January 09, 2007
OK, this article ends on a pretty depressing note, but how could I not share the line, "though it might come in handy if I had a pet guinea pig that was really into bondage sex games"? (don't worry, the rest is SFW)
My favorite line is "These stores sold falcons (and falcon accessories)." Hmm, I wonder if the author is a Texan? Or maybe just a fan of Mike Judge.
The misperception that black robes are hotter than white robes crops up here. In fact, studies show they are basically identical in terms of heat load. This does not, however, mean that wearing a black robe is the same as wearing a bathing suit which is, of course, unfortunate.
The answer as to why is actually quite interesting:
Do yourself a solid and check out the George Saunders article "The New Mecca," about Dubai; either in the Nov 2005 GQ (on shelves in the PCL) or in the Best American Non-Required Reading 2006 (ed. Dave Eggers).
Fuck concepts. Don’t be afraid to be confused. Try to remain permanently confused. Anything is possible. Stay open, forever, so open it hurts, and then open up some more until the day you die, world without end, amen.
More etymology notes from all over: in Stevenson's previous Dubai article, he mentions "running the gantlet." 'Gantlet' refers to a section of two adjacent parallel railroad tracks. It is also an acceptable alternate spelling of 'gauntlet,' (protective glove) -- the two words share an etymology for this word sense. However, 'running the gauntlet' -- a victim is forced to run between two facing lines of armed tormentors -- should be spelled gauntlet:
But the gauntlet used in to run the gauntlet is an alteration of the earlier English form gantlope, which came from the Swedish word gatlopp, a compound of gata, “lane,” and lopp, “course.” The earliest recorded form of the English word, found in 1646, is gantelope, showing that alteration of the Swedish word had already occurred. The English word was then influenced by the spelling of the word gauntlet, “glove,” and in 1676 we find the first recorded instance of the spelling gauntlet for this word, although gantelope is found as late as 1836. From then on spellings with au and a are both found, but the au seems to have won out.
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I wish that I were less ignorant so that this line:
If Arab culture weren't otherwise so progressive on gender issues, I might say this was a clever means of discouraging women from leaving the house.
didn't seem ironic when I first read it.
posted by reid at 03:45PM CST on January 09