Tuesday, January 29 2019

08:30 Lois and I get up. Lois' sect, which originally fixed its weekly Bible seminar for tonight in the Brockworth library, as usual, has decided to cancel it tonight, because of the weather forecast which has promised heavy snow. Unfortunately, it is Lois' responsibility to contact all the seminar participants to tell them about the cancellation, either via email or on the phone.

Meanwhile, I get started reading the first 150 lines of Chaucer's “The Reeve’s Tale”, one of his well-known Canterbury tales. Lynda's U3A Middle English group is holding its monthly meeting on Friday in the town’s Everyman theatre, and this story is the group's next project.

The story's villain, "Symkyn" (= little Simon), is a miller who lives in Trumpington near Cambridge, a village that Lois and I know well - it's only 9 minutes away by car from my sister Gill's house in Cherry Hinton.

Symkyn routinely steals wheat and corn that his customers bring him for grinding. He is also a bully, boasting that he is an expert with sword, dagger and knives. Scary!

He and his wife are extremely proud of the fact that she is the daughter of the village vicar, which is a little strange because it means she was born out of wedlock:  priests in later medieval England were not allowed to marry. Symkyn and his wife have a 20 year old daughter Malyne and a six month old son.

The story starts with Symkyn demanding too much money for his latest order, grinding grain for Soler Hall, then a Cambridge University college.

Two college students,  John and Aleyn, are furious with this latest piece of daylight robbery, and decide to take revenge on the miller. They gather an even larger amount of wheat than usual, and say that they want to watch Symkyn while he grinds it into flour: they pretend that they are interested in the process because they only have "limited knowledge of grain grinding" - ”#metoo” ha ha.

Symkyn sees through the students' story and decides to steal even more of their grain than he had planned, in order to prove that college students are not always the cleverest of people. He unharnesses their horse, and the two students don’t manage to recapture it until the evening. Meanwhile, Symkyn pockets some of the flour while the two boys are out hunting for their horse, and he gives it to his wife so she can bake him a free loaf of bread.

My goodness, what a crazy world they lived in !!! They couldn’t trust anybody in the 1300's !

But the most important thing is that I notice Symkyn has a wife and a 20-year-old daughter, Malyne. I have the feeling that the two students, John and Aleyn, will end up in bed with the two women: that kind of incident is quite standard in Chaucer's stories, no doubt about that. But we'll have to see.

Lynda, our group leader, has assigned me lines 3941-3962, so I concentrate specifically on these lines and I research the unusual or interesting words in the lines, and comment on the words derived from Old French or Old Norse.

I did not know that the English word "pert" (saucy, cheeky) originally came from the Latin word "apertus" which means "open", as in the word “aperture”, for example.

And the word "to rage” had a second, slang meaning in the 14th century, ie "to flirt":  no one dared "rage" with the miller's wife, for example, for fear that the he’d get mad with them .

Aren’t all languages ​​totally fascinating? Who would want to study anything else ???

10:00 Lois has several oranges left in the pantry and she decides to make another 10-11 pounds of orange marmalade - yum yum (in advance).

12:00 We relax with a cup of coffee in the living room. Afterwards I listen to radio, an interesting programme consisting of excerpts from the Norwegian polar explorer Erling Kagge's book, "Silence".

Erling Kagge, the Norwegian polar explorer, photographed here

with BBC presenter Fearne Cotton

A fascinating excerpt from Kagge's book. People tend to think it is a wholly modern phenomenon that, for example, we stay busy, constantly checking our smartphones and preferring to be surrounded by all sorts of sounds and noise, while fleeing from silence; And we find it a little scary to be alone in our rooms with only our own quiet thoughts as company.

But it is not a distinctively modern phenomenon, it seems. In fact, back in the 17th century, Pascal was concerned about this same human reaction - not in terms of social media addiction, but in terms of the same fear of silence and solitude, and the pursuit of constant activity.

Kagge says that humanity has always been addicted to dopamine, which is triggered in the brain when we are searching for something (using Google perhaps). But now we are more addicted than ever. There is another pleasant substance, i.e. opioid, that is triggered when we have found what we are looking for and therefore feel satisfied - but dopamine is unfortunately stronger than opioid, Kagge says. That’s why we are constantly looking for something new.

