From December 7, 2012
I couldn’t help noticing that some of my readers were looking up “Esperanto” after I mentioned it in “The University as a Fount of Idiocy.” For those who are still curious about it but haven’t gotten around to looking it up, perhaps the following will be helpful.
Esperanto is an artificial language, like Pig-Latin, created in 1887 by a guy named Zamenhof. He hoped with all mankind speaking the same language, world peace would ensue. That should give you an idea of how seriously to take this project.
As a child in the 1950s, I remember Esperanto as a hot topic: all the whoopee crowd were into it. In 1954 the United Nations recognized it as an official language: there was even a plan to establish an Esperanto-speaking country in a tiny sliver of land on the German-Belgian border. This came to nothing. But in 1985 UNESCO recommended that its member nations adopt Esperanto as a language. Those nations already had languages, so the UN recommendation came to nothing.
According to Wikipedia, “Estimates of Esperanto speakers range from 10,00 to 2 million active or fluent speakers” worldwide. What would you think of a mechanic who estimated the cost of your car repair as, “Oh, anything from $100 to $20,000”? What they really mean is they haven’t got the foggiest idea how many people speak Esperanto.
I believe there was a Chinese government official who, not long ago, recommended that the Chinese language be replaced by Esperanto, but I don’t know what happened to him.
From May 13, 2023
Greetings and g’day, earthlings! Byron the Quokka here, with this weekend’s fabulous TV shows brought to you by Quokka University. Here’s just a wee sample of what we’ve rounded up for you!
7:30 P.M. Ch. 08 SAPS!–Reality TV
Sometimes TV is so predictable! The TV detective always catches the bad guy, the TV doctor always saves the patient… But here’s the one show dedicated to those poor saps who never get it right! Tonight: Architect Barney Bock, whose entire subdivision fell into a sink-hole; and folk singer Nancy Hastur, now being sued for damages incurred when 1,000 panicked fans tried to flee her concert all at once. Host: Edsel Ford.
Ch. 19 Very Angry Hopping Mad News–News & commentary
Anchorman Mike Lava flies off the handle–he’s been known to bite studio staff–every time they air a news story… which is kind of unavoidable, this being a news program. Weatherwoman Jane Boombox screeches in a berserk rage at every symbol on her weather map. Really, no one here has the slightest notion of how to behave.
8 P.M. Ch. 42 MY FRIEND FOOGIE–Horror/Sitcom
They think Little Eddie (Pat Buttram) has an imaginary friend, but Foogie the Invisible Vampire (Herbert S. Zim) is all too real! Tonight: Foogie preys on the June Taylor Dancers and polishes off three of them before Eddie puts his foot down. Community Organizer: Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Good news: Foogie gets her, too.
Ch. 57 MOVIE–Western with philosophical overtones
If you ever thought Gene Autry couldn’t match Plato dialogue for dialogue, think again! In Buckaroo Behemoth (Sicilian, 1966, with West German music score; 344 minutes), cowboys wander the Great Plains, pausing only to discuss deep intricacies of philosophy. Slim: Sir John Gielgud. Tex: Soupy Sales. Ma Fanabla: Marjorie Main.
Well, that ought to be enough to get you started on a weekend bacchanal of TV-watching!
Hurry, or there’ll be no popcorn left! Byron the Quokka, signing off.
Today the plumbers showed up around 8:30.
They went out to the kitchen and began work. I came in to the computer in the living room and began working on the story about President Trump stopping the use of aborted fetal parts in research. After a little while I got up and went to the kitchen. Both of the plumbers were gone. The job was not done. I had not heard them leave. My hearing is not the greatest, and when I am involved researching information online I tend to block things out anyway.
Now what?–I couldn’t leave the house in case they came back while I was out. I had to get to the store today. 
It was very irritating and frustrating. I called my landlord and he said they would call him when they were finished, so they were obviously not finished. After about 45 minutes (although it seemed a lot longer at the time) they returned with a snake. I guess they did not have it on their truck.
Twenty minutes later, they were done–sink works great, nice new pipe under there, all good.
One more hurdle accomplished.
What will tomorrow bring?
God bless everybody,
Patty
From January 7, 2021
I think this must’ve been filmed through one of those fisheye lens peepholes in the door. Otherwise, the homeowner might have just opened the door when the doorbell rang.
But be fair! When your doorbell rings, how would you ever imagine it was… a bear? Since when do bears ring doorbells?
And those little figures he knocked down and played with–didn’t those used to be made of concrete? I remember them as being fairly heavy.
Moral of the video: Don’t be in too much of a hurry to open your door.
I read this morning on Life News that President Trump is stopping all taxpayer-funding of research done using aborted baby parts. Yes, I said baby parts. It is almost unimaginable that such a practice would exist, let alone require the power of the President of the United States to halt.
One thing, but a good one.
More to come on this front, hopefully.
From March 27, 2017
I have the sad duty to tell you that our friend Joe Collidge has injured himself, reacting to this scene from the old 1958 horror movie, The Fly.
When he saw the little half-fly, half-human character get caught in the web and eaten by the spider–the film was being shown in class, Gender Studies 666–poor Joe totally freaked out. Leaping from his seat, he attempted to charge out of the room without first opening the door.
As some of you may know, Joe regularly receives shots of moth hormones, intended to transition him from human male to I don’t know what, anymore. Well, it’s an experiment. It has resulted in him sprouting a pair of moth antennae on his forehead and developing a taste for socks and handkerchiefs. Now it appears he has also come down with intense arachnophobia.
Having rendered himself unconscious by his collision with the door, Joe is currently unavailable for comment.
From June 11, 2014
Let’s see if I can do this like Thomas Sowell: offer up a few brief musings on today’s political scene.
To Eric Cantor, the House Minority Leader, swept out of office in a Republican primary this week, by a Tea Party candidate whom he outspent by at least 10-1: Don’t let the door hit you in the kiester on your way out.
To the rest of the House Republicans: Are you guys getting the message yet? We don’t want what you’re selling. We especially don’t want your “learn to live with Obamacare” surrender message, and we even more especially don’t want your so-called “immigration reform”–which we see as an attempt to replace the American electorate and turn us into an ethnic and cultural minority inside our own country.
To Congressman Paul “Mr. Amnesty” Ryan: You’re next, bozo.
Members of the House of Representatives get in big trouble politically when they forget they’re Representatives and start acting like Senators. Unlike Senators, they are accountable to the voters in their home district and had better not push the people too far. Every six years, the nationwide special interest groups can pour money into a campaign and keep a Senator in office. It’s a lot harder to make that plan work in a Congressional district.
New bumper sticker: DEPORT OBAMA.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the GOP, as the official and only opposition party, actually started opposing a few things?
Wouldn’t it be nice if the House of Representatives actually used its Constitutional authority and started defunding government agencies that carry out an imperial president’s unlawful and high-handed executive orders? “Hey, Mr. Director of This-or-That! Your annual salary is now zero–just like your department’s new budget!”