UN PO' D'ITALIANO, A SMATTERING OF GREEK, AND VICO

First up, some more Italian gems grazie a Using Italian: A Guide to Contemporary Usage.

1.) la mangiasoldi - lit. money-eater, actually, a slot-machie.

2.) acquascooter - jetski. This word is awesome. Apparently there's a such thing as a "water-scooter," but if all English-speakers referred to jet-skis as acquascooters, the world would be a better place.

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Just a quick link to an interesting article on learning ancient Greek vocabulary, specifically how the unusually small number of high-frequency words makes the Wortschatz easier to learn at a beginner/intermediate level. He claims 1,100 lemmas make up 80% of lemmas in ancient Greek (comp. 80% of English = 2,200-2,300 lemmas). The article's doubly fantastic because it includes lists of the said lemmas w/ English definition (50% list and an 80% list). Once I get over my current Italian binge I may proceed to this, circumstances allowing --- though I could start memorizing 10/day while bagging ice. That shouldn't be hard.

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And, last but not least, a brief update on my current reading of Giambattista Vico's Scienza Nuova. In a nutshell, this book is awesome. It's on par with Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus in that it weds artistry with analytical investigation to such an extent that you can't tell whether it's more poem or more treatise. Vico himself refers to it as "nostra mitologia istorica" and it's basically that: a grand cyclical vision of history across three ages and a final transition in which society reverts back to it's original (or slightly more advanced-than-original) state. But it's the vast amalgamation of stories, anecdotes, myths, legends and linguistic speculation that thrusts the Scienza Nuova into the realm of cosmic epic (like, we're talkin Ovidian, Tolkienian, Homeric, Joycean epic epic). And, lest we forget, Vico was one of the first to argue that myths could be a legitimate historical artifact: an idea that has grown especially fashionable of late (Robert Darnton (of the Great Cat Massacre fame) springs to mind as a fairly well-known example). He also has an interesting-looking bit on Homer in the third bird (Discoverta del vero Omero) but I haven't reached that point yet. More to come surely.*

Toodle pip!

*And of course if some of this sounds familiar, Joyce definitelyprobably used it as a framework for Finnegans Wake. I'll address that at some length eventually. Probablydefinitely.