happy halloween!

Thanks as always for stopping by. Spooky tidings and ghoulish good fortunes to you and yours!

who dat?

There is no longer a dative case (cāsus datīvus, a case for giving) in the English language, the grammatical role having been displaced by the preposition to in order to indicate the indirect object—that is, the beneficiary of the sentence’s action.
Whereas in languages like German, the recipient is expressed through declination: Ich gab dem Kind ein Geschenk, modifying the noun and its article from the das form it takes in the nominative, I gave the child a present (Gift, confusingly, being the German word for poison). Though the preposition is still needed, the pronouns whom and him are relics of the old dative endings with one fossilised expression in methinks—meaning “it seems to me” (from the Old English verb þyncan—to seem) appearing in the works of Shakespeare over one-hundred fifty times, including in the Saint Crispin’s Day speech, delivered on the eve of the Battle of Agincourt, of Queen Gertrude and obsequiously I always thought during a cloud-gazing exchange between Hamlet and Polonius. That particular likeness that they settled on “Methinks it is like a weasel” was selected by Richard Dawkins as more accessible thought experiment than an infinitude of monkeys banging out the complete works of the Bard to illustrate a common misconception regarding the “randomness” of evolution, demonstrating even a computer running billions of iterations per second would unlikely match the phrase given all the time in the world.

do or die

On what was guaranteed to be Brexit eve on All Hallows Eve (that date pushed back to the end of January 2020), after being rejected three times by the House of Commons, the Prime Minister secured a snap poll for a general election in mid-December, now under debate in the House of Lords.
Members had roundly rejected calls to move beyond gridlock through holding another vote given the way that particular stratagem had backfired for his predecessor and netted a hung parliament until Labour leadership (previously) conceded that they would support this “once-in-a-generation” event. The last election held that late in the year and close to the holiday season was on 6 December 1923, causing the fall of the Conservatives and allowed Labour to form a government for the first time.

der schwarze kanal

With West German terrestrial broadcasts penetrating most of East Germany outside of Dresden and the Baltic coast (signal jamming out of the question as it would affect the sender’s reception as well because of the territories’ geography, the excluded area in the far east bordering Poland was referred affectionately as Tal der Ahnungslosen—Valley of the Uninformed), the DDR from 1960 until 1989 (ceasing broadcasts on this day) aired counter-programming in the form of a weekly clip-show that took extracts from Western television repackaged to include a Communist spin. Originally created as a foil to a West German news segment that fact-checked East German reporting, the agitprop “Soil Pipe” became an outlet for parodying western programming to the point where it was impossible to distinguish between sincerity and satire. Concluding its run just days ahead of the borders opening, the East German television service (Deutscher Fernsehfunk, DFF) declared itself “free from government influence” during the last episode.

We thoroughly enjoyed this run-down of the political alignments of every playable character in Super Mario Kart courtesy of Boing Boing. Like the title which the screenwriters from Story Break have proffered for some time, the nuances surpass partisan lines with generalisations that are probably pretty accurate in terms of wonkiness about one’s choice of strengths, weapon, steed or jockey. “Tanooki Mario I think would only care about kink-shaming.” “I think Shy Guy would be a foreign policy kind of person and like really anti-interventionost.” “All the babies are hypernationists, as they’re in their first stage of moral development.” What do you think? Can every choice be tribalised and politicized? This is all canon.

nevermore

Via Kottke’s Quick Links, we are treated to the versification of McSweeney’s contributor Ross Wolinsky in his piece The Millennial Raven, which is really rather on point and blast on-putting. As inviting and compelling with its galloping metre and rhythm to read to its mundane and inconsequential conclusion as the original (see also) narrative poem, we are made to choose what distresses us. Here’s a select stanza:

And the rumbles growing stronger; until I could wait no longer,
“Hey Siri,” said I, “I’m hungry, and so must gently implore;
But the fact is I was sexting, when so gently came a texting,
Slightly vexing, when it said my sushi’s waiting at my door.”
Put my shoes on, went downstairs—and here I opened wide the door;—
Just a flyer, nothing more.

jimi-jam

Our thanks again to Nag on the Lake for turning our attention towards party tradition that’s entering its fifth iteration, the mundane Halloween ball (Jimi Halloween, 地味ハロウィン)—organised and attended by adults wanting to celebrate the occasion (see also) but were not yet ready for the commitment to flamboyant and elaborate costumes. Instead, party-goers would dress for everyday situations and potentially awkward interactions, the outfits begging the question what-are-you-supposed-to-be and soliciting a satisfying answer of acknowledgment and understanding. If I were a judge at the event, I’d certainly award top honours to Man Face-Swapping with his Starbucks Cup. I did a thing. Many more relatable characters at the link up top.