Danskcolin: Friday 9 August 2019

09:15 We drive over to the local Sainsbury's supermarket to shop. We want to be home before 11 am (6 pm Western Australia time) in case our daughter Sarah calls us on whatsapp. We told her we would be home at 11 am and for the rest of the day if she wanted to talk to us about her husband Francis' medical condition - he had an appointment yesterday with a specialist who gave him a pessimistic diagnosis about his back and knee problems, etc.

Sarah and Francis in happier times - flashback to April 2018: me (left)

at a Margaret River Beach Cafe in Western Australia, with Francis, Sarah, and the Twins

Sarah is an accountant and the family breadwinner over there, while Francis stays home and looks after the couple's 6-year-old twins, Lily and Jessie. Sarah told us yesterday that she was a little worried about whether Francis would soon be finding it difficult to look after the girls outside school hours.

But as it turns out, she doesn’t call us - maybe she's too tired at the end of the working week, or maybe the prospects now look a little more optimistic - we're not really sure. The jury is still out on that one. She may call us tomorrow, perhaps.

My god, what madness !!!!

But Lois and I can't really rest until we know the latest news about Francis' condition, that’s for sure.

11:00 It's windy and rainy today, so there is no way we can do gardening. I sit down with the computer in the dining room.

I read the last 2 pages of the 3^rd chapter of Anna Grue's crime novel, "The Further You Fall", which is our U3A Danish group's current project. I am currently trying to read 2 pages a day, and compile a vocabulary list for each page, to save our group members from having to look up all the difficult words in a dictionary. I am so kind-hearted ha ha ha !!!!

Anna Grue's crime novel, "The Further You Fall,"

our U3A Danish group's current project

Anna Grue, the novel’s author

Police Detective Flemming Torp is currently investigating the killing of Lilliana, a mysterious cleaning assistant who gets murdered (actually garrotted) while working late into the evening in the kitchens of a large Danish advertising agency called “Kurt & Ko”.

Police suspect the killer is someone who also works for Kurt & Ko, so Flemming has asked his best friend Dan Sommerdahl, an executive for the agency, to help him with the investigation, because Dan obviously knows the agency’s staff well, e.g. "who’s sleeping with who" and the like.

Police Detective Flemming Torp (left) with

his best friend, Dan Sommerdahl and Dan's wife, Marianne

The mysterious murder victim, Lilliana - no one knows her last name - shared a dingy apartment with another mysterious woman of the same age: Sally, an African woman who unfortunately disappeared without trace at the same time as her roomie, Lilliana, got garrotted, which was weird.

Today, Flemming and Dan are in the process of searching the two women's apartment,rooting through their wardrobes and underwear drawers, etc., to try and discover clues to the two women's identities.

Flemming is the professional when it comes to detective work, and Dan is just an advertising consultant who has the fantasies of becoming a famous amateur detective.

But surprise surprise it's actually Dan, the amateur, who notices the biggest clue to the killer's identity so far: Lilliana, a poor young woman in a poorly paid job, has stored a bottle of expensive French champagne in her fridge - and on the gold paper around the stopper there is embossed the agency's logo “K&K”. Such bottles were custom-made for the agency's ten-year anniversary the previous year.

I recall that just before Lilliana got killed (garrotted – I love that word!), we read in the first chapter of the novel that she reacted at first with delight when she saw the killer's face - until she suddenly saw the garrotte in his hands and realised that he intended to kill her.

I suspect that the killer is actually one of the agency's top executives, and one who has also been Lilliana's lover, and that he previously gave her that bottle of custom-made expensive French champagne - ha! Maybe the killer is the “big cheese” himself, Sebastian Kurt - yikes !!!!

12:30 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a short afternoon nap. I get up at 3 pm and hop on my exercise bike. I limit myself to cycling 3 miles - I am currently trying gradually to resume my previous exercise programme, but I am taking it slowly – better to be on the safe side at my age ha ha ha!

18:00 We have dinner and then spend the rest of the evening listening to a little radio, an interesting episode in the linguistic series "Word of Mouth". This episode is about the chequered saga of philosophy in the English language. The programme's host is the charming children's author Michael Rosen, with his guests historical linguist Laura Wright and philosopher Jonathan Rée.

Until the 16th century, all books on philosophy were in Latin - and only those who went to university, where knowledge of the language was compulsory, could read them, or were interested in reading them.

