Showing posts with label Bill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bill. Show all posts

Friday, March 5, 2010

Kine off Stranj

One of the things we constantly do battle against here at wheniwasoneandtwenty (besides the idiocy of the perfidious French) is the abuse and corruption of the English language. In this effort, we are aided by our loyal and attentive readers. (Ladies and gentlemen, we kiss your hands.)

Fortunately, we are lucky to count among our Yeomen of the Tongue one Wild William, Earl of Hensley, a man whose martial grace in the Field of Grammar is exceeded only by his ability to mix a martini.

Today, in response to his recent riposte to a rapscallion bent on mangling the marvelous marital conjunction of IT and IS, we have composed a short, chatty note of congratulation, applauding his efforts on our behalf.


Thus.


Wild Won!

Its kine off stranj how mane riders do not no how its difer’s frum it’s an how adled grow the wit's off the litul shit’s wen won poyn’s it owt too em: tha then tri dufendin the grumateculy indifensible, lik its som kine off Art.

Wise it so hart for thez genus’s ta atmit tha gooft? Onestle. I goof awl the tim. I no wut kine off boob I am. I am awlwaz recevin litul reminderz from Microsof wurd. I dont min admitten it: I injoy it. Tha shood litn up an injoy it, to. Lif’s to shot. [Short.] Edyucated beon thar inteligint’s, clerly. Yor dum frend proble wen ta Ox Fort or Ardvark. [Harvard?] Mine all did.

Az fur me, I am continyuin ta injoy a nise corespondint’s with a splendit rider, a poit, who techz ridin in Hard Fort. Weve ben talkin about growin apel’s an findin fosil’s, wich makz a plezan’t chanj frum politik’s, dont yu think?

Tonite I am goin ta the jim fur spinin an then ta diner with Murea. Thi’s wek end Iv nuthin plant eksept fur goin ta the jim, writin, an re-redin H. W. Foulers Dickshunhairy off Modrun Inglish. Yusuj. Avtur redin yore not, I think I ned ta re-vu som topik’s.

Luf and kis’s,
-E.





As you can see, even if you try, it is really a lot harder to fuck up completely than it seems. One must make a very determined, demented effort.





Thursday, February 21, 2008

Signs and Wonders

Quite a celestial day, Wednesday, wasn't it?


First, in the morning, the Space Shuttle Atlantis kisses the International Space Station goodbye and glides to gentle landing in Florida. Then, there is an eclipse of the Moon visible from the kingdom of Connecticut (as photographed, by Wild Bill, and posted at the right.) Then, as the delicious maraschino adorning this collection of events, the US Navy blows up a demented, earthbound satellite, somewhere over the pacific.



Just another day in the Life of these United States? Or something more sinister? We distort, you decide.

...


While I was reading on the 8:39 express this morning, Mathematics for the Non-Mathematician, by Morris Kline, expecting to take a holiday from politics, and history, I came across the following passage, and I was flabbergasted:


Fears, dread, and superstitions have been eliminated, at least in our Western civilization, by just those intellectually curious people who have studied nature's mighty displays. Those "seemingly unprofitable amusements of speculative brains" have freed us from serfdom, given us undreamed of powers, and, in fact, have replaced negative doctrines by positive mathematical laws which reveal a remarkable order and uniformity in nature. Man has emerged as the proud possessor of knowledge which has enabled him to view nature calmly and objectively. An eclipse of the sun occurring on schedule is no longer an occassion for trembling but for quiet satisfaction that we know nature's ways.We breathe freely knowing that nature will not be willful or capricious.


Professor Kline taught at NYU in the late 1960s. What professor today would dare to write a textbook so brimming with confidence or pride in the technical and spiritual accomplishments of Western Civilization? Even a math book?