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

There weren't many fish around this weekend so I managed to win a prize with an 11.2 kg barracuda The weather seems to be changing early and that's affecting the fish. We had a heavy rainstorm on saturday night so maybe we're going to get a long rainy season this year.

>>Is your interest in languages professional? or pure nostalgia?<<

Well neither really (I'm an engineer IRL), but I've always been fascinated by word games, like crosswords, and how words are put together, and also history so with etymology I can satisfy both interests at the same time.

I think with "perk" the verb - meaning to preen yourself somewhat like a bird - the obvious related word is perch (Norman-French perquer). The date (1380) is about right for that source. Falconry was very popular at the time, and a sense of being "perched at attention" may possibly have led to the current usage such as "He perked up at the mention of a free drink". The phrasal forms may have developed by association with pick up/prick up. "The cat's ears pricked up at the sound of a mouse" has very much the same sense and both are recorded from the 16th century.

A "perk" (noun) may well "perk you up" but it also carries some connotations of tax avoidance and bribery etc which the verb is free of.

Glad your weather's perking up

I have been avoiding extra information for years - I don't normally watch the news or read newspapers, I just don't know what to do with this load of human suffering...One can't afford to be drowned in it...So I just go on, casually pushing these memories to the back of my mind...Do we forget? I'm afraid not.
Thank you for your 'perk' notes.
Yes, the weather has perked up indeed. You can tell Mrs Seth that our problem is not so much the shortness of daytime as the fact that the sky is clouded over for months on end and we don't see the sun at all. Just the dull grey thick coat of clouds. Then the depression and suicide rates go up ... I wonder what kind of weather-related disorders can be found in your climate. How long is the rainy season and does the sun show up during it?
Hope you don't see any more dead bodies for a while...

The rainy season is quite pleasant actually. The temperature stays around the same (29 to 33C all year) mainly bright sunshine but every couple of days we have a huge thunderstorm for a few hours, often at night, that freshens the air and washes out the street drains.

Healthwise, malaria rates go up in the rainy season, but the dry season often brings outbreaks of meningitis and diseases due to polluted water, so not much to choose between them. Suicide and depression are nowhere near as common in Nigeria as Europe despite the poverty. In fact, Nigerians as a whole are very friendly and certainly know how to enjoy themselves. It's just a minority who sometimes cause trouble.

I would very much like the link to your photos by the way

We are not very good at taking pictures, I'm afraid, but they do give a taste of our life. I love walking in the parks, they are wild and it's a miracle the trees are surviving in this city. And they are very close to home!
The sky pictures are from our dacha's window (dacha is a summer house with a small garden that we are lucky to own and spend our summers at.
BTW 'dacha' comes from 'dat'', to give. 'Dacha' means the act of giving, or the result of it.)
The icons were painted by my husband and his co-workers.
Suzdal is our carefully preserved tourist site, a bit of a theme park, but the landscape is wonderful.
http://public.fotki.com/weirdo07/
And here's a glimpse of Moscow boulevards and merry-making - from one of our folk/rock singers, a unique figure. Since I have no idea of how refined you are, I can only hope you wouldn't mind it.
I'm not much of a fan, but this clip seems to be really warm...It's a 'privet'(a greeting) to you from my husband.
I hope you both like it...anyway, do tell us how it went down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rHXzkFqs9w
The lines are quite simple: 'Fall in love with me'(Pol'ubi menya), Garik sings as he 'sails along the boulevards with a black eye' and all sorts of people join in...

Thank your husband very much for his privet to me , I enjoyed Garik's song very much. Actually a lot of my favorite music is Russian though mainly orchestral. From Glinka to Shchedrin but my absolute favorites are Prokofiev and Stravinski. I know many Russians are not interested in that sort of stuff anymore, which is a pity.

For popular music, I've started liking a German band called Rammstein, have you heard of them?

Perhaps I can dash (Nigerian slang for dacha!) your husband this link in return

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ttZ9wZBnoQ

Lagbaja is a popular artist from the Lagos area who supports traditional music, language and dress. He always wears his 'masquerade' (special costume signifying his transformation into one of the traditional orisa spirits) in public.

I'm not sure of the exact meaning of skentele, but it is something to do with adjusting your headgear correctly.

I've not had chance to look at most of your photos yet, but the Crimea looks beautiful.

Thanks for the Lagos link - hubby remarks that just as Garik's clip
starts and ends with a police car(kind of local leitmotif), the Lagos video features a car on a bumpy road - does it take your african friends anywhere? They do look sweet...
BTW, I feel like using 'sweet' too often, I'm afraid. I think I find 'nice' empty...
I once had an English girl present at a lesson where we looked at different 'opinion' adjectives. We had a nice book, which gave at least a dozen ways of expressing admiration, including 'marvellous','gorgeous', 'stunning' etc. We asked our English guest which of them were her favourites and were a bit puzzled when she said she usually used 'fantastic'!
Now which are your favourites (or 'favorites')?
(I remember reading an essay by D.H.Lawrence in which he tried to explain the difference between 'lovely' and 'beautiful', speaking of women. It seemed highly idiosyncratic, as I remember.)

Just a quick hello
Hope you are OK - no more malaria?
Russian orchestral music is probably as good as a Russian landscape - and the sheer scope of this land. I wish you could come and see it - and wish I could travel to Siberia one day (where my mom is from) - to see Baikal and the Sayan mountains.
Kind regards to Mrs.Seth
Elena

I read about the construction of the Baikal-Amur railway about thirty years ago and always fancied doing the journey. We really don't have empty wilderness in the same way as you do - if the Tunguska meteor had fallen over the UK it would have killed many thousands of people, where it fell it killed nobody. I don't know how well you know "The Lord of the Rings" but we have a great tradition of writing these epic mythological fantasies in Britain, but the UK doesn't have any geographical feature you can't walk across in a couple of days so when I picture the settings I picture most of them as being in Russia (all due respect to the new republics but for me, everywhere from the Pripyat Marshes to the Bering Strait is still Russia). The endlest forests, the fierce horsemen of the Steppes, dark mysterious valleys in remote mountains.

Nice, fantastic, marvellous etc are words I rarely use. Particularly in my home area, they are more often used ironically or even sarcastically for something dull, mundane or disappointing. We have a reputation for using the word 'alright' for anything better than barely satisfactory. When describing a beautiful woman we're as likely to say 'she's not bad-looking' or 'she's alright, her' if she really is gorgeous. Dangerous territory of course, women can often take what's intended as a compliment the wrong way.

Best regards to Mr Weirdo

Thanks for your letter. It's always good to hear from you. Your notes on words are most helpful.
What's your landscape like? I should google Lagos, I suppose.
Hubby sends his regards and adds 'I'm not Mr.Weirdo. I'm someone else' and he seems to have a point there. So am I. This letter is not a place to 'go existential' (to use a funny expression I saw on this site) but I'm still having difficulty in understanding this medium. Part of the problem may be linguistical and cultural, but since I have no experience of online communication in my own language, I can't determine which part.
Anyway, more thanks and kind regards from Mr. and Mrs. Weirdo.