In the 16th century, however, the new merchant class and other intelligent people of both sexes began to take an interest in the subject, and English publishers thought there might be a market for publishing books on philosophy in English. But the terminology itself was a problem - many of the words associated with philosophy were not in common use - the very word philosophy was a Greek word that came to us through Latin.

Ralph Lever's solution in the 1570’s was to experiment with using or creating native English expressions.

Instead of the Latin-based word "proposition", he coined a new word, "show-say". All philosophers know full well that "Every proposition is either an affirmation or a negation", but Lever would have said "Every show-say is either a yea-say or a nay-say".

Philosophy itself, as a subject, Lever called "witcraft". My god, what madness !!!!

the philosopher Jonathan Rée

Jonathan Rée, one of the programme's two guests, thinks people who only know English tend to regard philosophy as something weird - but if Lever's revolution had succeeded and people had begun to remove the Latin element from philosophical discussions, the history of philosophy in the English language might have been very different.

But Lever failed, perhaps because people were eager for the subject to sound a bit fancy and bombastic, and Rée thinks it's a bit of a shame because philosophy can really help ordinary people with their lives. Wittgenstein said QUOTE "philosophy is working on oneself, and if it isn't hurting, it isn't working" UNQUOTE.

Philosophy could, for example, lead ordinary people to question some of the things they do that don't really make any sense, which has got to be good, I would have thought.

Ralph Lever (1530-1585)

Frank Sinatra's “Witcraft” (Coleman-Leigh) 1957

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

Danish translation: fredag den 9. august 2019

09:15 Vi kører over til det lokale Sainsburys-supermarked for at købe ind. Vi vil være hjemme før kl 11 (kl 18 Western Australia-tid) for det tilfælde, at vores datter Sarah ringer til os på whatsapp. Vi har fortalt hende, vi vil være hjemme kl 11 og resten af dagen, hvis hun har lyst til at tale med os om sin mand Francis’ medicinske tilstand – han havde en aftale i går ved en specialist, der gav ham en pessimistisk diagnose om sine rygproblemer og knæproblemer osv.

Sarah og Francis i lykkeligere tider: tilbageblik til april 2018: mig (til venstre) på en strandcafé i Margaret River-regionen, Western Australia, sammen med Francis, Sarah, og tvillingerne

Sarah er revisor og familieforsørger derovre, mens Francis forbliver derhjemme og passer på parrets 6-årige tvillinger, Lily og Jessie, og Sarah fortalte os i gå, at hun var lidt bekymret over, om Francis ville snart have svært ved at passse på pigerne udenfor skoletiden.

Men som det viser sig, ringer hun ikke til os – måske er hun for træt i slutningen af arbejdsuge, eller måske ser udsigterne lidt mere optimistiske ud – det er vi ikke helt sikre på. Juryen er stadig ude om det. Det kan være, at hun ringer til os i morgen måske.

Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

Men Lois og jeg kan ikke hvile, indtil vi ved de seneste nyheder om Francis’ tilstand, det ved vi med sikkerhed.

11:00 Det regner of blæser i dag, så er der ikke nogen mulighed for at lave havearbejde. Jeg sætter mig med computeren i spisestuen.

Jeg læser de sidste 2 sider af kapitlen ”Tirsdag” af Anna Grues krimiroman, ”Dybt at falde”, som er vores U3A dansk gruppes nuværende projekt. Jeg prøver i øjeblikket at læse 2 sider om dagen, og udarbejde en ordforrådliste til hver side, for at spare vores gruppemedlemmer for at slå de svære ord op i en ordbog. Jeg er så varmhjertet ha ha ha!!!!

Anna Grues krimiroman, ”Dybt at falde”,

vores U3A danske gruppes nuværende projekt

Anna Grue, romanens forfatterinde

Politidetektiven Flemming Torp er for tiden i gang med at undersøge drabet af Lilliana, en mystisk rengøringsassistent, der bev garrotteret mens hun arbejdede sent på aftenen i køkkener af et stort dansk reklamebureau, ved navnet Kurt & Ko.

Politiet mistænker, at morderen også arbejder for samme bureauet som Lilliana, så har Flemming bedt sin bedste ven Dan Sommerdahl om at hjælpe ham med undersøgelsen, fordi Dan selfølgelig kender godt bureauets personale, ”hvem sover med hvem” og den slags.

