Friday 2 February 2018

09:00 Lois and I go in the shower and get up. I get going with reading the first 200 lines of John Trevisa's "Dialogue between a lord and a clerk".

Lynda's U3A "Making of English" group has its monthly meeting in the afternoon at 14:30 and this Middle English dialogue is the group's current project.

I come across another interesting word, "plod", which now has unfortunately disappeared from our language. It used to mean a muddy puddle.

Like John McEnroe during the Wimbledon Tennis Tournament in 1981, the lord in Trevisa's dialogue just wanted to say "You cannot be serious" to his clerk.

McEnroe in 1981: " You cannot be serious! ".

But the lord lived in the 14th century, so he used more flowery language than McEnroe: "This objection is worthy to be plunged in a muddy pool and laid in powder of lewdness and of shame. It might well be that thou makest this objection only in mirth and for amusement"

Could McEnroe have used such an expression to the referee during his tennis match? Perhaps, but I'm not entirely sure. The jury is still out on that one ha ha ha.

The lord (right) to his clerk:

"You cannot be serious!"

12:00 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and have a short afternoon nap. I get up at 1:30pm.

13:45 Lois walks around the corner to the local library to help the staff organize and lead the afternoon's weekly Baby Bounce and Rhyme session for young mothers and their little children. She gets very excited about attending these sessions because she often gets the opportunity to cradle some little child or baby on her lap, which is very nostalgic - unfortunately, all our 5 grandchildren live abroad and for at least 2 years we have fallen victim to "empty nest" syndrome in spades: I have no doubts about that.

I drive into town. I park the car in the Portland street car park. I try to pay by smartphone, but the system is down - damn it! Fortunately, I have enough cash in my pocket. I walk to the Everyman Theater and step inside the theater café. I drink a cup of coffee and eat a piece of cake - yummy!

14:30 Lynda's meeting starts in the bar on the 2nd floor of the theater. We have a lot of fun, as usual. We are all seven of us very interested in the history of the English language, the origins of words, etc.

Each group member takes turns to read about 30 lines of Trevisa's "Dialogue", our Middle English text, and translate them into modern English. We have a lot of fun and the meeting is punctuated by peals of laughter - I'm a little afraid that the bar's staff will decide sooner or later that we are trouble-makers and kick us out, so we always try to spend a lot of money at the bar during the meeting, to calm the staff's anxieties ha ha ha.

16:00 The meeting ends and I drive home. Lois and I relax with a cup of tea on the couch.

18:00 We have dinner. I turn on my smartphone and see an email from Steve, my American brother-in-law. Like me, he is interested in finding out when the end of the world is supposed to happen. The email contains a useful list of the 7 seals in the Revelation of John in tabular form. I tend to forget which seal is which. All 7 seals must be broken / opened before the world can end.

Steve reminds me that the 5th seal was broken on April 19, 1993 when David Koresh (the so-called "lamb" described in John's dream) was killed by the US government in his "hide-out" in Waco, Texas.

The sixth seal is the next, and will of course be the literal cosmic disturbances caused by a global earthquake (or nuclear war?), which will cause volcanic waste to pollute the atmosphere, thus making the moon blood-red and the sun dark.

It sounds a little scary, but I'm not quite sure that this week's blood-red moon was qualified to be a sign that the 6th seal had been broken - was the sun really dark? It's hard to say in England - it's usually so cloudy here!

The bottom line is that there is at least 1 seal (possibly 2) that has/have not been opened yet. So lots of opportunities to have fun in the meantime!

20:00 Lois and I listen a little to the radio, an interesting program called "The Last Word". We have a habit of hearing this program every week because we want to find out if anyone in the last 1-2 weeks has died or not (I have noticed that most weeks exactly 5 deaths occur). The host of the program is the charming Julian Worricker.

