books 2008: The Unfolding of Language, by Guy Deutscher

First book of 2008! Full title: The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind's Greatest Invention.

This book was so much fun!! It's about how language has evolved. By looking at the earliest sources of written language, and examining the processes by which language changes in the present, Deutscher creates a theory about how language might have evolved in the first place. The book gets more into technical linguistics, and therefore more challenging, as it goes on, but for the most part I could stay with it. It was a really fun book if you like languages and linguistics, but a book to avoid like plague if you don't. I really liked it, and I strongly recommend it to Heather.

yay wine

I am half a glass away from the bottom of a bottle of wine. Go me. You didn't even get to hear the three voicemail messages I left for Fritz as I was trying to open the damn bottle. I bent my corkscrew, wedged the cork in the bottle, and then chipped the edge of the damn bottle trying to get the corkscrew out. Luckily none of the broken glass ended up in the wine!

I just caught most of "Shall We Dance?" on Bravo. It's a movie with Richard Gere, J.Lo, and Susan Sarandon, about ballroom dancing. Yeah, I know. So, why is it that Richard Gere = total hottie, but Susan Sarandon = hot for a chick her age? I mean, they're around the same age. Why do we not perceive Susan Sarandon as being full of the mature hottness that Richard Gere has? Why do we just perceive her as being kind of saggy? Is it a societal thing? Or have I just had too much wine? Discuss.

Need to finish packing.