Author: opoudjis

Sophia’s acidic wit

By: | Post date: July 13, 2016 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Quora

In my Antipodean bonhomie, I have asked the no-nonsense Sophia de Tricht if I can call her Soph. Starting at https://www.quora.com/How-do-bel… The exchange went swimmingly: —The last person who called me Soph won’t be playing the violin anytime… well, ever —So when I sold my violin and took up the mandolin a couple of years […]

Why is Symphony of Psalms considered neoclassical?

By: | Post date: July 13, 2016 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Music

Lazily: because Stravinsky wrote it at the time he was writing his Neoclassical stuff. The Symphony of Psalms does not have the obvious shoutouts to the Baroque or Classical period that Pulcinella or Oedipus Rex does, and in parts it sounds closer to his earlier Russian period. It certainly ostinatoes like early Stravinsky. Good catch, […]

Have people of Mediterranean descent living in the Anglosphere reappropriated the word “dago” as self-identification?

By: | Post date: July 13, 2016 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Australia

Wogs is the Australian equivalent; and yes, emphatically so, although it’s starting to be dated now, as Greeks and Italians go into third generation. There was overt reclamation in the 90s, though the residue left is more a matter of the more-assimilated using it against the less-assimilated. See Wikipedia on Wog. JM Cortese speaks for […]

Is the photo American Girl in Italy meant to depict a woman intimidated by men?

By: | Post date: July 11, 2016 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Culture

The photo is a cultural touchpoint as a depiction of harassment of women. It is often cited as such, including on Quora. And people are astonished (including on Quora) to find that the photo was likely not intended as such at all. I’m throwing the question up to see what others think; what I’m finding, […]

To my wife, on our five-year anniversary

By: | Post date: July 9, 2016 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Poetry
Tags:

My love, whose smile is wide enough to clasp the heavens in; whose sorrow can expend the deep-dug wells of earth; whose anger’s grasp no whisper can unravel; whose amend no benison of rainbows can surpass; whose passion strides where armies never went, and lays what claims it pleases; and whose glass flashes with all […]

To my wife, on our five-year anniversary

By: | Post date: July 9, 2016 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Personal

Reposted from: To my wife, on our five-year anniversary My love, whose smile is wide enough to claspthe heavens in; whose sorrow can expendthe deep-dug wells of earth; whose anger’s graspno whisper can unravel; whose amend no benison of rainbows can surpass;whose passion strides where armies never went,and lays what claims it pleases; and whose […]

VICE PRESIDENT SOPHIA DE TRICHT’S REIGN OF TERROR!!

By: | Post date: July 7, 2016 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Quora

Sophia de Tricht’s answer to Who would turn down Donald Trump if asked to be his Vice President? Sophia de Tricht welcomed the opportunity to become VP in an El Donaldo administration, in order to… creatively subvert it: My gaffes would be art. I’m talking about hung over vomiting in the Louvre on camera, calling […]

How many nationalities have you met?

By: | Post date: July 7, 2016 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Personal

A fun question! And I’m not going to win. But I do live in God’s Own (Australia), which gives me an unfair advantage. I’m listing people I’ve had conversations with In Real Life. Albania: random guy at a shopping centre cafe a months ago, several in Greece in various capacities. Algeria: boyfriend of a fellow […]

Anon fails to deliver

By: | Post date: July 6, 2016 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Quora

Who likes low quality questions on Quora? Noone, amirite? https://www.quora.com/How-are-st… An easily Googleable question from Anon? I’m going to be commenting this in to any low quality Anon questions I answer, from now on. Feel free to take this and go viral. Pictures of toy trucks will be fine too. Posted 2016-07-06 [Originally posted on […]

How well can you get by visiting Turkey without speaking Turkish?

By: | Post date: July 5, 2016 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Countries

Well, I guess it was just us then. Spent three or four days over our honeymoon in Istanbul, pretty much Sultanahmet, with a couple of excursions to Üsküdar. Sultanahmet, certainly, is Grand Tourist Central. I was astonished how few English speakers we found. Which proved particularly devastating when we got a taxi to Üsküdar, and […]

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