Film actress Dorothy Malone has died unfortunately, at 92 years of age. She was a prudish woman who did not like bad language during filming and tended to walk off set as soon as she heard it. But she played a series of wild erotic roles: the erotic mambo she danced in "Written on the Wind" (1956) for example. And in her last role, in "Basic Instinct" (1992), she played a crazy lesbian axe-murderess who had killed all her children - yikes!

I remember her first and foremost for her role in the 1960s in the soap opera Peyton Place, as Constance Mackenzie. At that time I had a megacrush on Mia Farrow, who played Constance's daughter, Alison, and (in part), that's why I wanted to call Lois' and my first daughter Alison, in 1975.

Mia Farrow as Alison Mackenzie -

In the 1960s I had a megacrush on her, I have to admit

Dorothy, however, is first and foremost known for starting off the famous cliché, where a slightly bookish young woman takes off her glasses, lets down her hair and suddenly she's a beauty - good grief, what madness!

It happened for the first time in a scene in "The Big Sleep" between Dorothy, who played a dowdy secretary, and Humphrey Bogarde, as Philip Marlowe, the private detective.

Dorothy Malone with Humphrey Bogarde in "The Big Sleep"

The scene has been imitated many times, recently in Big Bang Theory's latest season. Who can forget the famous scene where Sheldon sees Bert, the boring geologist, coming over to his table in the cafeteria.

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzz !!!!

Danish translation

09:00 Lois og jeg går i bad og står op. Jeg går i gang med at læse de første 200 linjer af John Trevisas ”Dialog mellem en herre og en ekspedient”. Lyndas U3A ”Making  of English”-gruppe har sit månedlige møde i eftermiddag kl 14:30, og denne middelengelske dialog er gruppens nuværende projekt.

Jeg falder over endnu et interessant ord, ”plod”, der desværre nu er forsvundet fra vores sprog. Det betød en mudret vandpyt.

Ligesom John McEnroe under Wimbledon-tennisturneringen i 1981, ønskede herren i Trevisas dialog at sige ”Du kan ikke være seriøs” til sin ekspedient.

McEnroe i 1981: ”Du kan ikke være seriøs”.

Men herren levede i det 14. århundrede, så derfor brugte han mere blomstrende udtryk, end McEnroe: ” Denne indsigelse er værd at blive kastet i en mudret vandpyt og lagt i pulver af ukendskab og skam. Det kan godt være, at du kun gør denne indsigelse for spøg og for sjov.”

Kunne McEnroe have brugt sådan et udtryk til dommeren under sin tenniskamp? Måske, men det er jeg ikke helt sikker på. Juryen er stadig ude om det.

Herren (til højre) til ekspedienten:

”Du kan ikke være seriøs”

12:00 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en kort eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op  kl 13:30.

13:45 Lois går hen rundt om hjørnet til det lokale bibliotek for at hjælpe personalet med at organisere og lede eftermiddagens ugentlige ”Baby Bounce and Rhyme” session for unge mødre og deres små børn. Hun glæder sig meget til at deltage i disse sessioner, fordi hun ofte får lejligheden til at vugge et eller andet lille barn eller baby på skødet, hvilket er meget nostalgisk – desværre bor alle vores 5 børnebørn i udlandet og vi har siden mindst 2 år haft ”tomme rede” syndrom og mere til: det har jeg ikke nogen tvivl om.

Jeg kører ind i byen. Jeg parkerer bilen i Portlandgade-parkeringsplads. Jeg prøver at betale med smartphone, men systemet er nede – pokkers! Heldigvis har jeg nok kontant i bukselommen. Jeg går hen til byens Everyman-teater og træder ind i teatrets café. Jeg drikker en kop kaffe og spiser et stykke kage – nam nam!

14:30 Lyndas møde starter i baren på teatrets 2. etage. Vi har det meget sjovt, som sædvanligt. Vi er alle 7 meget interesserede i historien af det engelske sprog, oprindelser af ord osv.

