Jottings and mumblings...

[alexpgp]

As a very belated follow-up to the concept of "favorite," it occurs to me that my favorite statue is that of the Wingèd Nike of Samothrace, as depicted in the following pair of 1937 French stamps:


I fell in love with this statue when Galina and I visited The Louvre nearly 20 years ago.

And it occurs to me that the reason it is my favorite statue - not to take anything away from the old girl - is that my knowledge of sculpture in general is rather, um, thin.

Maybe there is a cause-and-effect there?

* * *The weather dweebs hinted that yesterday's rain would clear up today, which didn't quite happen, as it rained pretty much all day. We visited the house, dove into the stuff in the basement, and then took off to take care of some errands. In the end, we stopped at the IKEA store in Hicksville where I plugged in my laptop and went online to reserve a truck for Friday.

Then we went shopping. :^)

* * *One of the consequences of the widespread adoption of English as a lingua franca on the Web is having to be increasingly careful about using words you think you've seen or used.

Case in point: Having used expulsion earlier in a document, and even though expulse is a word (at least according to the OED), the synonym expel turns out to be the right word in the context of the document.

* * *I've been using a flash card application on my iPod and by golly, it's starting to pay off! There's hope for me yet!

Cheers...

Comments

[velvet-granat.livejournal.com]

And it occurs to me that the reason it is my favorite statue - not to take anything away from the old girl - is that my knowledge of sculpture in general is rather, um, thin.
Maybe there is a cause-and-effect there?

Eh... what do you mean?

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

Well, a little while ago, I got into a discussion of what might constitute a "favorite" book of mine. I would not be able to readily answer that question, because the field is too broad, and my focus too... flighty.

The same is true for me for music. My favorite piece of music likely depends on my mood. I really like Brahms' Fourth Symphony, but there are times that nothing less will do than hearing the Grateful Dead sing Uncle John's Band.

The same is true for me for painting. I love Monet, but also Kandinsky.

So I wonder why I'm able to point at this Nike - which stands at the top of a staircase in Paris - and say "this is my favorite statue." Is it because I am not as well acquainted with the genre?

I need to think about this some more.

Cheers...

[velvet-granat.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... I see the point you are making, and on some level, it could be true. But if I was being cheeky, I might have said that you may be over-analysing as a true engineer might, just a touch. :-P

Perhaps it's just one of those things that you like, for no reason. Somewhere, somehow, on the emotional level, it speaks to you... it doesn't have to be logical, does it? Maybe it's like falling in love from first sight - no reason, no explanation, but it's like a punch in the gut, and the world changes irrevocably .

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

Cheeky? Who, you? Nah! :^)

Cheers...

[velvet-granat.livejournal.com]

Who, moi?? I don't have a single cheeky bone in my body! :-P

[crocotiger.livejournal.com]

Самофракийская победа

В час моего ночного бреда
Ты возникаешь пред глазами —
Самофракийская Победа
С простертыми вперед руками.

Спугнув безмолвие ночное,
Рождает головокруженье
Твое крылатое, слепое,
Неудержимое стремленье.

В твоем безумно-светлом взгляде
Смеется что-то, пламенея,
И наши тени мчатся сзади,
Поспеть за нами не умея.

Гумилев