(no subject)
i've been picking up more bits and pieces of portuguese here in miami, and i get such a kick out of the slang. i heard the familiar "viajou na maionese" - travelling along the mayonaise - meant to describe someone who is full of it.
but look: não caiu a ficha! this means "the coin didn't fall," and is meant to describe the phenomena of a person dumbfounded, unable to understand something. in rio they still have a lot of pay phones, and the dial tone only comes on after the audible clunk of the coin dropping inside the phone. that's not even imagery! it's like... audigery.
here is my favorite so far: roendo beira de calcada, which means "gnawing on the edge of the sidewalk". someone does this when they are pining a terrible pine, so enamored with an unrequitted love that it's torturous.
i really want to pick up a communist chinese history book. i was reading a review of a star-wars videogame, published by the Maoist Internationalist Movement, and it struck me that these guys exist with such a different set of basic assumptions than i do. look at this stuff:The universe of Star Wars is not unlike our own. There are the common people, and there are the "great" people. Unlike in our own world, however, the "great" people in Star Wars have their own caste of warrior slaves with special powers who, under the guise of "maintaining stability" move against any insurrection and crush any move to advance the society.
In this game, the player takes a role of one such warrior that calls him/herself a Jedi KNIGHT. The manufacturer doesn't even try to hide the connection to the exploitative feudal system of the Middle Ages.
i feel like marco polo when i read that.
GRE in one week. trying not to be annoyed by these vocab words. CHARY? who says CHARY? who even knows (besides mmebovary) what chary means? hint: it's not "of, relating to, or having the properties of a chair"
but look: não caiu a ficha! this means "the coin didn't fall," and is meant to describe the phenomena of a person dumbfounded, unable to understand something. in rio they still have a lot of pay phones, and the dial tone only comes on after the audible clunk of the coin dropping inside the phone. that's not even imagery! it's like... audigery.
here is my favorite so far: roendo beira de calcada, which means "gnawing on the edge of the sidewalk". someone does this when they are pining a terrible pine, so enamored with an unrequitted love that it's torturous.
i really want to pick up a communist chinese history book. i was reading a review of a star-wars videogame, published by the Maoist Internationalist Movement, and it struck me that these guys exist with such a different set of basic assumptions than i do. look at this stuff:The universe of Star Wars is not unlike our own. There are the common people, and there are the "great" people. Unlike in our own world, however, the "great" people in Star Wars have their own caste of warrior slaves with special powers who, under the guise of "maintaining stability" move against any insurrection and crush any move to advance the society.
In this game, the player takes a role of one such warrior that calls him/herself a Jedi KNIGHT. The manufacturer doesn't even try to hide the connection to the exploitative feudal system of the Middle Ages.
i feel like marco polo when i read that.
GRE in one week. trying not to be annoyed by these vocab words. CHARY? who says CHARY? who even knows (besides mmebovary) what chary means? hint: it's not "of, relating to, or having the properties of a chair"