Bij toeval zie ik de herhaling van een Fries spelprogramma voor basisscholieren op televisie. Vragen moeten ze beantwoorden, waarbij er uit drie mogelijkheden gekozen kan worden.
A, B, of D.
Nu kan ik op zich wel beredeneren waarom de letter C hier zo vreemd ontbreekt. Sinds de laatste spellinghervorming worden ook de leenwoorden uit andere talen fonetisch geschreven in het Fries. De letter C bestaat los niet meer, dat is overal een S of een K geworden. Maar de CH wordt wel degelijk gebruikt. Dus helemaal onbekend kan de C de Friezen toch niet zijn. Bovendien schrijft en spelt iedereen veel beter Nederlands.
Benieuwd wat voor pedagoog besloten heeft dat A, B, en D hier zo maar tijdens een quiz beter is dan A, B, en C.

“Ninety-four percent of university professors think they are better at their jobs than their colleagues.

“Eighty-five percent of medical students think it is improper for politicians to accept gifts from lobbyists. Only 46 percent think it’s improper for physicians to accept gifts from drug companies.

“People tend to hold overly favorable views of their abilities in many social and intellectual domains….This overestimation occurs, in part, because people who are unskilled in these domains suffer a dual burden: Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it.”

on, from The Skeptic’s Dictionary

En nooit werd er in de provincie meer een muziekstuk in C gespeeld, dankzij het Friese taalfanatisme.

Churches ad hoc: a divine comedy

It soe wolris sa wêze kinne dat men yn it Frysk earder in boek útjûn krijt as yn it Hollânsk, omdat by de útjeften fan Fryske ûnwillekeurich it taalbefoarderings- aspekt gewicht yn ‘e skaal leit. Omdat dat elemint fan ’sieligens’ derút te heljen, meie om my de literêre kritearia foar literêre útjeften in moai ein opskroefd wurde. It hjoeddeiske subsydzjesysteem fertroebelet net allinne it Frysk (literêre) medialânskip, mar wurket op ‘e lange termyn ek kontraproduktyf, as it om werklike kwaliteit giet.

Eeltsje Hettinga in syn Nachtbraakboek fan 24 septimber

6.53 The correct method in philosophy would really be the following: to say nothing except what can be said, i.e. propositions of natural science–i.e. something that has nothing to do with philosophy — and then, whenever someone else wanted to say something metaphysical, to demonstrate to him that he had failed to give a meaning to certain signs in his propositions. Although it would not be satisfying to the other person–he would not have the feeling that we were teaching him philosophy–this method would be the only strictly correct one.

6.54 My propositions are elucidatory in this way: he who understands me finally recognizes them as senseless, when he has climbed out through them, on them, over them. (He must so to speak throw away the ladder, after he has climbed up on it.)

7 What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.

Or Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus in English.

Die Stuttgarter Zeitung will künftig möglichst viele Fremdwörter eindeutschen:

“Einige Trainer haben sich beschwert, dass sie ‘Übungsleiter’ hießen, sie seien doch mehr als Übungsleiter.” Dagegen sei anderen Lesern der Verzicht auf Fremdwörter überhaupt nicht aufgefallen.

StZ 14.ix.2002

In the past few weeks [...] I have come to realize that the magazine itself takes a side in this argument, and is becoming the voice and the echo chamber of those who truly believe that John Ashcroft is a greater menace than Osama bin Laden. (I too am resolutely opposed to secret imprisonment and terror- hysteria, but not in the same way as I am opposed to those who initiated the aggression, and who are planning future ones.) In these circumstances it seems to me false to continue the association, which is why I have decided to make this “Minority Report” my last one.

For anyone yet unfamiliair with this contrarian,
or the many subjects he writes about, see:
the Christopher Hitchens Web.

‘ The worrying thing at the moment is that history - including tradition - is being invented in vast quantities. In the past 30 years there’s been an explosion of heritage sites and historical museums. On top of this, particularly since the end of communism, there’s been the foundation of new states which need to invent histories to show how important they are. And the way you do this is that you invent or collect yourself a past.’

From the Observer interview with Eric Hobsbawm.

1 januari
Onder het dirigeerstokje van Harnoncourt klinkt zelfs Johan Strauss stroef. [...]

3 januari
Hitler, Haydrich, Heidegger, Heidi, Heider. Dat kan geen toeval meer zijn.

4 januari
Het bureau van Voskuil: peepshow voor calvinisten….

De Brakke Hond