Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Plus ça change

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. That's French for: The more things change, the more they stay the same.

I had to google "little mark under c" to remember what it's called. It's called a cedilla. And the little accent over the e même is a circumflex.

In French, there is no umlaut. Or if there is, I never heard of it.

Anyway, I'm trying out the new Blogger interface; that's the change. In either the new or old Blogger interface, they seem to have taken away the Amazon tool I used to be able to use to make easy links. Now I have to go to my Amazon Associates account in another window and get a link there.

Isn't that interesting? I read an article just the other day in which Susannah Breslin offered three possible reasons why no one reads your blog. Number 1 was "You're boring." Number 3 was that you're not a controversialist, which is someone who likes to disagree with others. I may be boring. I'm definitely not a controversialist. I truly dislike conflict, which is one reason I don't write about politics on my blog. Would I rather go weeks with no comments on my posts or every day have hate- and anger-filled comments by people who can't stand my opinions? Monty, I'll choose door number 1.

Here's an article about choosing doors by a mathematician. I can't understand it. As the saying goes, "I'm an English major; you do the math."

The first time I ever heard the phrase, "You do the math," was from the actor who was not Harrison Ford in the re-make of "Sabrina." On a talk show he said about his role, "I'm in a love triangle and the other guy is Harrison Ford. You do the math."

Which in turn reminds me of a funny review by Mark Steyn of the movie "Legends of the Fall," where he says, "A young English woman (Julia Ormond) arrives at the western ranch of Colonel Ludlow (Anthony Hopkins) and stirs the loins of his three sons. The sons are played by Brad Pitt, Aidan Quinn and Henry Thomas — and you know from the casting which one's unlikely to make it to the final reel."

Hey, Julia Ormond was the girl in "Sabrina," too. Suddenly this blog, which was rambling all over the place is starting to come together. I just need to tie in cedillas, circumflexes, and "Let's Make a Deal."