Tag: Old English

Ku Koo

Timothy Price62 Comments

Rio Grande high*
Brontosaurus in the clouds
Redish mountains sigh

*I don’t write Haiku. I prefer “in the style of Haiku” or 575 or “Spunku” or “Timku” as some people have suggested because, in my personal opinion, since English is not a monosyllabic language, it creates issues for Haiku. The above poem is a good example: most English speakers pronounce “Grande” as “Grand” (one syllable) so the first line only has four syllables when “Grande” is pronounced as “Grand”. Therefore, an “is” would be needed as in “Rio Grande is high” to have five syllables in the first line. However, in Spanish “Grande” is pronounced “Grandae” making it two syllables. The first line has five syllables if “Grande” is pronounced as it is in Spanish (that’s how I pronounce it). Grande would have two syllables pronounced in Old English, also.

If the first line were “Rio Grande is high” (five syllables by the standard English pronunciation, six syllables in Spanish) the line is more descriptive of the water level in the Rio Grande when the photo was taken. However, by leaving out the verb in the first line, more ambiguity is introduced in the first line.

Three-thirty AM
You know where Jupiter is
Shining through the clouds

Dawn

Dusk

Moon behind clouds

Beowulf Xtreme Box Blockers

Timothy Price40 Comments

Sasha blocking the Xtreme blender box with Beowulf for backup

Whenever we place a box on the counter, all the cats go crazy over it, especially Sasha and Spunk. Many years ago, we were burning out run-of-the-mill blenders every two weeks making smoothies, frozen margaritas, soups, and whatever else would blend. Eleven years ago I broke down and bought an industrial 3.0 HP blender. We finally wore that one out, with a little help from the ghosts who would turn it on and off at 3:00 am. The ghosts were probably ROTFLTAO watching the two of us muddling around in the middle of the night trying to figure out where the jet engine sound was coming from. I had to start unplugging the blender at night. I replaced the 3.0 HP blender with a 3.5 HP Xtreme industrial blender.

Laurie was using the Xtreme blender box to scan Beowulf in the original Old English with her iPad. She scans Latin and Old English texts and then writes on the scanned text on her iPad while she’s translating it.

Intermission: I received a package from France. It’s a book of French comics.

Spunk says Sasha may look like a tough Xtreme box blocker, but, as you can see, she is no longer blocking the box. I think Spunk is better at channeling his inner Beowulf. The old worn-out blender is on the table in the background.