Hvert gruppemedlem skiftes til at oplæse ca 30 linjer af Trevisas ”Dialog”, vores middelengelske tekst, og oversætte dem til moderne engelsk. Vi hygger os meget, og mødet er præget af skraldende latter – jeg er lidt bange for, at barens personale før eller senere vil beslutte, at vi er ballademagere, og sparke os ud, så vi prøver altid at bruge en masse penge på baren under mødet, for at berolige personalets ængstelser ha ha ha.

16:00 Mødet slutter og jeg kører hjem. Lois og jeg slapper af med en kop te i sofaen.

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad. Jeg tænder for min smartphone og ser en email fra Steve, min amerikanske svigerbror. Ligesom mig, er han interesseret i at finde ud af, hvornår der er meningen, at verdens ende skal ske. Emailen indeholder en nyttig liste over de 7 segl i Johannes åbenbaring i tabelform. Jeg har tendens til at glemme hvilket segl er hvilket. Alle de 7 segl skal brydes/åbnes før verden kan ende.

Steve minder mig om, at den 5. segl blev brudt den 19. april 1993, da David Koresh (det såkaldte ”lam”, beskrevet i Johannes drøm) blev dræbt af den amerikanske regering i sit ”tilflugtsted” i Waco, Texas.

Det sjette segl er det næste og vil naturligvis være de bogstavelige kosmiske forstyrrelser forårsaget af et globalt jordskælv (eller atomkrig?), der får vulkansk affald til at forurene atmosfæren, som gør månen blodrød og solen mørk.

Det lyder lidt skræmmende, men jeg er ikke helt sikker på, at denne uges blodrøde måne kvalificeredes som tegn på, at det 6. segl er blevet brudt – var solen virkelig mørk? Det er svært at sige i England – her er normalt så overskyet!

Bundlinjen er, at der er i det mindst 1 segl (muligvis 2), som ikke er blevet åbnet endnu. Masse af muligheder for at have det sjovt i mellemtiden!

20:00 Vi lytter lidt til radio, et interessant program kaldet ”Det Sidste Ord”.  Lois og jeg har for vane at høre dette program hver uge, fordi vi ønsker at finde ud af, om nogen i de seneste 1-2 uger døde eller ej (jeg har bemærket, at der i de fleste uger sker nøjagtig 5 dødsfald). Programmets vært er den charmerende Julian Worricker.

Filmskuespillerinden Dorothy Malone døde desværre, på 92 år. Hun var en snerpet kvinde, der ikke kunne lide skældsord under filmoptagelser og havde tendens til at stikke af, så snart hun hørte det. Men hun spillede en række vilde erotiske roller: den erotiske mambo hun dansede i ”Written on the Wind” (1956) for eksempel. Og i sin sidste rolle, i ”Basic Instinct” (1992) spillede hun en sindssyg, lesbisk øksemorder, der havde dræbt sine børn – yikes!

Jeg husker hende først og fremmest for hendes rolle i 1960’erne i tv-sæbeoperaen Peyton Place, som Constance Mackenzie. Jeg havde dengang en megacrush på Mia Farrow, der spillede Constances datter, Alison, og (delvis) derfor ønskede jeg at kalde Lois’ og min 1. datter Alison i 1975.

Mia Farrow som Alison Mackenzie –

i 1960’erne havde jeg en megacrush på hende, det må jeg indrømme

Dorothy er imidlertid først og fremmest kendt for at starte den berømte kliché, hvor en lidt boglærd ung kvinde, der tager sine briller af, slår håret ud, og pludselig bliver hun en skønhed – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!

Det skete for første gang i en scene i ”The Big Sleep” mellem Dorothy, der spillede en usmart sekretær, og Humphrey Bogarde, som Philip Marlowe, den private detektiv.

Dorothy Malone med Humphrey Bogarde i ”The Big Sleep”

Scenen er blevet imiteret mange gange, for nylig i Big Bang Theorys seneste sæson. Hvem kan glemme den berømte scene, hvor Sheldon ser Bert, den kedelige geolog, komme over til sit bord.

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzzz!!!!