Selling Sno-Cones at the Beach

the language of public space

Man, I haven't written for a week! What the hell have I been doing?!?

Holing up and clutching my stomach, mostly. Terrible pain: what can it be? If I don't feel better tomorrow I'll have to go to the doctor.

Otherwise - reading; trying to learn Polish vocabulary; shoveling. I saw in the newspaper that my hometown (in New England) got 38 inches of snow. I don't remember a storm THAT big since the blizzard of '78, which was great because we got a whole week off of high school due to the state of emergency, which meant we drove around, hung out at each others' houses, and drank to excess. Ah, the 70s.

I had a fun "aha" moment with Polish today. Mostly I bemoan the dearth of cognates. But today, I was working on the present tense conjugation of widziec, to see, when I realized the similarity to videre, to see, in Latin. My friend L has hypothesized that the Catholicism of Poland influenced the language, making it more Latinate, and I think she's definitely right. If I pronounce the words and really LISTEN to the sounds - as opposed to just looking at the weird pileup of consonants - I can understand the relationships.

I usually do not look forward to Polish class, because I always feel so unprepared. But it's all part of the learning process, probably. I am trying to speak Polish a little to myself around the house, to get basic phrases ingrained, the way they are for me in German or even French. I have to keep telling myself: language is a process, not a finished state. Perfectionism: is there anything it can't spoil?

Elsewise - some intriguing ideas about socialism and public space. More, undoubtedly, to come. I have to dream up a term paper concept, like, NOW.