Brainstorming about history, politics, literature, religion, and other topics from a 'gypsy' scholar on a wagon hitched to a star.
If you stare long enough at the saw, a forbidding word appears . . .That Trusty Old SawAs the old saw says, "Old saws sever rust."
Labels: Holy Wisdom
posted by Horace Jeffery Hodges @ 6:56 AM
7 comments
I am a retired professor. I last taught at Ewha Womans University, mostly composition, research writing, and cultural issues, but also the occasional graduate seminar on Gnosticism and Johannine theology and the occasional undergraduate course on European history. My doctorate is in history (U.C. Berkeley), with emphasis on religion and science. My thesis is on John's gospel and Gnosticism. I'm also an award-winning writer, and I recommend my novella, The Bottomless Bottle of Beer, to anyone interested. I'm originally from the Arkansas Ozarks, but my academic career -- funded through doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships (e.g., Fulbright, Naumann, Lady Davis) -- has taken me through Texas, California, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, and Israel and has landed me in Seoul, South Korea. I've also traveled to Mexico, visited much of Europe, including Moscow, and touched down briefly in a few East Asian countries. Hence: "Gypsy Scholar."
7 Comments:
"If you stare long enough..."
For what it's worth, I see the "Colourbox" watermark. If I tilt my head to the right while staring at the rusty saw, I can see a stretched-out letter "D," sort of. If I stare at the old saw made of prose, my mind changes "sever" to the forbidding "never," and that's about all I can see while staring long. I think I didn't stare long enough.
I meant that the watermark itself, which is hard to make out on my screen, is perhaps intended to imply that one shouldn't use this image. I apologize for my misleading manner of expression.
But I did want "sever" to switch from "sever" to "ever," back and forth in one's reading.
Jeffery Hodges
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Nothing to apologize for! Academics often have a charmingly oblique sense of humor; it's in their nature, and it's up to the reader to do the work of unpacking meaning.
As for "Old saws sever rust" versus "Old saws ever rust"... yes, the phonetic sleight of hand works as long as the reader doesn't notice the sly transition from "s" to "z" in the sibilant connecting "saws" and "(s)ever." It's similar to the French punning between "ils sont" and "ils ont."
Well, I always appreciate your sense of humor - even your Irish jokes, you anti-Irish friend-of-a-ligament who would probably enjoy puerile humor like "The Bastard from the Bush"!
Jeffery Hodges
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Amazing poem. I read it aloud to myself in an Oyrish accent... then saw the comment that the poem was "true blue Aussie" in spirit. Guess I'll have to change accents and reread da bloody thing.
Well Kevin so long as you're rereading anyway ... gaze closely at that watermark.
It's sagu!
JK
Kevin, you'll likely also like this one: Hell's Bells.
Jeffery Hodges
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