Found a lost book

 For many years, I was certain that a book I used to read as a schoolboy was lost. Yesterday, my wife and I cleared 5 large boxes that we had left aside for many years after moving in and I found the book in very good condition in one of the boxes. This book has been out of print for decades.

In the 1960s, linguists decided that the teaching of English grammar was inimical to a child's linguistic development. How they came to that decision is a mystery. My grandpa thought that was silly and insisted that I should not be so deprived. Because all schools stopped teaching English grammar, a whole generation of people who went to school after the 1960s (and that means almost the whole of humanity) grew up without having studied English grammar.  

But this huge mistake has been addressed in the UK. Grammar is now taught in schools but they have only started to do it very recently, albeit with much unhappiness on the part of clueless parents. But it's not the same in other countries. English grammar remains outside the school syllabus elsewhere in the world. 

The linguist David Crystal once told the story of a question he asked a uni class which nobody could answer. It was a simple question: What is a preposition? Finally, a student hazarded a guess and she asked if a preposition was the posture one assumed before getting on a horse!

Can you imagine what huge impact these linguists have made for a whole generation of people all over the world? As Robert Burchfield the famous lexicographer once put it although in a different context, all of us (most of us at least) now live in a grammarless cavern.

Does it really matter?  Shouldn't a language function solely as a means of communication? As far as communication goes, English has done a fine job in connecting people all over the world. It's the only language that truly traverses all boundaries, be they national, cultural or ethnic. Google has been prompting me to write my blog in Chinese or Malay or Indonesian (and one wonders how Google knows these are the languages I am proficient in) but if I were to do that, a large part of the world would not be able to read it. 

Greetings to the 3 religions

Today is a special day for all 3 religions. There can't be any complaint when I've gone into the water. LOL.

Don't be envious!

 It's a dime a dozen. I live in the tropics!!!  Haha.

Look what I cooked all by myself!

After being inspired by MasterChef and what a friend told me about his cooking, I decided to try my hand at it. The previous post was not REAL cooking. I simply fried some chicken wings on the airfryer. But this time I did some real cooking with a frying pan. And guess what my dish is called. It's got to be in French if I want to submit it for a Michelin award. Haha. I name it: 

saumon garni de crevettes sur lit d'épinards

It does sound so much more appetising in French.  I hope I haven't made a linguistic bloomer - the fault lies entirely on Google Translate if there is one. And here's the pic of the dish with the chef: 

Two large cuts of salmon fried in olive oil with garlic and chilli. I realised I had forgotten the unsalted butter and so I added that after everything had been fried. And then I remembered the prawns and I cooked them in the airfryer and added them to the plate. The whole thing may sound haphazard and disorganised but it really tasted very good and worthy of at least a Bib Gourmand. Haha.

My New Low-Salt Diet

I am determined to see to it that my dad's hypertension doesn't get passed on to me. I've embarked on a low-salt diet. The fact is I don't like salt added to my food. I really don't. It's a matter of taste for me. But the whole world is crazy about salt. Gordon Ramsay will yell at MasterChef hopefuls if they don't add salt by the spadefuls. So I decided to cook my own meals. Just checked my BP - it's 112/79 which is a normal reading. But I need to take preemptive action because my dad first had hypertension when he was a young adult which means I'm genetically disposed to it. 

Manneken Pis

 

I'm surprised a friend said this was obscene and offensive.  Unless you're a racist and an ageist, what's ok for a Belgian boy should be ok for an Asian old man. Haha. Good morning!

Sit and be healthy

I very often hear it said that all cultures are good but we all know that's just politically correct garbage.  There are good and bad cultures and there is much that is good in every culture and much that is bad. We just have to be rational in our evaluation and we should accept what is good and reject whatever that is bad or even harmful. 

I have no qualms changing whatever is bad in my own culture. I remember being quite amused when I saw the video of Gordon Ramsay going to some ashram in India. At dinner in the ashram, everyone had to sit on the floor to eat their dinner. It was hilarious to see Ramsay unable to do that. Now, Ramsay is not an unfit chap. He's a 3:30 marathon runner and yet he can't sit on the floor. 

I know very little about other people's cultures but I do know that my own culture leaves much to be desired in this arena. Sitting on the floor is very much a part of every Asian culture I know except mine. Everyone from India to Japan traditionally sits on the floor except the Chinese. Because of this, we try to supplement this deficiency with wushu, qigong and taiji.  But all these are time-consuming. It's so much easier to simply sit on the floor which I try to do every day when I'm reading. The human physique was never meant for chairs. We lose our natural suppleness with time if we don't sit and move about in the way we were naturally designed for.

World Naked Gardening Day

 I almost forgot today's significance. I normally post something every year. I didn't do any gardening but I did take a selfie as my wife was planting some seeds and I suppose that should suffice. 

Labour Day Magic

After my last post, I received a great deal of animated response from my readers. Many asked me in wonder how I managed to jump backwards and could I do another video to demonstrate my ability? Others said it was a trick and why did I fumble so much at the start? Can I do it again without all the fumbling?

I was a little hesitant in the first video because I was testing the ground. It had just rained then and the ground was wet. I didn't want to slip and fall. 

Since most of my readers asked me to do the video again, I decided this afternoon to give it a try. It's a bright sunny Saturday afternoon and it's indeed a fine day for me to do a little magic.  Yes, I can do magic.

Anyway don't get too worked up about all this. If you think I can't fly backwards, it's fine. This is all just for fun. Have a great Labour Day today, everyone! And remember, there is nothing indecent about the human body.