Author: opoudjis

Is klezmer music a dying tradition?

By: | Post date: August 14, 2017 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Music
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One of its prominent proponents is on record as saying so: http://www.jewishpress.com/news/… Andy Statman, one of the foremost Klezmer musicians in the world, knows that the time of Klezmer has passed. “Each music has its point,” He explained over the phone while working at a Mandolin camp in California. “[Klezmer] is still alive, but in […]

I have a 10 minute meeting with the Australian Prime Minister. What should I ask him?

By: | Post date: August 14, 2017 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Australia

Question details indicate that the original OP is “in my final year of high school in rural Western Australia.” This humbled me out of the smart-aleck answer I was going to give; Ben Kelley’s answer is excellent for this serious aim. … Without that context? “Mal. Mal, Mal, Mal. Come on, mate. Just between you […]

What is the difference between drawing a limit to what can be said, and simply disallowing certain kinds of talk?

By: | Post date: August 13, 2017 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Culture

I’m in more sympathy with Yonatan Gershon’s answer and its free speech absolutism than with Ted Wrigley’s answer which relies on intent. Intent is a very hard thing to diagnose, and I’m not sure I trust a judiciary allied to power to judge it fairly; and of course, any dissidence can be regarded as disruptive […]

Should I just stop trying to be more likable, and be myself if I have found a way to do it with out hurting or offending others?

By: | Post date: August 13, 2017 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Culture

Abigail, I go all Michaelis Maus whenever I see unanimity. I go all the more Michaelis Maus now that Michaelis has been banned. It’s hard for me to, because the OP (who has since deleted their account) put in the proviso: “without hurting or offending others”. But pay attention to that: they had to. Being […]

Why has there been so much political resistance to legalizing gay marriage in Australia?

By: | Post date: August 11, 2017 | Comments: 1 Comment
Posted in categories: Australia, Culture

Ah, recentism. As Ben Kelley’s answer reflects, but not enough answers have acknowledged, dragging one’s feet about gay marriage has become a bipartisan thing. Gay marriage has become a flashpoint for the current culture war in Australia; the ex-PM and leader of the conservative faction of the Liberals, Tony Abbott, announced that if you’re sick […]

Why is “cunt” considered very offensive in the US but not in Australia?

By: | Post date: August 9, 2017 | Comments: 2 Comments
Posted in categories: Culture, Language

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cunt Originally Answered: Why is the word ‘cunt’ so offensive in America? Because in America, as distinct from the Commonwealth, cunt is a reductive description of women, when used as an epithet. In the Commonwealth, the epithet mainly refers to men. It is certainly strong, but it can and is used jocularly, and even as […]

What day of the week are sad songs associated with in your culture, and why?

By: | Post date: August 3, 2017 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Culture

I’m OP, and this question comes from a discussion I had with Evangelos Lolos at https://www.quora.com/What-are-t… For Greek, it seems to be Sunday. Cloudy Sunday (Συννεφιασμένη Κυριακή), the #1 sad song for the postwar generation. I want it to be a Sunday (on the day I die) (Θέλω να είναι Κυριακή). Hammer and Anvil (Σφυρί […]

What were you doing on September 11th, 2001?

By: | Post date: August 1, 2017 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Personal
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I was living in Orange County, and I’d already decided to quit my job; I was leaving to come back to Australia in two months. It was a hermetic, unpleasant work environment, and I was already not on speaking terms with my colleagues—over some inconceivably unreal pique. I tended to sleep in; I still do. […]

If you had to pray to any saint right now, to which would you pray?

By: | Post date: August 1, 2017 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Culture

Normally I wouldn’t wade in to such a question, but there are eight answers here, and none of them are by people who accept the premiss of the question, the Intercession of saints. Thank you for volunteering the opinion that all Catholic and Orthodox Christians are idolaters, Protestant and Muslim respondents, but clearly that’s not […]

Translation of the Greek New Testament began early on in the history of Christianity. Apparently no translations were made into Hebrew. Why?

By: | Post date: July 28, 2017 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Culture, Language

To expand on Kenneth Bakke’s answer: the Jewish Christians who were the original Christian movement appear to have survived into the 5th century. We don’t know that much about them, but we do know that they had their own Gospels (Jewish–Christian gospels). They certainly would not have had any time for the Gospel of John, […]

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