Wordle

Just for fun, here is a wordle.

To Meme or not to Meme

To Meme or not to Meme?
That is the question.

As I said in an earlier post about awards, my feelings towards these things are a bit ambivalent.

I was tagged yesterday by D J Kirkby. I went off and had a shower and while the water cascaded over my skin, thought about how to reject her request in the nicest possible way.

OK well I did do the truth meme and the 8 random facts meme, so, what the heck - so long as we don't do too many of these things - one or two a year, why not?

I tried tracing back the taggers to find the origins of this meme but it petered out when either the taggee failed to mention their tagger or the post couldn't be found. I didn't come across any exceptionally exciting blogs but I did discover a delightful set of six-words memoirs published on the National Public Radio site.

The meme instructions are:

1. Write your own six word memoir.
2. Post it on your blog; include a visual illustration if you'd like.
3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post, and to the original post if possible.
4. Tag at least five more blogs with links.
5. Leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

The six word memoir I came up with while taking my shower is:

precocious teenager now grumpy old man

So now, which bloggers will be my victims shall I tag?

1. Lynn, the lovely lady in Cheltenham.
2. Gwilym, poet in residence in Vienna.
3. Babooshka, a woman on the Isle of Man.
4. Imac, who has just come back from Ireland.
5. Princess Haiku, seeking temporal beauty in San Franciso.

ABC Wednesday - K is for Katikati Haiku Pathway

ABC Wednesday: K is for Katikati Haiku Pathway

beneath the moon
the heron's slow step
towards frog sound

Michael Dylan Welch

photograph © 2001, 2008 gerald england

The Katikati Haiku Pathway was the brainchild of Catherine Mair. It was created as part of a millennium project that sought to reclaim wasteland around the Uretara Stream which seperated the centre of this Western Bay of Plenty District town in New Zealand from the Highfields area.

watchful the night heron lowers his neck into shadow

Janice Bostok

(photograph © 2001, 2008 gerald england).

I visited Catherine in 2001 and she took me on guided tour. She told me about how she came to choose the haiku used, and about the way the town co-operated, despite certain opposition, with its creation. The boulders had weathered well. After rain, water gathers in small pools on some of the lettering. We poked our fingers into one such pool. I wrote

splash of water
trickles down the stone
finds its own pathway

after visiting the above boulder.

on the farmland
new houses
slowly rising

Patricia Prime

photograph © 2001, 2008 gerald england

shadows
on the river
darker than the birds

Catherine Mair

photograph © 2001, 2008 gerald england

Holding the water,
held by it -
the dark mud.

William J Higginson

(photograph © 2001, 2008 gerald england)

Catherine tells me in a recent email that since my visit there has been massive development.

1. The 'river flats' are now a jig-saw of roofs and burgeoning gardens.
2. Haiku on 24 boulders has been repainted.
3. Two damaged author nameplates have been replaced.
4. A much more visible sign has been designed
5. Information boards are being designed and will be in place soon at the main car park.
6. Three new boulders have been engraved adjacent to the original landing.
7. Stepping stones have been installed to one boulder.
8. A viewing area has been cleared to another boulder situated in the river bed.
9. The Haiku Pathway booklet has been updated and reprinted.

Catherine Mair standing by the exit from the Haiku Path near two carved pieces created by a Maori carver representing one of the three marae in the district. They have since been removed for restoration.

in the evening
the bridge becomes dangerous
tonight's moon

Takebe Ayatari

(photograph © 2008 Sandra Simpson)

Secretary of the Pathway Focus Committee, Sandra Simpson tells me

We now have 30 engraved haiku boulders, which we believe to be the largest such grouping in English anywhere and the largest outside Japan. The poems are by 26 poets from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the US, Japan, Poland and England (Alan Summers).

The Haiku Pathway guidebook was updated and reprinted to coincide with the dedication of the 3 new boulders last winter (our winter May/June).

The next 2 big projects to bring to fruition are a major new entry sign, the design of which is in keeping with the pathway, and information boards for visitors, including items such as a map of all the boulders and some background to haiku.

One of the new boulders is

summer clouds
the river and I
inclined to the sea

Peter Yovu

(photograph © 2008 Sandra Simpson)

Further information is available at Katikati Mural Town.

Discover other ABC Wednesday posts by visiting Mrs. Nesbitt's Place.

What's this @

During a telephone conversation with a friend who doesn't use the internet, this question came up. What is the name of the @ symbol?

It is just called the at symbol was my reply.

Afterwards I decided to do some googling and came across this article http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/whereat.htm.

Michael Quinion writes on International English from a British viewpoint. It would seem that the original symbol was an amphora which was a unit of weight in medieval Italy and @ was a handwritten A embellished in typical Florentine style.

Use of it within internet email addresses has led to the symbol being imported into many different languages. Names mentioned in Quinion's article include

• Klammeraffe (spider monkey in German)
• grisehole (pig's tail in Danish)
• snabel (elephant's tail in Swedish)
• apestaart (monkey's tail in Dutch)
• kukac (worm in Russian)

However, in English it would seem that its official name is indeed the at (or "commercial at") symbol.

Michael Quinion's site World Wide Words is an Aladin's cave of articles on all aspects of word usage. This lexicographer and word-lovers' site has been going since 1996 which is an eon in internet time. Now I've discovered it I shall be making regular visits.