TILL LINDEMANN recently visited us on tour. For the promotion of his American tour, they featured his performance at Red Square with the song “Любимый Город” (in Russian, of course). It was during the military-music festival “Spasskaya Tower”, September 2021. In a white jacket and bow tie, he looked like an eccentric.
Wanted to read a smart book in the subway, but ended up discovering Croatian for myself
Driving past a construction site. In the photo — the process of erecting walls using a method called panel lifting or tilt-up construction. This method is widely used in the construction of industrial buildings, warehouses, and shopping centers. The essence is that reinforced concrete panels are cast horizontally on the construction site, and then raised to a vertical position using a crane. The braces are removed later, once other structural elements are assembled. I’ve only seen this in the USA.
Yuki first saw how “parents” buy a ball for themselves and play with it. He is impressed by the day. So we’ve made it to pickleball. Now we need to make it to the court. It’s right in front of our house, but still, we need to get there! For instance, the pool, which is also in front of the house, I managed to go only once this year, and last year—not at all.
We stopped by the Franciscan Monastery, where around the perimeter there are signs with ave maria in different languages. Very enlightening indeed; of course, I had imagined how diverse scripts could be, but the signs still surprised me. It seems there are over a hundred signs; I only photographed a few.
POSITIVELY NO ADMITTANCE. Captured today in the center of the hall of the largest Catholic church in North America.
Another linguistic puzzle. Why POSITIVELY?
The correct translation is “ENTRANCE STRICTLY FORBIDDEN TO WHOMEVER.” But why not ABSOLUTELY NO ADMITTANCE?
“Positively” in the phrase “positively no admittance” (strictly prohibited entrance) is easiest understood as employing its primary meaning: it emphasizes “no admittance” (prohibition of entry to whomever).
But why positively?
I read that there was an assumption that this word in its early uses was employed to describe positive law, that is, law established or recognized by state authority, as opposed to natural law — those “laws” that seemingly are naturally understood by people as applicable to all, such as “do not kill.” “Positive” in the context of positive law means “officially established or imposed”; it is a synonym for “prescribed.” So, could the expressions “positively no trespassing” and “positively no admittance” fundamentally mean “as officially established or prescribed, entry is forbidden” or “by law, entry is forbidden”?
As attractive as this theory may sound, early evidence of the phrases “positively no trespassing” and “positively no admittance” does not show such a direct link to positive law; therefore, this explanation falls apart.
A more probable explanation for the odd sound of modern cases of “positively no trespassing/admittance” is that the word “positively” is now so readily applied in contexts unrelated to law that it has lost some of its forcefulness, although, perhaps, it never had a legal meaning.
In short, it’s not clear at all; what’s clear is that it is used for emphasis.
Today at the subway, I saw the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency logo on a wall. I was surprised by the word comptroller. Riding the subway now, researching. Interesting.
Interestingly, it’s pronounced the same as “controller” and essentially means the same thing.
According to some sources, the term “comptroller” emerged in the 1800s due to a careless spelling mistake when writing the word “controller”. Ever since, this spelling stuck, and comptroller began to be used to describe a financial officer in the public sector.
But there’s also reason to believe that the mistake was not accidental.
It is written that “controller” originates from the Latin word “contrarotulator” or the French “countreroller”, which means “keeper of the duplicate register”. Apparently, people mistakenly associated this title with the French word “computer” (not related to computers; it refers to someone who counts). As a result, a needless word-bug was born, yet it has stuck around, at least for naming a government office.
Last night we started watching Fargo Season 5, “Nadya, just the first episode then sleep,” and by this evening we binged all 10 episodes. It’s been a while since nine hours flew by like one.
Fargo is the only series that hasn’t dropped the ball after five seasons. It has this “cozy, old-school” vibe, like it’s supposedly 2019, but the feel is all late 20th century. The only jarring thing in the fifth season is the “all husbands—infantile and a bit cuckoo, all wives—strong women, sometimes victims, and also a bit cuckoo,” but given its other merits and the overall Fargo format, it’s forgivable. Overall, the plot is quite… naive… but again, it is compensated by the way it’s filmed, turning the series into a piece of art. Generally, there’s some caricaturization, but it seems intentionally stylized.
Exler wrote well: “… It’s specifically emphasized that the main villains are precisely Trump’s core electorate. Sheriff Tillman, never without his cowboy hat, a definite alpha male, abuser, racist, zealous Catholic and all that, and why his hat doesn’t scream MAGA in giant letters is like a script oversight. The sheriff’s wife must, first, shut up, second, do as her husband commands, and third—there will be no third, because the first two are enough for a happy married life. And if the wife disobeys, then the sheriff will beat her deadly, because how else to command respect from a woman who swore before God to belong to you body and soul? No other way.”
Now I want to rewatch the first season. It was absolutely beautiful, and I’m not sure that the fifth surpassed it, comparing the emotions post-viewing. But the emotions from the first season remain with me (it was very good), yet ten years on I barely remember it (well, I remember faces).
Now it’s time to get to True Detective.
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 