I wanted to do something special for tree number four hundred.
But I failed to take a picture of a tree today.
So I had an idea. I’m a linguist (by college training). Linguists draw “trees” – diagrams of sentences. And I thought of a great sentence that benefits from having a tree drawn of it.
The sentence is: “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.”
This sentence is hard to understand. Bear in mind that there are three groups of buffalo in this sentence, but they are all from the town of Buffalo – probably Buffalo, Minnesota, rather than the better known Buffalo, New York. And these buffalo from Buffalo like to buffalo (which is to say, “annoy”) other buffalo. It starts to come clear.
Here is a tree diagram.
Have a nice day.
[daily log: walking, 3km]
Day: February 6, 2020
Caveat: life is more than who we are
Arthur and I were in town, for our weekly Thursday shopping trip. This song came on the radio at Zat’s Pizza, where we almost always stop for lunch on our Thursday trips. Art doesn’t think much of the music there – he just tunes out and listens to his audiobooks. But I sometimes end up a bit nostalgic, as the music is often set to some “oldies” station. Music from particular eras in my life can end up being quite evocative.
I don’t know that I necessarily liked this song in any deep sense. But it was part of my “soundtrack” in 1995, when I was working nights at the UPS Package Sorting facility in Northeast Minneapolis and doing some graduate coursework (non-degree program, at that time) during the days. It was when Michelle and I were already married but still keeping it to ourselves, and living together in south Minneapolis, just off Franklin Avenue.
My commute up I-35W (across the bridge across the Mississippi that later famously collapsed from poor maintenance killing many people) to the UPS facility took about 30 minutes. So I would play the radio. And this was one of those songs on high rotation at that time. Since I was working the late shift, I would end up coming home during very low traffic at around 3 or 4 AM. The freeway was often completely empty.
So I ended up feeling nostalgic when I heard this song. It’s a very 90s song.
What I’m listening to right now.
Goo Goo Dolls, “Name.”
Lyrics.
And even though the moment passed me by
I still can’t turn away
‘Cause all the dreams you never thought you’d lose
Got tossed along the way
And letters that you never meant to send
Get lost or thrown away
And now we’re grown up orphans
That never knew their names
We don’t belong to no one
That’s a shame
If you could hide beside me
Maybe for a while
And I won’t tell no one your name
And I won’t tell ’em your name
And scars are souvenirs you never lose
The past is never far
Did you lose yourself somewhere out there
Did you get to be a star
And don’t it make you sad to know that life
Is more than who we are
We grew up way too fast
And now there’s nothing to believe
And reruns all become our history
A tired song keeps playing on a tired radio
And I won’t tell no one your name
And I won’t tell ’em your name
I won’t tell ’em your name
Mmm, mmm, mmm
I won’t tell ’em your name, ow
I think about you all the time
But I don’t need the same
It’s lonely where you are, come back down
And I won’t tell ’em your name
Caveat: Poem #1285 “The eastbound ducks”
Stones drink purple light. Snow melts and crawls off downhill. Ducks swim slowly east.
– a pseudo-haiku