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Month: January 2017
Cartoons from my first BNBR
In What happened next? by Nick Nicholas on The Insurgency and My first BNBR warning by Nick Nicholas on The Insurgency, I reported an exchange between myself and Carlos Matias La Borde, and invited Quorans to speculate on what happened next. The prize for the most accurate response, and the funniest response, was a cartoon. […]
Why did you learn German as a foreign language?
For my part, because all the smart kids in my school did two languages, instead of one language and Art. As you can see from Gallery of Awesomery, not doing Art has paid off. In the eighties, the two main languages being taught in Australia were still French and German, which was a cultural inheritance […]
What are the “Burger-ish” foods in your culture or country? I suspect every culture has their own burger/sandwich-like food: hearty, inexpensive, easy to prepare, consistent with meat in between flour/rice/corn-based bread thing.
God Bless New Zealand for maintaining the time-honoured traditions we’re less attached to in Australia! James Barr’s answer to What are the “Burger-ish” foods in your culture or country? I suspect every culture has their own burger/sandwich-like food: hearty, inexpensive, easy to prepare, consistent with meat in between flour/rice/corn-based bread thing. details the venerable Dead […]
What accents do you find the sexiest?
Me? Scottish. Och. I dinna ken why. Why no, actually, I have not told my Personal Trainer from Edinburgh this. Nor her equally Scottish wife, for that matter. Answered 2017-01-13 [Originally posted on http://quora.com/What-accents-do-you-find-the-sexiest/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5]
READ: Conrad: Youth
The first five pages, I’d decided: nah. The tone is all bouncy and frivolous and a little Hooray Henry. The language is good, but he doesn’t have the magic he had in Heart of Darkness. Once the first storm hit the ship in the story, the ship was derailed, but the prose was set aright. […]
Why has booing someone off stage become a negative thing? For whom? All the polite people? The actor stares in my face and asks me a question, am I not allowed to answer him however I please?
More cultural relativism, people. I think Adam Hartline has said it best: Vote #1 Adam Hartline’s answer to Why has booing someone off stage become a negative thing? For whom? All the polite people? The actor stares in my face and asks me a question, am I not allowed to answer him however I please? […]
Was there anything good about Joseph Stalin?
I’m not a fan, though I did appreciate Sıddäk Ähuja’s answer to Was there anything good about Joseph Stalin? Taking a line from Testimony (1988 film): he inspired Shostakovich. In a way that you wouldn’t wish on anyone. Answered 2017-01-12 [Originally posted on http://quora.com/Was-there-anything-good-about-Joseph-Stalin/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5]
If you could own a painting from one European or American artist from the 19th–21st centuries, who would it be and why?
I am a dunce in the visual arts. I walked through the Uffizi, and kept saying, “meh, Raphael can’t draw… Michaelangelo thinks people are made of granite when he draws… Finally, someone who gets it!” (Caravaggio) So my choice is a dunce choice. I like it a lot: sensuous, elemental, striking, visceral, driven by symbols, […]
What is your personal pretentious Latin motto?
You know, I don’t have one. But I do have several Ancient Greek ones, and those tended to end up in Latin in the West. Πάταξον μέν, ἄκουσον δέ will do. Verbera sed audi. “Verbera sed audi.” CloudyQuotes.com Themistocles, when Eurybiades, commander of the Spartan fleet, raised his staff to strike him. In Plutarch’s Life […]
The Decalogue of Nick #4: Long history of engagement with artificial languages
For Philip Newton. I have had maybe twenty years of engagement with artificial languages, from 13 through to 34. I’m no longer active in the respective language communities; but they have been a big part of how I have been formed, a big part of such fame as I have, and remain a big part […]