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In what was self-described as a sad day in Congress and an onerous though urgent distraction from conducting the business of good governance and vouchsafing freedom and prosperity, the House of Representatives formalised its impeachment inquiry by putting the matter to a general member vote. Though expectedly partisan, a clear and mandated majority indicated openly, tempting the great wroth of the Great Leader, their support for the process. The endorsement could result in short-order for the depositions which have been mostly taking place during closed-door sessions to be heard in public.

you need to write out a thousand times, ‘i will behave myself at prime minister’s questions’

Among the cadre of some fifty members who are stepping down or will not seek reelection in the December general election, John Bercow's departure (previously) as Speaker of the House of Commons will perhaps be the most conspicuous absence.
Marshaling order and discipline in an unruly and contentious chamber, Bercow's signature cry was buffeted by a vocal and vociferous vocabulary that he did hesitate to unleash on his collegues. Analysing parliamentary transcripts that span over a century then drilling down to his own decade-long tenure produces a profile of frequency in rarity and turn of phrase—including for the nonce susurration for the calming sound of whispers and murmurs, perhaps just ones indoors voice, Demosthenian for aspiring to the rhetorical skill of the Athenian orator and statesman to his far more recurrent chuntering, speaking of the grunts and murmurs of the assembled.

dy’ halan gwav

Celebrated in Cornwall and Bretagne as the eve and first day of winter, Allantide (for the Arlan, the sainted bishop of Quimper) is a feast of remembrance and to give comfort to the souls of the departed yet in that transitional state between this world and the hereafter. Local traditions vary greatly but it was customary to exchange big, polished apples that were achieving peak ripeness at the time, carve turnip jack-o’-lanterns and play divination games—some of which have been advanced to mark the change not in the season but rather the calendar year.

u-bahn

Via the always resourceful Kottke, we are directed to a speciality site called Metrobits curating the branding, routes, technology and fare-schemes of public transit systems from major cities around the world. In addition to the expertly annotated legend and key to the icons, there’s also an extensive gallery of metro stations (see also) that are sacred celebrations of public infrastructure.

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.