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January 18, 2009
Disjointed thoughts
I'm honestly not really sure how to string these things together, but I felt they were worth posting...
My neck is no good. When I go to the doctor's and come home with more pain than I had when I went in, I am unhappy. The treatment is going to take awhile, but it's difficult to plod through when the pain only grows more intense. What's worst is that I seem to be in the most pain when I am at work, looking at a computer screen all day. The doctor told me that sometimes it's the small, typically unnoticed movements that can be most painful. No kidding. After just working on tech manuals all day my head feels like it weighs about 80 lbs. The analogy of the head and neck being like a bowling ball on a sunflower stem begins to make sense. And my sunflower stem is wilting...
While brooming about five inches of snow off my car this morning, I noticed that I could still feel my fingers. This is unusual, considering the single digit temperatures we've had lately. Today is a perfect snowy day! The only bad part is that I need to buy new tires and so going out in this is probably not the best idea, and so walking around in this glistening blanched landscape will be something I do in my mind. Sledding is out of the question, thanks to my neck. One day I shall ride again...
I am going to investigate words we use for food. Meat, specifically. I don't want to post too much about the idea I have, but it involves the linguistic rationale behind referring to a cow as an animal, but its butchered edible products as other names... but calling chicken "chicken" and nothing more or less. I welcome your thoughts on this topic. I have no idea whether I'll write something about this (a paper, blog, or otherwise), but I want to explore the idea. I'm also interested in other languages because I've discovered similarities in French... Sadly I don't know any other languages to compare.
Ordering clothing online is frustrating when you pay to have it shipped, try it on, it doesn't fit, and you have to pay to ship it back. Grr.
Large, cubicly organized buildings seem nice until you realize it's basically like elementary school when it comes to germs. Plus, at work the air in the building is really dry. My throat gets scratchy there, and I end up feeling really vulnerable to germs, etc. (this could be all in my mind...) but after being home all weekend I feel terrific. Let's just say that I may have washed my hands raw somehow. (Eep.)
Posted by KarissaKilgore at January 18, 2009 2:12 PM
Comments
I'm sure the cultural connections between terms like "beefy" and "beefeater" and the scarcity of beef in the diet of the rank-and-file. Consider also "venison," "mutton" and "pork." I gather that fish and chicken might have been more economical and more accessible to the lower classes. Maybe the common people were likely to see these animals on the lord's property, and maybe their job even included tending these animals, so the words for the animals are separate from the words for the prepared dishes (in these cases). I'm sure if you looked up each of these words in the Oxford English Dictionary, you'd find some meaty examples.
Posted by: Dennis G. Jerz at January 18, 2009 4:55 PM
Those are just the types of things I was thinking about. It's really fascinating. Thanks for the direction, too. I haven't had a shot to plunk myself down in a library yet, but I think it'll be fun when I do!
Posted by: Karissa at January 19, 2009 6:20 AM