Back to Basics

This post will of necessity be brief; somehow yesterday I managed to do something to my back that makes it hard for me to sit. I can stand with some discomfort, or I can lie flat on my back, but there's not much I can do in between. So until my body decides to loosen up, I'm spending most of my time either napping, in contemplation of the ceiling, or listening to Chekhov's In the Ravine and Other Stories, an audiobook I purchased from the iTunes store when it became apparent that I was going to be out of commission for a while. The stories are read with considerable dramatic emphasis by Kenneth Branagh. There are a lot of audiobooks out there which have been unlucky in their assignment of readers. Branagh is excellent, perhaps the best I've heard since Patrick Tull reading Patrick O'Brian.

But in the spirit of the holiday season and its many subtle complications, you may want to take a look at this post from Geoff Nunberg on the Language Log.

Merry Christmas, one and all.