100 words – Karen of Rochester

Helen of Troy had a face that launched a thousand ships. Karen of Rochester had a face that launched a thousand bar fights. Unfortunately the men who fought over her all ended up too battered to do her any good. She once gave up and tried a lesbian bar, the same thing happened. She tried meeting men other places. Still the same. All attempts at approaching the shy ones were thwarted my their puking or pissing their pants. Even the blind guy fled upon feeling her face. She stared at her perfect face one last time, soldering iron in hand. Photo by Internet Archive Book Images

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Favorite Word: Merci

Favorite Word (This week)

I like words. My favorites change over time. This week's favorite word is merci. I didn't realize how much I liked merci till I watched the dubbed version of the French movie, CITY OF LOST CHILDREN. The sub-titled version is far superior. In the dubbed version they replaced merci with thanks. Not even thank you! Just thanks. In many of the scenes "thanks" was simply not appropriate. Merci, thanks, gracias, grazie, danke. To the mechanical translators these words all mean the same thing. But in the context of their languages and cultures they contain subtleties that defy translation. I just spent twenty minutes trying to explain, to myself at least, how to demonstrate those subtleties, and failing. My knowledge of languages and cultures other than my own are quite limited. Which proves my point but doesn't help my argument. For a concrete example I have to use the world of computer programming. Each computer language is capable of doing pretty much what any other language can do. The difference is syntax and commands. Fortunately, I am such a geek that I have a favorite command. Nop. From the AREXX language. It is short for "no operation.' That's right, it does nothing. The fun part is, it explicitly does nothing. Then when it's done doing nothing it reports back that it has successfully done nothing. That's a wonderful placeholder tool for undeveloped functions. My point is that you can duplicate this functionality in any computer language but it won't be as simple or as elegant. The same is how I feel about the word merci. The similar words from other languages perform the same function but without the grace of "merci."

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Waiting Room – 100 words

Ethyl sits in the ER waiting room chair crying. George stands nearby staring at the candy machine. He spends a minute or more examining each item. Starting at the top left. Slowly working his way right and down. Row by row. Gum to chips. Nearly an hour goes by before he reaches the last item. He turns to his weeping wife and asks her if she wants anything. She appears to have fallen asleep mid grimace. George's knees buckle. He steadies himself against the machine. The nurse calls Ethyl's name. She doesn't answer. She can't. George slides to the floor. Photo by kate.paulson

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