I know this might seem cheesy, but I just can’t resist. Two luminaries of the Internet casually mingling at a recent talk, and they actually let me snap a photo. If you can guess “who’s who”, I’ll send you a foam penguin.
Ika wa ikaga
Comments on Bruce’s blog got me thinking about the word for squid, which turns out to be “ika”. It’s possible it could sound like a cuckoo if the seller is yelling. And if they have a dry sense of humor they might throw in a phrase like “Ika wa ikaga?” Roughly translated I think it means “how’s the squid” or “how about some squid”. Puns in a native tongue are funny, but foreign puns are absolutely fascinating — they are like keys to unlock the treasure of another culture.
I also found a visual connection with squid and birds in Japan mentioned on the japantimes.co.jp site:
Ika is generally written with phonetic kana characters, most likely because of the unusual kanji characters it has been assigned. It is written “thieving crow,” because the bird has been known to swoop down and grab squid as they float lazily on the ocean’s surface or hang on the massive drying racks used to make the jerky-like surume-ika.
Here’s another attempt at a haiku for Bruce…
Trawler nets glide by
Mother squid caresses eggs
in obscurity
Squid Security
A repeat of my comment on Bruce’s blog…
Interesting that he started bringing poetry into his blog about security. :)
—————————————
Bruce, you’re too modest. I suspect you could wax poetic about the squid and security…perhaps something like:
The squid grabs its eggs
caressing and washing them
as the trawlers trawl
Speaking of interpretation, Marylin Chin’s poem “The Floral Apron” has an interesting take on squid and Chinese culture, the family, etc.
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/poetry2/chin_marilyn.html
The poem ends with:
And although we have traveled far
we would never forget that primal lesson
-on patience, courage, forbearance,
on how to love squid despite squid,
how to honor the village, the tribe,
the floral apron.
Alito takes the stand
Three significant issues stand out after the Alito hearings:
1) He clearly does not think the Constitution protects a woman’s choice (the right to choose, as some might call it), and he indicated that Roe v. Wade is not settled law.
2) He clearly believes in an even more powerful executive branch. In fact he supports the notion of a “unitary executive” in order to give the President broad powers that are not subject to control by Congress. And he even refused to rule out the right of the President, with the absence of imminent threat, invading another country without first getting congressional authorization.
3) He clearly does not believe Congress has the authority under the Constitution to make laws meant to protect families from harm. Even though the Supreme Court ultimately said he was wrong, Alito stood fast by his opinion in the Rybar case that Congress couldn’t ban machine guns. Incidentally, this has provoked the Brady Center to announce their opposition to Alito, the first candidate that they have ever opposed. I believe they referred to his opinions as “right-wing judicial activism”. Pretty harsh stuff coming from a center named after President Reagan’s Press Secretary. Morerover, Alito stood by his opinion that seriously narrowed the Family and Medical Leave Act. I’m sure we all remember when he said there was no evidence for the notion that women are disadvantaged in the workplace when they are not allowed to take family leave. The Supreme Court trounced all over that one as well. Even Rehnquist said in the majority opinion that Alito’s position relative to women in the workplace defies common sense.
So it looks like if you hate women, like automatic weapons, and think executives should be able to operate without oversight…Alito’s your man.