Posted in A&I

July Library Book Display

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July Library Display

Library Volunteer Judy Simpson looks over this month’s display.

Visit the Library’s July book display which focuses on the Founding of the Country and its founding fathers, founding mothers, and founding brothers with books by Pulitizer Prize winning authors and New York Times best selling authors.  Here are some examples.

“Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates” (an audio book), tells of pirates boarding the new country’s ships and kidnapping American sailors for slaves and ransom.  Jefferson sent the U.S. Navy’s new warships and the Marines to Tripoli, beginning America’s journey toward super power status.

“Founding Mothers” by New York Times bestseller Cokie Roberts provides an intimate look at women behind the scenes such as Abigail Adams, Deborah Read Franklin, and Martha Washington.  Social history at its best, proving that without our exemplary women, the new country might never have survived.

“Benjamin Rush” by New York Times bestseller Stephen Fried, describes one of the youngest signatories, an M.D. called the Father of American Psychiatry, who revolutionized treatment of mental illness and addiction,

There are fiction, non-fiction, large print, and audio books.  Come and enjoy some of our nation’s early history.

Pidgin Then And Now

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A cultural commentary to accompany A Special Book

by Tom Conger, kamaaina (Hawai’i-born) RVM resident 

As the percentage of residents with Hawaii roots at RVM maintains well into double digits, it seems right to borrow the recent newsletter article (A Special Book, by Sally Hayman) dealing with pidgin, or Hawaiian Creole English, from our sister Mirabella Seattle. As many of our RVM kamaaina were also born & raised in the islands before Pearl Harbor—or at least pre-statehood — speaking pidgin was a given. We not only communicated among ourselves, and the populace in general, in the dialect of our specific island, or neighborhood (or plantation camp), but likewise lived within the overarching polyglot culture of the Territory. To now learn that a devoted cadre of local translators have produced a Pidgin Bible is not surprising. Sure, “da missionaries” made a Bible in Hawaiian in their early efforts to convert the heathen, but not many of us in those idyllic days before the War were fluent in pure Hawaiian; we used Hawaiian words in our pidgin, and conformed to planty old Hawaiian customs (and superstitions), but our everyday idiom was multicultural pidgin. Some of us were lucky enough to be sent to English Standard [or even private] schools, where we were exposed to/taught proper English, but old habits die hard.

For those of us who grew up (in, like, the early 1940s) talking pidgin as a matter of course, the patois held no novelty – it was just how life was back then.

Further, in those days – and shortly thereafter – there weren’t a lot of tourists arriving at Hawaii docks and/or crowding the few hotels which existed at the time. The way we talked, and got along, was simply the way we lived in our remote culture. Our pidgin was, and can be, surprisingly expressive, concise, and even unique; inflection was often key to the true intent of the terminology – it was not a written language. 

In ensuing decades, however, especially as Hawaii became more & more a tourist destination, the spoken jargon seems to have overpowered cultural aspects of the interface, and many attempts have been made to capture pidgin in print – some fairly successful, others missing the target by a wide margin.

Thus we examine Da Good an Spesho Book from a cautious perspective. A labor of love, requiring twenty-nine individuals working for 33 years from the original Greek, the eventual opus cannot be considered casually slapped together; they did elect, from any number of various island/ethnic dialects, a heavier rural pidgin than is heard in more urban environs. Please bear in mind that the Bible is a perpetual best-seller, printed in a myriad of languages ‘round the girdled earth; thus passages translated into the pidgin as presented are familiar to readers who’ve already seen that text [more than once…] in their native tongue.  A cursory review of Genesis reads as a plain and literal restatement of the original Greek/Aramaic with some pidgin terms substituting for the archaic structure. Some of the phonetics conventions the translators adopted may appear a little awkward for contemporary readers: by now, many of us have grown accustomed to pidgin phonetics which may look funny written but sound exact in our head. Since Pidgin varies over time and from place to place, the size and duration of the project makes it inevitable that some inconsistencies arise.  Local terms that have become commonplace are not used – for example, the Standard English “inside” is used instead of “eensai,” and “like that” is rendered as “li’dat” rather than “lahdat.”  “Peopo” kept stopping my eye as I scanned the content; most contemporary transcribers would render the phonetics as “peepo.”  However, these minor criticisms pale into insignificance when compared to the magnitude of the accomplishment.  As an endorsement on the back cover shouts, “We need a Pidgin Bible!”

Rachel’s Curios

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Read more

Move to End Manor Segregation

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NIT WIT NEWZ

 

(Nit Wit Newz is an unauthorized, often unreliable, on-line news service designed to keep Manor residents abreast of the inconsequential, sometime fanciful, and most always superficial events that dramatically shape and inform our everyday lives here at Rogue Valley Manor.)