What madness !!!!

When in Oslo, Kagge hates the traffic noise, and he turns up his music to drown it out. It sounds crazy, but I must admit I've done that sort of thing myself at times. But Oslo is so quiet - London must be a nightmare - no wonder he doesn't come over here very often !!!! Good grief, Kagge !!!!!

12:30 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. Unfortunately, I have become aware that I'm got a cold - I have a sore throat, and I have to blow my nose every 5 minutes - damn!

Meanwhile, Lois rushes into the kitchen to continue making her 10-11 pounds of marmalade.

15:45 Lois is finally finished in the kitchen. She's exhausted.

Lois shows off her 10 one-pound jars of homemade orange marmalade

- yum yum (in advance)

We relax with a cup of tea on the sofa and listen to the radio, an interesting programme in the series "Word of Mouth". The host of the program is the charming children's author Michael Rosen.

A fascinating program, consisting of an interview with John Olsson, a language researcher who collaborates with the police, for example on murder cases, where he takes texts, messages, sms’es, etc. and tries to confirm or deny the identity of the person who wrote them, by examining the style.

It is more common than people think, for example, that a murderer writes a text message, email or something similar on his victim's smartphone and pretends that it comes from the victim, for the purpose of reassuring friends, relatives, etc, and buying more time.

Olssen says that when we write something, we all have certain personal habits that we are not aware of and which reveal our identity without our knowing it - punctuation, use of spaces, formality vs informality, slang words, signs of our educational level etc. Many opportunities here for classic "rookie errors" by criminals, that the police can exploit.

A man had sex with a woman and he killed her when they’d finished. Her smartphone buzzed with a text message and he answered it. But his style was too formal - also, the woman used to type spaces just before commas, and not after them - while the man's punctuation was more conventional.

Another case involved three French people working for an airline and living in England. Two of them killed the third, and then arranged for postcards to be sent, allegedly from the dead man to his family, from various parts of the world. But Olssen realized that the victim wrote quite good French, whilst the killers showed their lack of education in every line of the postcards they wrote. My goodness, what a crazy world we live in !!!!!

18:00 We have dinner, one of the CookShop ready meals we saved from our freezer after it got shut down for maybe 24 hours - yikes !!!!

We spend the rest of the evening watching television. An interesting documentary is on in the series "New Lives in the Wild",  all about people who deliberately live their lives without the help of many aspects of modern technology, etc. This episode focuses on a Scot, Chris, who has spent the last 3 decades with his lovely Brazilian partner, by the side of the Amazon, in a remote region of Brazil's rain-forest. The host of the program is the charming Ben Fogle.

A constant problem is the termites, which must be cleared off the wood and removed twice a week, otherwise they will finish by eating the whole house within 6 months, says Chris. Sometimes the house is invaded by a colony of ants heading from one nest to another - and there is no choice but for the whole family to move out of the house for a few days. But when the ants have gone, the house is in very good condition because they have eaten all the cockroaches, spiders, etc.

My goodness, what a crazy world we live in !!!!

Chris' constant problem is the termites, who

would eat the whole house within 6 months if he ignored them - yikes!

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

Danish translation

08:30 Lois og jeg står op. Lois’ sekt, der oprindeligt bestemte sit ugentlige bibelseminar til i aften i byen Brockworths bibliotek, som sædvanligt, har besluttet at  aflyse det i aften på grund af vejrudsigten, der lovede kraftig sne. Desværre er det Lois’ ansvar til at kontakte alle seminarets deltagere for at fortælle dem om aflysningen, enten via email eller i telefonen.

I mellemtiden går jeg i gang med at læse de første 150 linjer af Chaucers Riderfogedens Fortælling, en af hans kendte Canterbury-fortællinger. Lyndas U3A middelengelske gruppe holder sit månedlige møde på fredag i byens Everyman-teater, og denne fortælling er gruppens næste projekt.

Fortællingens skurk, ”Symkyn” (= lille Simon), er en møller, der bor i Trumpington nær Cambridge, en landsby, som Lois og jeg kender godt – den er kun 9 minutter væk med bil fra min søster Gills hus i Cherry Hinton.