Politidetektiven Flemming Torp (til venstre) sammen med

sin bedste ven, Dan Sommerdahl og Dans kone, Marianne

Den mystiske Lilliana – ingen ved hendes efternavn – delte en snusket lejlighed med en anden mystisk kvinde i samme alderen: Sally, en afrikansk kvinde, der desværre forsvandt sporløs i grov træk samtidig med, at hendes roomie, Lilliana, blev garrotteret, hvilket er mærkeligt.

I dag er Flemming og Dan i gang med at ransage de to kvinders lejlighed, deres garderober og undertøjskuffer osv, for at prøve at opdage spor efter de to kvinders identiteter.

Flemming er den professionelle, når det kommer til detektivarbejde, og Dan er bare en reklamekonsulent, der har fantasier om at blive til en berømt amatørdetektiv.

Men det er faktisk Dan, amatøren, der lægger mærke til det hidtil største spor efter morderens identitet: Lilliana, en fattig ung kvinde i et dårligt betalt job, har gemt en flaske dyr fransk champagne i sit køleskab – og i guldpapiret rundt om proppen er der præget bureauets logo K&K. Sådanne flasker blev specialfremstillet til bureauets tiårs jubilæm det foregående år.

Jeg mindes, at lige før Lilliana blev dræbt (garrotteret), læste vi i romanens første kapitel, at hun til at begynde med reagerede med glæde, da hun så morderens ansigt – indtil hun pludselig blev klar over, at han havde til hensigt at dræbe hende. Jeg mistænker, at morderen faktisk er en af bureauets topledelse, og én, der ogsår har været hendes elsker, og at han forinden gav hende den der flaske specialfremstillede dyre franske champagne – ha! Måske er morderen selve den høje chef, Sebastian Kurt – yikes!!!!

12:30 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en kort eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 15 og hopper op på min kondicykel. Jeg begrænser mig til at tilbagelægge 3 miles – jeg prøver i øjeblikket gradvist at genoptage mit tidligere kondicykel-program, men jeg tager det langsomt – heller være på den sikre side, i min alder ha ha ha!

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og derefter bruger resten af aftenen på at lytte lidt til radio, et interessant afsnit i den sproglige serie ”Fra mund til mund”. Dette afsnit handler om filosofi på det engelske sprog. Programmets vært er den charmerende børneforfatter Michael Rosen, med hans gæster Laura Wright og Jonathan Rée.

Indtil det 16. århundrede var alle bøger om filosofi på latinsk – og kun dem, der gik i universitet, hvor viden af sproget var obligatorisk, kunne læse dem, or var interesseret i at læse dem.

I 1500-tallet imidlertid begyndte andre intelligente mennesker af begge køn at interessere sig i emnet, og engelske forlag troede, der kunne være et marked til at udgive bøger om filosofi på engelsk. Men terminologien var selv et problem – mange af ordene associeret med filosofi var ikke i almindelig brug, selve ordet filosofi var et græsk ord, der var kommet til os gennem latinsk.

Ralph Levers løsning i 1570'erne var at eksperimentere med at skabe indfødte engelske udtryk: ”kind” i stedet for ”species” for eksempel.

I stedet for det latinsk-baserede ord ”proposition”, lavede han et nyt ord, ”showsay”. Alle filosofer ved godt, at ”Every proposition is either an affirmation or a negation”, men Lever ville have sagt “Every show-say is either a yea-say or a nay-say”.

Selve filosofi, som et emne, kaldte han “witcraft”. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

Jonathan Rée

Jonathan Rée, en af programmets to gæster, synes, at folk, der kun kan engelsk, har tendens til at betragte filosofi som noget underligt – men hvis Levers revolution var lykkedes, og folk var begyndt at fjerne det latinske element fra filosofiske diskussioner, kunne historien af filosofi på det engelske sprog været meget anderledes.

Men det lykkedes Lever ikke, måske fordi folk var ivrig efter, at emnet lyder lidt fornem og bombastisk, og Rée synes, at det er lidt af en skam, fordi filosofi virkelig kan hjælpe mennesker med deres liv. Wittgenstein sagde, at filosofi er ”arbejde på én selv, og hvis det ikke gøre ondt, er det ikke ved at virke”.