tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912713243046142041.post324537906654498781..comments2024-03-28T23:22:41.774-05:00Comments on TYWKIWDBI ("Tai-Wiki-Widbee"): Exploring the life and mind of Samuel JohnsonMinnesotastanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01382888179579245181noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912713243046142041.post-32755053878878631002020-07-20T09:56:13.407-05:002020-07-20T09:56:13.407-05:00"...He wanted an ordered, hierarchical societ..."...He wanted an ordered, hierarchical society because he loathed the thought of the kind of scramble in which the weak inevitably go down...."<br /><br />C18 is too long ago for us to really comprehend anything about it. (The 1787 Constitution would be incomprehensible and irrelevant today, simply due to the passage of time, even if it were a coherent document to begin with, or composed in literate or correct English, none of which it is.)<br /><br />There are plenty of pinpricks of evidence that the Enlightenment included a benevolent hierarchical model of polity and that genuine efforts were made, in this time and place or that, to implement that model.<br /><br />What is gone today, utterly gone and inconceivable to recover, is the benevolence.Frank Wilhoithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17800594066476167549noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912713243046142041.post-54291613263815779072020-07-20T07:24:49.417-05:002020-07-20T07:24:49.417-05:00Text disembowelled. Tx.Text disembowelled. Tx.Minnesotastanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01382888179579245181noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912713243046142041.post-90803557868579619412020-07-20T00:29:50.829-05:002020-07-20T00:29:50.829-05:00Discussed at Language Log:
https://languagelog.ld...Discussed at Language Log:<br /><br />https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3268Minnesotastanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01382888179579245181noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912713243046142041.post-83783523729540868702020-07-19T23:24:19.639-05:002020-07-19T23:24:19.639-05:00I have always enjoyed a Johnson anecdote which I&#...I have always enjoyed a Johnson anecdote which I'm sure is apocryphal. Johnson, it says, was a stickler for the proper use of words but not especially concerned about personal hygiene. At a dinner party he was seated next to a woman who finally turned to him and said, "Sir, you smell!" "No, madam,' Johnson replied. "You smell. I stink."Smurfswackerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11807173070389349098noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4912713243046142041.post-20367022056666560992020-07-18T16:44:28.912-05:002020-07-18T16:44:28.912-05:00I remember that Blackadder sketch! Robbie Coltrane...I remember that Blackadder sketch! Robbie Coltrane was perfect in the role. And I'm just now drawing the connection with Hagrid.John Farrierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12071863229591899452noreply@blogger.com