Owl-maggedon.
Harry Potter wins another set of enemies.
- Harry Potter book burning (Source: ala.org)
The defenders of owls…
- Source: Wikimedia Commons
{Always SomeThings}
Reading books,Word Nerding, and taking names.
Archive for the tag “Non-American”
Kindle…Lighting a Revolutionary Fire?
The BBC reports that the Kindle facilitates Firewall climbing in China.
Firewall evasion by Kindle in China (Photo: National Geographic)
Word Geekery: Name that (Non-)Norman
From the BBC: The Normans
The Normans were innovators in various things: culture, military tactics, architecture, funny pointy helmets with nose protectors…
In short, they were the ones that turned the Anglo-Saxon way of life upside down.
And it weren’t for them, we would have a bunch of children in the English-speaking world running around with some heavy names: boys with names like Aethelred and girls with names like Sunngifu or Eoforhild. [1]
See.Fame.Write: Paul the Octopus & Justin Bieber Edition (Update)
If you love Paul the Octopus (Paul der Krake to the German crowd), then you’ll be happy to know the following…
Bollybook: Jane Austen’s Emma
There will be a Bollywood version of Emma. (Click on the picture to see a preview).
Sonam Kapoor, daughter of Anil Kapoor, stars as the matchmaking heroine (courtesy of BBC)
Thoughts?
I’m pretty excited. I, however, am very much an Austen fan. It looks pretty interesting, though. Hope it doesn’t end up being too fluffy or a remake of Clueless.
Haze a la Hoff: A German’s Experience in South Central
We all know that the Hoff is a big deal in Germany. Is it the hair? His voice? The violent hip swiveling? The rad motorcycle?[I got it!]
No American can really figure out why, but oh well. We accept that the country that produced Rammstein and the Tïesto-rrific LoveParade embraces and honors the orange deity known as David Hasselhoff. Then we move on with our lives. The thing that gets me, however, is that such a national idiosyncrasy–the love of a celebrity–can start to become part of the fabric of a nation’s collective being. Part of their identity. Is there a checklist to being a national? If so, the American one would have a lot of unflattering points. As I was told in my time abroad Americans can be identified by their: logo shirts, sneakers, obnoxiousness, sense of entitlement, and loudness.
What is German then?
From young-germany.de
Then there’s the Thin Line between Creativity and Plagiarism…
So it turns out J.K. Rowling, whose real name doesn’t really have a “K” in it *, is being sued for plagarism by estate of Adrian Jacobs. The Estate claims that Rowling stole her ideas for Harry Potter from Jacobs’ “Willy the Wizard” books. Rowling’s camp has remained mum about the whole matter but this’ll be a doozy for next few months I’m sure and we’ll probably be hearing lots of wizard jokes from the press and CHEEZY headlines.
You be the judge for now. Here’s one excerpt I found on the Willy the Wizard website on “Snake Tongue Communication”
Hammered I am.
How many times have you stood in a bookstore and thought to yourself the following?:
- “God, I could only read this crap if I were drunk.”
- “Wow, I can’t wait to get home to curl up on the couch with this book and a good glass of wine.”
- “Maybe if I drink enough, (insert historically acclaimed genius writer that everyone seems to praise although you’re sure they never read one of his/her works) will make sense”
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