This morning I was standing in line waiting for a blood test. Four of us got to chatting. About the time the doors opened, the (Continue Reading)
Pat’s Polemics
On-going brilliance
Idiomaticity
12/08/2021 Pat Barrett Add Comment“I understand what you mean but we don’t say it that way.” How many times have you heard someone tell you that as you foundered (Continue Reading)
No Serious Consequences
12/05/2021 Pat Barrett 2 CommentsIsabel Wilkerson so deftly put into frame and focus the experience of Black Americans, I wondered as I read what the obverse of that coin (Continue Reading)
The Statue Problem
12/04/2021 Pat Barrett 3 CommentsThe statues some people find objectionable are typically those of men who exploited and extracted, at least in the Americas. We usually don’t get excited (Continue Reading)
New Core Exercises
12/02/2021 Pat Barrett Add CommentA friend sent me a video by Bob and Brad. On the side I saw one titled 10 exercises you should not do. Two of (Continue Reading)
Carried along in the rhythm of the music
11/20/2021 Pat Barrett Add CommentSitting here listening to a series of performances of Agbadza, the ever popular Ewe dance music, I realized the nature of that pulse, what many (Continue Reading)
Heavy Metal in Africa
11/19/2021 Pat Barrett Add CommentA Togolese heavy metal group is making itself known. Heavy metal is associated more with White audiences in the U.S. and even has an association (Continue Reading)
The Fascists Among Us
11/14/2021 Pat Barrett 6 CommentsHaven’t you met natural fascists? Don’t give me the salesman b.s. about “I’ve never met a man I didn’t like.” You know who they are, (Continue Reading)
Trace it back
11/06/2021 Pat Barrett Add CommentTake a rhythm in any current song of the Americas and Europe. Trace it back until it disappears. Where was that last point found? Take (Continue Reading)
Oops!
10/27/2021 Pat Barrett 2 CommentsOops could be the name of a category. It is when a point or fact is evidenced as the product of another topic entirely. Here’s (Continue Reading)
You gotta feel sorry for them…….
10/26/2021 Pat Barrett Add CommentThose poor guys who attacked the Capitol trying to overturn a free and fair election are just running into all sorts of problems. One dropped (Continue Reading)
Each one gave their best…………
09/04/2021 Pat Barrett 7 Commentsfrom The Language Instinct pp. 377-379 Sometimes an alleged grammatical ‘error’ is logical not only in the sense of ‘rational’ but the sense of respecting (Continue Reading)
Hillbilly Legacy
08/23/2021 Pat Barrett Add CommentOf hillbilly legacy myself (West Virginia though raised in Ohio), I was heartened to see J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy (J.D. is so Southern – it (Continue Reading)
A Breakthough Insight, I think………..
08/20/2021 Pat Barrett 1 CommentA couple of nights ago I had put on a CD of rhythm and blues. My wife and I began slow dancing between the kitchen (Continue Reading)
What’s been happening all along is………
08/16/2021 Pat Barrett Add CommentThis is an attempt to put together the essential matters we all have to consider. I was inspired by Francis Fukuyama’s Origins of Political Order (Continue Reading)
The Cicadas
08/15/2021 Pat Barrett Add CommentWe are not surprised when the cicadas emerge. Why are we when the Taliban emerge? What a shock! American troops start their precipitous withdrawal and (Continue Reading)
My Wife, the Genius
08/08/2021 Pat Barrett 1 CommentSomewhere in this blog there may be a mention of my wife’s uncanny ability to size up a room full of people and indicate if (Continue Reading)
Racism without malice
08/01/2021 Pat Barrett 1 CommentLast night we went to the ASU football game. I am not a sports fan but my wife had to be peeled off the ceiling (Continue Reading)
Order of Operations
07/30/2021 Pat Barrett Add CommentHow do linguists proceed to reasoning about what goes on in the black box known as the LAD – language acquisition device?Here’s a simples example:Spanish-speakers (Continue Reading)
Why SOME sports fans belong in the dregs of humanity category
07/29/2021 Pat Barrett Add CommentFull disclosure: I have never been a sports fan. My wife, my son, so many people in my life are “avid” sports fans (like a (Continue Reading)
Two-tiered thinking
07/29/2021 Pat Barrett 1 CommentAdvanced Republicans (one step above Australopithecines) can speak on two tiers: one is to their base and the other comes from that one eye on (Continue Reading)
Whence sprang Liz Cheney?
07/29/2021 Pat Barrett Add CommentLuke Skywalker sprang from the loins of Darth Vader; Liz Cheney sprang from the loins of Dr. Evil. How does one explain this?Cheney is a (Continue Reading)
MSNBC DEADLINE WHITE HOUSE JULY 27, 2021
07/27/2021 Pat Barrett 4 CommentsNicolle Wallace, host, moderates as Matt Dowd and Eddie Glaude reflect on the testimony of Capitol Police Officer during the Jan. 6 Insurrection hearings. Nothing (Continue Reading)