“A promising trend.” Well, this is encouraging: “‘Out’ is in on campus: Colleges tailor recruiting materials to include gays,” as reported in Saturday’s Chron.
On an unrelated note (but also from the Chron), this is pretty cool: “A screen of their own: For 7 enterprising Petaluma girls, cinema paradiso means a movie theater in town.” If you build it, they will come.
Mind and machines. From an excellent essay on the nostalgia of technology, “Memoria ex machina” by Marshall Jon Fisher, reprinted in the December issue of Harper’s:
I am typing this on a Macintosh G4 PowerBook. Will the thought of this laptop someday conjure up such piquant memories? As much as the recollection of my first computer, a 1985 Kaypro I received for my college graduation? […] The green glow of the characters on-screen, the five-and-a-half-inch floppy disks that had to be inserted in order to boot up or run WordStar, even the control-K commands that brought up various menus — they all seem like the markings of a bygone era, even as they retain an intimate immediacy.
Dude. My company still uses WordStar! How’s that for antiquated? To be fair, they’re finally going to replace it with some proprietary software that will be infinitely easier to use, but still. It’s all control-this and shift-alt-that. So very 1980s.
Word watch. I’m heartened to see a bit of Tagalog in The Atlantic‘s “Word Fugitives.” Readers were asked for words to describe the relation between a couple’s parents, i.e., in-law to in-law, so to speak:
Over the centuries English has assimilated words from dozens of languages, a number of which do have words for this relationship — but English has yet to borrow or invent any such term. […] Ernie Joaquin, of DeKalb, Ill., wrote, “In the Philippines the Tagalog term for the relationship between parents of bride and groom is magbalae. They call one another, or they are called, balae.” Admittedly, no more than other readers’ suggestions do these terms seem poised to enter the American English mainstream — though Tagalog has brought us such words as ylang-ylang and boondocks.
I’ve never heard ylang-ylang used in English. Apparently, it is “(1) a tree (Cananga odorata syn. Canangium odoratum) of the custard-apple family of the Malay Archipelago, the Philippines, and adjacent areas that has very fragrant greenish yellow flowers” and “(2) a perfume distilled from the flowers of the ylang-ylang tree” (Merriam-Webster).
Goin’ to the chapel. Did we all attend Grace’s wedding on W&G? Is this the “jump the shark” moment? And is Will ever going to have a multi-episode relationship? (The closeted sportscaster played by Patrick Dempsey doesn’t count.)
Speaking of weddings, I find this kind of fun: at the website for premier stationers Crane’s & Co., you can personalize and preview not only stationery, but wedding invitations as well. I’ve created and filed one away for Rupert Everett and me. It’s only a matter of time.