De-Nesting Diaries: Thursday, February 21st

Efficiency is intelligent laziness. -David Dunham 

Mondegreen

MEANING:

noun: A word or phrase resulting from mishearing a word or phrase, especially in song lyrics. For example:
"The girl with colitis goes by" for "The girl with kaleidoscope eyes" in the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds".

ETYMOLOGY:

Coined by author Sylvia Wright when she misinterpreted the line "laid him on the green" as "Lady Mondegreen" in the Scottish ballad "The Bonny Earl of Murray". Earliest documented use: 1954.

USAGE:

"Since I live in Thailand, the most meaningful mondegreen for me was my own mishearing of a line from The Jam's Eton Rifles. Instead of the correct 'What chance do you have against a tie and a crest?', for years I heard 'What chance do you have against a Thai in a dress?'"
Richard Watson Todd; Much Ado about English; Nicholas Brealey Publishing; May 1, 2007.

Hi Patrick, Corinne

Hope you are well and planning to return to Vancouver some time? Once again thank you for our "Valentine". 

In addition to receiving missives from you I am receiving them regularly from my sister in Barbados and our close friends from Perth now in New Zealand. Meanwhile I have a rotten cold, the weather is cold, Christine is up in Newcastle helping Laura out , my exercise bike has fallen apart with all that High Intensity Training and the weather is not conducive to getting out on my mountain bike.

I am using the time to record old vinyl onto ipod via lap top having bought the required device with Christmas money.

I watched an interesting programme at 2 am the other night on catch up when I couldn't sleep with the cold. It was about Digital Libraries, H G Wells prognostications and featured interviews with leading librarians, Google representatives, authors etc. I hadn't realized what was potentially happening with Google Books and that their programme had been suspended by the court. Particularly interesting was the French Librarian's protection of their language and his counter proposals.

They talked at length to Harvard, the Bodlean, a monastic library in the mountains near Barcelona-where was my alma mater in all of this? I have to confess never having visited there but now I find they serve coffee I shall rectify this.

We had visitors over the week-end but last and regret to say my stocks of malts has been made even more meagre. Plenty of bottles but precious little in some of them. 

We are having a week, somewhat interrupted in the North Yorks Moors next week- usually a day trip but a chance to spend more time there and we have a holiday planned to the Austrian alps in June- at Christine's request. Pity she hadn't remembered William's first birthday when she booked it.

I see you are sending your Bank Governor over here to sort us out- he seemed to handle the parliamentary committee very well and we only have to reward him three times what he was earning (but still only a fraction of what our nationalized bank leaders gain(earn?).

Regards. Jim and Christine

Hi Marco!

Trust you are well! I do apologize for not sending along a message sooner. As it is and has been, ever since returning home, (February 17th, from Sint Maarten, New Orleans, Dallas, LA), we seem to be busier than ever and have simply not had a moment to catch our collective wits. Primarily has to do with working on the loft so that we can finally de-nest Chloë! With respect to this coming summer, we plan to arrive in London on July 10th. Imagine we will spend a few days there and then we would train to York where we spend time with friends, Chris and Jim. At the beginning of August we begin a house exchange near Truro for a month

Of course, you are more than welcome to visit us in Cornwall, over August, so please think about that. As well, I'm trying to stitch together a week or two, in Languedoc, cycling from a rented farmhouse as a base, at the beginning of September. Perhaps this might interest you. Cora Lee and The Sisterhood will be lollygagging around Italy for three weeks, after Cornwall, so I have arranged to have some nubile Swedish masseuses stay to work out the daily cycling kinks! Let me know what you think and we'll plan accordingly! Fondestos from Cora Lee and Chloë. Chees, Patrizzio!