Symkym stjæler rutinemæssigt hvede og mad, som kunder bringer ham til slibning. Symkyn er også en bølle, og praler af, at han er ekspert med et sværd, en dolk og knive. Skræmmende!

Symkyn og hans kone er yderst stolte af, at hun er datter af bypræsten, hvilket er lidt ejendommeligt fordi det betyder, at hun er født uden for ægteskab:  præster i senere middelalderlige England ikke måtte gifte sig). Parret har en 20 årig datter Malyne og en seks måneder gammel søn.

Symkyn forlanger for meget penge for sit seneste bestilling, det at slibe korn til Soler Hall, en Cambridge University college.

To studerende på colleget, John og Aleyn, er rasende over denne seneste tyveri og beslutter sig for at tage hævn på mølleren. De samler en endnu større mængde hvede end normalt, og siger, at de vil se på Symkyn, mens han sliber det i mel:  de foregiver, at de er interesserede i processen, fordi de kun har ”begrænset viden om kornslibning” – ”metoo” ha ha .

Symkyn gennemskuer de studerendes historie og beslutter om at stjæle endnu mere af deres korn end han havde planlagt, for at bevise, at collegets studerende ikke altid er de klogeste af mennesker. Han spænder deres hest fra, og det lykkes de to studerende ikke at fange den indtil aftenen. I mellemtiden stjæler Symkyn noget af melet, mens de to drenge er ude på jagt efter deres hest, og han giver det til sin kone, så hun kan bage et brød.

Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!! Man kan ikke stole på nogen nu til dags!

Men det vigtigste er, at jeg bemærker, Symkyn har en kone og en 20-årig datter, Malyne. Jeg har på fornemmelsen, at de to studerende, John og Aleyn, vil ende ud i sengen med det to kvinder: den slags hændelse er normal i Chaucers fortællinger, ingen tvivl om det. Men vi får se.

Lynda, vores gruppens leder, har tildelt mig linjerne 3941-3962, så derfor koncentrerer jeg mig specielt om disse linjer og jeg forsker de usædvanlige eller interessanter ord i linjerne, og kommenterer de ord, der stammer fra oldfransk, eller oldnorsk.

Jeg vidste ikke, at det engelske ord ”pert” (næsvis eller næbbet) oprindeligt stammede fra det latinske ord ”apertus”, der betyder ”åben”, som i ordet apertur, for eksempel. 

Og ordet ”to rage” (at rase) havde en 2. slang betydning i det 14. århundrede, dvs ”at flirte”: ingen turde ”rase” med møllerens kone, for eksempel, af frygt for, at mølleren bliver vred over det.

Er alle sprog ikke helt fascinerende? Hvem ville have lyst til at studere noget andet???

10:00 Lois har flere appelsiner tilbage i spisekammeret og hun beslutter at lave endnu 10-11 pund appelsinmarmelade – yum yum (på forhånd).

12:00 Vi slapper af med en kop kaffe i stuen. Bagefter lytter jeg lidt til radio, et interessant program, der består af uddrag fra den norske polerudforsker Erling Kagges bog, ”Tavshed”.

Erling Kagge, den norske polarudforsker, fotograferet her

sammen med BBC-værten Fearne Cotton

Et fascinerende uddrag fra Kagges bog. Folk har tendens til at tro, det er et moderne fænomen, at vi eksempelvis tjekker vores smartphones konstant, og foretrækker at blive omgivet af lyde og larm, og vi flygter fra tavsheden; og vi finder det lidt skræmmeligt at være alene i vores værelser med kun vores egne stille tanker som selskab.

Men det er ikke en moderne fænomen, lader det til. Faktisk tilbage i 1600-tallet var Pascal bekymret over denne samme menneskelige reaktion – ikke i forhold til sociale medier, men den samme frygt for tavshed og ensomhed, og jagten efter konstant aktivitet.

Kagge siger, at menneskeheden er altid blevet forfaldne til dopamin, der bliver udløst i hjernen, når vi leder efter noget (ved hjælp af Google måske). Men nu er vi mere forfaldne, end nogensinde. Der er en anden signalstof, opioid, der udløses, når vi har fundet det, vi leder efter og føler os tilfredse – men dopamin er desværre stærkere, end opioid, siger Kagge. Derfor fortsætter vi konstant med at lede efter noget nyt.