 

Long simmering resentment erupts.  RVM cat owners—miffed for years at not having a dedicated area of play for their pets— demand equal access to Manor Dog Park. Insist area embrace diversity—become equal-opportunity animal recreational area.

Committee, Fairness For Felines (FFF), formed to advance cat owners’ cause.

               The XXXXXX Park

First step of FFF proposal:  Name change to “All Pets Park” followed by necessary infrastructure alterations including lining of dog park area with raised cubby holes to provide for cat comfort and safety, as well as enable easy viewing of dogs’ endless (cats would say, “senseless”) joy in chasing balls thrown by owners.

Upon completion of structural improvements, FFF plans call for three-week period of cautious transition by bussing (via Manor Express) a few campus cats into park each day for brief “meet and greet” intervals. Committee confident precautions will foster a rapid détente between the two historically contentious animal species.

When dog-cat rapport is achieved, FFF plans call for park to be opened to all RVM pets.

Anxiously awaiting that eventuality, new RVM resident, B. Wildered, living in one-room Manor apartment, has been seeking campus recreational area for his penguin.

Strong push-back mounted by Manor dog owners. Seek to defuse FFF

    Park Guardian- Beware

demands. Propose alternative cat-only, “Catatorium” structure to be erected on existing ninth hole of Quail Point Golf Course adjacent to planned construction of new RVM residential units. RVM management nonplussed— wary of entanglement in explosive dog/cat owners imbroglio, yet hesitant to commit to a structure that may  dampen  prospective residents’ interest in planned new units.

FFF spurns “Catatorium” alternative.  Claim “separate but equal” solutions to societal problems have proven unsuccessful. Insist that ancient canine-feline disputation can be overcome by enlightened affirmative action.

Although campus dog owners continue to resist sharing of recreational space, impasse softens—both parties relent to binding arbitration settlement.   Hearing to be held at next month’s RVM Resident’s Council Meeting.

While aggrieved parties await decision, the question our story asks remains: Can the lion and the lamb lie down together in peace and harmony? And alongside a penguin, too?

The answer awaits us.

Video:  Stray Cat Crashes Dog Park and Feels Right at Home (if an ad appears hit “skip ad”)

  https://youtu.be/45CjOckljyY

—A. Looney

Digital Currency Firm Eyes Manor Retail Location

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NIT WIT NEWZ

(Nit Wit Newz is an unauthorized, often unreliable, on-line news service designed to keep Manor residents abreast of the inconsequential, trifling and superficial event that dramatically shape and inform our everyday lives here at Rogue Valley Manor.)

DIGITAL CURRENCY FIRM EYES MANOR RETAIL LOCATION

Volatile cryptocurrency firm, Bitcoin, rumored to be negotiating with RVM officials for vacated U.S. Bank space in Manor.  Reportedly seeking site close to a large senior community.

Company officials suggest digital-currency provides needed balance to resident portfolios that are likely over- weighted with safe, dependable, well performing investments while ignoring risky, adventurous financial vehicles such as Bitcoin.

Bitcoin management further claims that their presence at Manor would attract other exciting, high-flying firms (e.g., GameStop, Robinhood) to ground-floor Manor location creating—along with existing offices of  CPA and Financial Planning firms—a convenient, full-service, financial services center for residents (absent only —a bank).

Financial center “master plan”, according to Bitcoin executives, would necessitate reconfiguration of existing Manor office space. Propose combining men’s Haberdashery shop and women’s Boutique into one, gender-neutral, unisex clothing store.

Negotiations, however, have turned negative.  RVM management skeptical.  Fear presence of Bitcoin office on campus could well jeopardize financial security of residents.   Moreover, Manor operatives uncover a heretofore undisclosed agenda for cryptocurrency firm’s acute interest in U.S. Bank’s former retail space—In the event of sudden, severe financial market reversals, no hasty, untoward incidents could occur from first floor, windowless location.

Bitcoin’s last ditch effort to sway Manor officials—for each Bitcoin purchase, Manor residents would receive the widely coveted gift of a My Pillow—fails to win over RVM management.

Breaking news:  Negotiations have collapsed.

 

—A. Looney

 

 

 

Book Review: Power Couple

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Book Review: Power Couple by Alex Berenson
(Simon & Schuster) Feb 2021

Reviewed by Bonnie Tollefson

Bonnie Tollefson

Alex Berenson is the author of 12 fast paced books in the John Wells series but Power Couple is one of his stand-alones. Brian and Rebecca Unsworth are in Europe on a trip to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary. Rebecca is a lawyer turned FBI agent working the Russian counterintelligence desk. While her career has stationed her in Alabama and Texas, she now works in Washington DC. Brian in the meantime was at first a stay at home dad then had various computer related jobs before he ends up in DC on a crack team for the National Security Agency. Traveling with them in Europe are Kira, their 19 year old first born, and her younger brother, Tony. One evening in Paris, Kira and Tony meet a good looking French graduate student named Jacques. Kira is attracted but unfortunately, the family is leaving for Spain the next day. Jacques offers to follow them to Spain and meet Kira in a famous bar he knows of. Jacques is not what he seems and things go downhill for Kira. No spoilers here, but this story has more twists and turns than a curvy mountain road and somebody ends up dead. It is available in large print at the RVM Library as are two of the John Wells series.

