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Author: The Grey Literature
This is the personal blog of Benjamin Gregory Carlisle PhD.
Queer; Academic; Queer academic.
"I'm the research fairy, here to make your academic problems disappear!"
It is a popular and well-known fact that the correct plural for “octopus” is not “octopi,” but “octopuses” or “octopodes.” This is because the word “octopus” is Greek in origin, not Latin, and the Greek word for the word “pos” (foot) is “podes.”
Here’s my question: If it is incorrect to pluralise “octopus” as “octopi,” then why is it okay to pluralise “hippopotamus” as “hippopotami?” The OED says that this is an acceptable plural.
The word “hippopotamus” is also Greek in origin. It comes from “hippos ho potamios.” In Greek, “hippos” means “horse,” and “potamos” means “river.” The plural of “hippos” is “hippoi,” as I recall.
So shouldn’t the plural be “hippoipotamus” or maybe “hippopotamoi?”
When I tell people that I play quidditch, sometimes I like to say that it only looks like we’re running along the ground with brooms between our legs when muggles watch, but really, we’re flying.
The weather was beautiful this Saturday past, and so of course, we played quidditch.
For the first time, I got to be play as a chaser. Usually I’m a beater, which means that I throw the bludgers at people, which is very satisfying.
Chasing is also satisfying, but in a different way. The goal of a chaser is to put the quaffle through the other team’s hoops. This means more catching and passing, which I’m not especially strong at, although by the end I was getting better than how I had started. It also meant more running and tackling—something I think I enjoyed just as much as bludgeoning other players with a bludger.
My goal for next year is still to be a snitch, but I’m going to have to work on my endurance a lot to pull that off. I’ll also have to talk to the McGill snitch to see if she can give me some tips. That said, at least for summer practices, I think I’m gonna have some fun and try out all the positions. Except keeper. I’m not tall enough to be a good keeper.
Also this Saturday I learned that there will indeed be enough people from the quidditch team around Montréal this summer to be able to have summer quidditch practices. This makes me happy. :)
This election campaign has been entertaining, to say the least. There have been petty scandals and bickering; MP’s have been sacked; vote mobs were invented, which scared a lot of people.
So, don’t forget to vote! As my mother likes to say, “Vote early—vote often.”
And also, don’t tweet election results until all the results are in.
Down the street from my place, there’s a Java U coffee shop across the street from Snowdon station. Last summer when I was studying for the MCAT, I went there regularly.
The tip jar at this Java U always makes me smile. Someone who works at the coffee shop draws little illustrations—always in pairs—and puts each of the two in a coffee cup near the cash register. There’s always a question that goes with the illustrations. I’ve attached a couple examples.
First is Link vs Ganondorf. I took a picture of this for the benefit of my little sister, who enjoys video games way more than I do.
Chicken or Egg
Next is “Which came first—Chicken or Egg?” And of course, there’s a drawing of both.
The drawings and questions change fairly regularly, and there doesn’t appear to be any pattern. (That said, I don’t really come regularly enough or even remember the ones I have seen well enough to discern anything but the most obvious patterns.) At the end of last summer, the question was “Did you fall in love this summer?” accompanied by a “yes” and a “no” drawing (I’ll let you imagine what they were).
The drawings must be done by someone who works at the particular coffee shop. They’re obviously not something sent from Java U’s corporate headquarters. I’m kind of curious to know if this is something that the artist spends a lot of time thinking about, or if it’s something that (s)he just draws up when business is slow.
I remember in September, I joked with my supervisor about how I was sure that Apple was tracking me through my iPod. I sort of assumed that Apple was doing that. I was okay with it. I thought maybe some day it might provide a much-needed alibi for a crime I don’t plan on committing.
Then this past week, there was a big scandal about how some people found a file on everyone’s iPhone that has a whole bunch of locations and times tagged. I even downloaded the application for the Mac that allows me to view the file on a map of the world. I thought it was pretty cool. It wasn’t very accurate though. Sometimes it would tag me as having been kilometres away from my actual position.
I spoke too soon. Some Bloc campaign posters have been vandalised. Just not the ones of Duceppe on my street.
I like the drippy orange blood effect.
Very graphic.
I wonder if the orange spray-paint is meant to indicate that the person defacing the poster was a supporter of the NDP?
After all, the NDP is supposed to be really popular in Québec these days.
Blue eyes
I went out for dinner of Friday night, and saw this campaign poster in front of the restaurant. This is the first time that I ever saw a Duceppe poster vandalised. The vandalism says, “blue eyes … i’d run away with you” in English.
The campaign signs in my neighbourhood have not been faring well lately.
It looks like both the Conservative and the Liberal signs were very thoroughly destroyed recently.
Not surprisingly, across the street, the signs for the Bloc have not been touched. I would be scared of Duceppe too.
Duceppe Signs
If you look close in the photograph of the sign for the Bloc, you can see another Duceppe sign maybe 20 metres down the street. There’s lots of them and they haven’t been torn apart.
