h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi mon docteur,

Wow.

Laughter with an s in front is....Oh my God. Was it on purpose or an accident?

It definitely is time to go. I can't handle this any more.

Swimming fast to the shallows
AR1

Time to go where AR1?

Don't get too hung up on linguistics, its a dull subject really - just "shuffling letters about" as I believe Noam Chomsky never said.

Just having a lark

Just shuffling letters around?
I wonder - and wonder - and wonder.....
And that is why I think it is time to go -- onto the compost heap dear friend!!.

I wish I had paid more attention to Noam Chomsky. I am sure that he would have investigated that curious fact that the S is placed in front of a word that I have used (and practised) at least several times every day of my life can change the thrust so radically. And now, when things are really difficult I find that with the addition of that one little letter it can mean somethings so completely different. Mind you, it might have been the peculiar sense of of humour of the particular person who coined the word.

Anyway, hopefully I shall snap out of this frame of mind. If not, nao faz mal. If I do Tant mieux

Regards

AR1

I hope you snap out of this frame of mind too, especially as I appear to be responsible for putting you into it..

The basic idea was to kick off with the laughter ... add an 's' etc.. and then tease out the logic of word-play to the point of absurdity. That's the thing of it - its just words, symbols and sounds. We could use rocks for the same purpose.

Sorry if I touched on a raw nerve in these times of anxiety, but my personal response to said times - and indeed to life in general - is to talk and write stuff that gets as absurd as it can and hopefully provokes a few laughs on the way.

I like compost heaps too. Especially the way they smell when they have fresh cut grass put on them

Dear Dr. Grunter,
Please do not feel bad about my reaction to your very interesting observation. I generally always try and lsugh my way out of situations and problems. It is much easier that way. The problem happens when the person one is sharing it with is unable for whatever reason, to see the funny side of it.

Compost heaps are very satisfying especially when they manage to get so "hotted" up that steam comes spiralling out of them.
I wonder what would happen if we tried to write a sentence without the first letter of each word. I am going to try.

id ou udy inguistics? I(should be nothing!!) ink hat s ascinating.

Last word is quite good don't you think, but it is difficult with one word words. But then perhaps there is a moral. Never use the ingular
Always say e.
ood ight.
Ar1

e hink hats n nteresting dea..

I never studied linguistics, though I have studied the philosophy of language which overlaps to a degree. The wordplay thing in the grunt was inspired (if that's the word) by a book I read on the history of the English language.

Hi Dr. Deckchair funderlink

ell ow re ou?
Thriving I hope.

I think that at some stage during my undergraduate degree I did a course on liguistics. but I think that it had to do with cutoms in cultures.(I majored in sociology and Philosophy) I remember that I had a book which compared nursery rhymes from all over the world. The astonishing thing was how similar they were. And indeed how horrid they were!!
When one thinks of the common one
Rock a bye baby, on the tree top,
When the bough swings the cradle will rock.
when the bough breaks the cradle will fall
etc. etc.

Imagine singing your baby to sleep with those very nasty words.

I am now beginning to think of the "moraility " of suicide bombers and plain ordinary soldiers. What do you think about them? In any case I think that I am most definitely a pacifist - too scared to be anything else!!.

leep ight, onight.
Ar1

The morality of the solider, so far as I can see, is - "Do your duty of protection towards cause/country". It is the readiness to sacrifice oneself in order to help protect. As far as I can see, at the level of the ordinary soldier, this much is something worthy and deserving of admiration.

Of course, you might accuse the soldier of actually perpetuating the likelhood of war, simply by being a soldier, and because they clearly accept it as a fact of life, as a given. But how much these small things actually increase the likelyhood of war, I don't know. I doubt they contribute much in the end, compared to other things, like scarecity of resources or failure of dialogue.

The morality of the suicide bomber is more complex. They take the sacrifice idea to the extreme, but in many cases, also deliberately target civilians. Interesting one to ponder on, this.

I wonder if the suicide bomber can be compared to the Kamize pilot during WW2. I should think so. I was fifty years younger then and certainly I know that I wondered how on earth anyone could do such a thing.
I remember reading in one of Churchill's books that he felt that the best General was Joan of Arc. I then made it my business to read about her. It seems that when she defeated an army (in this particular case the English!!)m she used to disarm the soldiers, and then give them enough money and food to go home and that was the end of story. Interesting that so august a person as Churchill should have thought this was the correct approach.
At the moment I am totally appalled and horrified at the looting - and of water and medications. What is the matter. one wrong; two wrongs; three wrongs.......Vengeance is not right.
I am glad that I am not a world leader and have to set all this right.
Kind regards
AR1