June Library Display

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by Anne Newins

Dedicated readers usually enjoy prowling through bookstores and libraries.  So, library volunteers thought it would be fun to have a display of books about libraries and bookstores.  You can enjoy your Memorial Day hotdog and beverage with a good book.

You might be surprised how many authors incorporate these two subjects. For example, there are books about book mobiles, prison libraries, and historical libraries.  There are numerous mysteries featuring book thieves, as well as bookstore owners, library cats, and more.

Readers will find well known authors on display, such as John Grisham, Susan Orlean, Nina George, and David Baldacci, along with less familiar writers.  Enjoy!

Manor Penthouse Bonsai

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photo collage by Reina Lopez. Please see also “Bonsai at RVM” in the May 2021 issue of Hill Topics.

Timely Word Play

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by Connie Kent

It’s time. We’re on time.

We spend time. We buy time. We save it (to spend later?) Many times we squander it. On occasion, we even kill it.

At times, we don’t have enough. We run out of time. We need more. We make time. Sometimes we just take it.

We use our time – wisely or not. We fill our time. We allow enough of it – or not. We have it on our hands. Sometimes it’s heavy on our hands.

Sometimes, time’s on our side. Sometimes not.

Time passes. Time flies. Time drags. Time slows down. Time stands still. We take time out.

All the time. Most of the time.

Time heals.

The time is past. The time is yet to come. The time has come.

Time’s up. We’re out of time.

Still More Words at Play

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Priceless Treasures Excavated by the Consummate Word-miner,

Tom Conger

 

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”

“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.  Through the Looking Glass – Lewis Carroll

 

For this chapter, we are indebted to Why Do We Say That?  compiled by Graham Donaldson and Sue Setterfield, Dorset Press 1989.

 

Put a sock in it! – “In these days of compact discs, videos and digital recordings, it is astonishing to think that only fifty years ago [1939] people used wind-up gramophones with the sound emerging from a large horn. A volume control was a thing of the future. So when Aunt Agatha complained of that dreadful Charleston noise there was only one thing to do—put a sock in it—literally.  One or more woolen socks were pushed into the horn of the gramophone to muffle the sound. Today it means, quite simply: ‘shut up’.“

 

load of old codswallop – “When somebody says something which is nonsense, far-fetched, or simply untrue, they are often accused of speaking ‘a load of codswallop.’  We have a certain American gent called Hiram Codd to thank for this colourful expression. In 1875 he patented a  special bottle of mineral water which became very popular—except among hardened beer drinkers.  The word ‘wallop’ was already well in use to describe alcoholic drinks and so, sneeringly, Hiram’s concoction—and other weak drinks—became known in bars as ‘Codd’s Wallop.’ Gradually, anything inferior or false became known by the single word ‘codswallop’.”

toady – “This saying is used to criticise somebody who, to further his own ends, says or does anything to please his superior.  It comes from the days of traveling medicine men in the American ‘Wild West.’ They used to sell useless potions to the public. Taking advantage of the popular but false belief that toads were extremely poisonous, the ‘quack’ doctor would get an accomplice to swallow, or pretend to swallow, a toad. He would then immediately drink one of the doctor’s potions and, much to the amazement of the crowd, walk away fit and well.”

 

hair of the dog – “After a party, it is not unusual for some of the guests to wake up the next morning with a hangover. The cure is said to be another drink, or ‘The hair of the dog.’  This is based on the superstition that people who are ill after being bitten by a dog can only be cured by swallowing a piece of burnt hair from the same animal. In truth, the ‘cure’ seldom works.”

rigamarole – First you do this, then you do that, then you do another thing, then…oh, what a rigamarole!’ That’s just what we call a long, involved, complicated way of doing things.  The 700-year old expression began life as the Ragman Roll, given to King Edward I by Scottish noblemen. Each signed a deed pledging loyalty to the king and affixed his seal. The deeds were then joined together to form a document 40 feet long!  The Ragman Roll is kept at the Public Records Office, London.”

 

deadline – A deadline is the final time by which a job must be finished. Journalists use the word a lot [see: The Complement…]. If they don’t meet their deadline their work is useless [not going there…]—or dead—because it will have missed the edition.  The phrase comes from the American Civil War in the 1860s. A line was marked all around the wire fence of the Andersonville prisoner-of-war camp and any prisoner seen crossing the line was, without warning, shot dead.”

 

“A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged, it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and the time in which it is used.”

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes