteamh 2011

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Fadas: áéíóúÁÉÍÓÚ

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Tá bindealán ar mo ordóg. Throid mé an sábh agus bhuaig an sábh. There is a bandage on my thumb. I fought the saw and the saw won.

Warning labels

Amóinia — Ammonia
Eye irritant.
Keep out of reach of children.
Griog súl.
Coimeád as láimhe leanaí.

I looked at “Eye irritant” and mentally rewrote it as “Irritant of eyes.” Immediately I thought: “That’s a
genitive plural.”

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The f-word

Still, there is a bit more to the meaning of ‘fundamentalist’ (in this widely current use): it isn’t simply a term of abuse. In addition to its emotive force, it does have some cognitive content, and ordinarily denotes relatively conservative theological views. That makes it more like ‘stupid sumbitch’ (or maybe ‘fascist sumbitch’?) than ‘sumbitch’ simpliciter. Continue reading

Writing history

I have been reading The Sea Peoples, another book about the widespread destruction at the end of the Bronze Age in the eastern Mediterranean. From page 173:

There is a dangerous temptation to link destruction levels together in the interests of tidiness and economy, but history is seldom tidy or notably economical, however it may be with philosophy. This is one of the reasons why history should not be written by philosophers or sociologists.