Linguistics, Dancing, and a Few Good Books

14 October 2002

Saw the second half of Fiddler on the Roof last night. Good movie, but a bit depressing. All the famous songs are in Act I anyway. :)

Also saw El Cid in its entirety. Boy howdy, that's a long movie. Good, though---Charlton Heston plays opposite Sophia Loren in a retelling of the 11th century Spanish epic, and they just don't do movies like that anymore. "Epic" is really the only way to describe it. There were a few anachronistic moments (like the rose windows and the sweeping circular stone staircase in the castle, or the 50s-esque pointy-boob bras that Sophia Loren was wearing at all times), but the sets and costumes were great nonetheless. There were a few times when it clubs you over the head with symbolism, but hey, that's half the fun.

"I mean, virgins are everywhere. There's one up in Ohio, several in the Boston area." --Christopher Gill, HI163, on various interpretations of the Virgin Mary

Posted 7:00 PM [+]

13 October 2002

Outside Manning Chapel this morning, there was a sign announcing that the Ecumenical Protestant and Imani Jubilee church services were cancelled today due to the long weekend. I understand that there are many religions in the world, and I'm accepting of that, but I have to confess it's a little weird to me, this idea of totally cancelling religious services due to a secular holiday. People may or may not actually go in any given week, but to not have the option? The Catholic community cancelled their 5pm Saturday service due to the weekend, but the 10:30 Sunday Mass was held as usual. Attendance was lower than usual, but there were still a fair number of people there....

"Of course, it is illegal to buy fireworks on the reservation and carry them off. But everyone does it anyway. This provides a useful and educational example to children which helps guide their choices when first exposed to marijuana." --Jeff Vogel

Posted 12:22 PM [+]

I went to two parties this weekend. The first, on Friday, was good, and attracted "the usual crowd"---mostly CS grad students, with a smattering of others. It was a little more upscale than most such, but cast in the same mould: there was a lot of shop talk and talk (ok, gossip) about various people in the department, in addition to the usual random sorts of conversations you get at stand-around-and-talk parties. (Also, the guacamole was amazing. Thanks, Frank!)

Tonight, my housemate Matt invited me along to a totally different party. His running partner (the host of the party) is in the English department, and Matt and I were the only CS people there. In addition, there was one neuroscience ugrad and a med student, and everyone else was in English. It was great! The conversation never once touched computers (except for mentioning that we were in computer science). Of course, I realised partway through that it was exactly the same sort of party---it's just that the shop talk was about things like postmodernism and gender, and Derrida and James Joyce; and the gossip was about people I didn't know. One guy did an amazing impression of someone in the English department; I have no idea how accurate it was, but boy howdy was it funny. :) All in all, I'm pleased to have met a bunch of grad students outside my department, and in fact, outside the sciences as a whole. Now at the grad socials I can walk up to a group with a couple of these people and join the conversation without being completely awkward, as walking up to a group of total unknowns always is.

"In sum, babies have the same, adorable, limitless enthusiasm for exploring the world as puppies. And everyone loves puppies! But while puppies grow up to be big, dumb, slobbering dogs, babies grow up to be people. So babies are better." --Jeff Vogel

Posted 3:23 AM [+]