Sikke et vanvid!!!!  

Når han er i Oslo, hader han trafiklarmen og han skruer op for sin musik for at overdøve den. Det lyder vanvittigt, men jeg har selv gjort den slags ting til tiden - det må jeg indrømme. Men i Oslo er der så stille og roligt. Hvad tænker han om London? Det kan ikke undre, at han kommer ikke ret ofte herover. Du godeste, Kagge !!!!

12:30 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Desværre er jeg blevet klar over, at jeg er lidt forkølet – jeg har ondt i halsen, og jeg er nødt til at snyde næsen hver 5. minut – pokkers!

I mellemtiden skynder Lois sig ind i køkkenet for at fortsætte med at lave sine 10-11 pund appelsinmarmelade.

15:45 Lois er omsider færdig i køkkenet. Hun er udmattet.

Lois fremviser sine 10 1-pund krukker hjemmelavet appelsinmarmelade

- yum yum (på forhånd)

Vi slapper af med en kop te i sofaen og lytter lidt til radio, et interessant program i serien ”Word of Mouth”. Programmets vært er den charmerende børneforfater Michael Rosen.

Et fascinerende program, bestående af et interview med John Olsson, en sprogforsker, der samarbejder med politiet fx på drabssag, hvor han tager tekster, beskeder, sms’ser osv og prøver at bekræfte eller afkræfte, hvem der skrev dem, ved at undersøge stilen.

Det er mere almindeligt, end folk tror, for eksempel, at en gerningsmand skriver en sms eller lignende på sit offers smartphone, og foregiver, at sms’en kommer fra offeret med det formål, at berolige venner, slægtninge osv.

Olssen siger, at når vi skriver noget, har vi alle visse personlige vaner, som vi ikke er klar over, og som afslør vores identitet, uden at vi ved det – tegnsætning, tegnsætningfejl, brug af spatiummer,  formalitet vs uformalitet, slangord, tegn på uddannelsesniveauer osv.  Mange muligheder her for klassiske ”begynderes fejl”, som politiet kan benytte sig af.

En mand havde sex med en kvinde og bagefter dræbte han hende. Hendes smartphone brummede med en sms og han svarede den. Men hans stil var for formel – også, kvinden plejede at taste spatiummer lige før kommaer, og ikke efter dem – mens mandens tegnsætning var mere konventionel.

En anden sag involverede tre franskmænd der arbejdede for et flyselskab , og som opholdte sig i England. To af dem dræbte den tredje, og derefter afsendte de postkort, angiveligt fra den døde mand til hans familie, fra forskellige steder i verden. Men Olssen indså, at offret talte rimelig godt fransk, mens gerningsmændene udviste deres mangel  på uddannelse i hver linje af postkortene. Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!!

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad. En af de CookShop færdigretter, vi reddede fra vores  fryser, efter den blev lukket af i måske 24 timer – yikes!!!!

Vi bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser en interessant dokumentarfilm i serien ”New Lives in the Wild”, der handler om mennesker, der lever deres liv bevidst uden hjælp af mange aspekter af moderne teknologi osv. Dette afsnit fokuserer på en skotte, Chris, der har tilbragt de seneste 3 årtier med sin dejlige brasilienske partner, ved siden af floden Amazon, i en fjerne region af Brasils regnskove. Programmets vært er den charmerende Ben Fogle.

Et konstant problem er termitterne, der skal blive ryddet og fjernet to gange om ugen, ellers vil de spise huset færdigt indenfor 6 måneder, siger Chris. Nogle gange bliver huset invaderet af en koloni af myrer på vej fra den ene rede til en anden – og der er ikke andet valg, end at hele familien flytter ud af huset i et par dage. Men når myrer er blevet væk, er huset i meget god stand, fordi de har spiste alle de kakerlakker, edderkopper osv.

Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

Chris’ konstant problem er termitterne, som

ville spise huset færdigt indenfor 6 måneder, hvis han ignorerede dem – yikes!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzz!!!!!!