I was recording a flock of 白喉笑鶇 (白喉噪眉)　White-throated laughing thrush (Garrulax albogularis) that was passing by. As I tried to record them, the dogs started singing.




I have other clips of the dogs singing on YouTube click here::

Tnaq tasiq loziq na itan

我念大學時，大約民國六十三、四年，有一次從盧山出山準備回紅塵，遇上一群上山的泰雅，好像剛從埔里採購回山。他們看到我，每一個都笑。後面一位文面老太太，看到我也笑：她的眼睛顏色跟我很像，是綠色的，大家都笑說，「你看，她的眼睛跟你一樣！」Balay!

我一直沒弄懂，是yagi白內障，或者眼色本來這樣？她不會說國語，而且大家都笑的很開心，來不及問，大家揮揮手，各走各的。

One time when I was in college, in the early 70s, I was coming out of the high mountains in central Taiwan and met a group of Tayal coming back from shopping in town. Every one laughed when they saw me; something was going on. Towards the rear of the group was an old lady with traditional face tattoes ~ and very untraditional green eyes. We all laughed and they said, "See, her eyes are the same as yours!" Balay!

I never figured out if she had cataracts or her eyes were naturally green. She couldn't speak Mandarin, and I couldn't speak Tayal then, and anyway everybody was laughing too hard. Before I could figure it out, everybody waved and we went our separate ways.

Not necessarily.

Columbia guy: So my friend has this idea for our project to put generators on playground equipment that could let kids power the lights in the park. I told him my only problem with it is: what if we end up electrocuting the kids accidentally? That would be really bad.

--1 Train Overheard by: Nathan

夫子說：辭，達而已矣。寫作要素，盡在其中。

文筆要好，不外乎：一、名正言順。二、無贅字。

名正言順，必須掌握字、詞正確意義：上溯古人用法，一脈相傳、演變、涵義等等，下字才得體。如果我們對一個字、詞、片語沒有共同認識的話，語言功能就廢了。例如，我剛提出「古人」，我假定讀者看到斯詞想到古代的人，而不是長的很高的人、樹上的小鳥、或者餐桌上的白色小湯匙。當然，我有我的自由：我高興的話，我說「古人」指「電腦螢幕」，但這麼一搞，語言、溝通就解體了。

無贅字，文筆精要，多一字不可，少一字不可。要作到這一點，真是功夫。

一個很奇怪的現象：同一行，甚至同一嗜好的人，往往有共同點，而斯共同點，超越時空、國籍。大凡，律師文筆不好。臺灣律師文筆之差，早已證明。例如，英文的intellectual property rights，在臺灣居然將intellectual翻成「智慧」，多荒謬！智慧，是經過多少事、多少反省而修出的結晶，絕不同于人家發明新機器、寫書、作曲的智力或知識。Gilbert Hyatt發明microprocessor，非常聰明，但與「智慧」扯不上邊。

所以，大陸翻「知識產權」，合理多了。真希望臺灣依樣可以改正。…. 不太可能吧。嗌。

了解嗎？好，我出個題目：decriminalize翻「除罪化」，問題出在哪？

這就犯了第二條。英文字的詞性很清楚，中文則未必。為了顯示這是動詞，所以英文加字尾~ize；嚴格說，這種文筆本來就不漂亮，很多~ize字尾的字，極為笨拙，如finalize, pressurize, privatize, colorize, prioritize，都是極不優美的英文，少用為妙。但無論如何，英文確須詞性。若說詞性，「除」已表明動詞，所以「除罪化」的「化」，是多餘的。

設問：「除罪」與「除罪化」有甚麼不同？沒有的話，就選比較精簡的「除罪」。

當然，這牽涉到前提：文章要優雅呢？或者讀起來艱澀難懂、以作者強勝的學術來懾服讀者？

In the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, you may purchase an assault rifle, but you are not permitted to hang your laundry out to dry. The main logic behind that is that civilized neighbors should have enough money to buy a dryer, and anybody who wants to dry laundry in the sun, for an environmentally friendly, fresh smelling wash, must be trailer trash, so rules, regulations, and ordinances abound to prohibit such uncouth behavior. here:::

Don't ask me to explain it, it doesn't make any sense to me, either.

But it does bring to mind that golden moldie,
We had joy, we had fun, we had laundry in the sun~

This blog is a veritable lode of useful information. I bet you have always been wondering:::
how long would the Golden Gate Bridge be if you measured it in Oreo cookies?

I know you've been sitting up late into the night wondering about this, allow me to inform you that the Golden Gate bridge is 28,800 Oreo cookies long. This is calculated on an average cookie size of 44mm diameter, and 8mm thick.

Thank dog that's answered! Now you may thank me for allowing you a good night's sleep, at last. Maybe you can dream about having 28,800 Oreos to eat. Burp.

overheard on the subway: What are friends for?
高中男生對同學說，「他跟你一樣，長的很好笑。」

High school boy to buddy: "He's just like you, he looks ridiculous."

Concerning polyphony (music with more than one musical part playing at a time), Daniel J Levitin says, "The Catholic Church banned music that contained polyphony, fearing it would cause people to doubt the unity of God."

Sounds superstitious? But then, consider that in our music now we have polyphony, quadrophony, harmony, and cacophony, people doubt not only the unity of god, but the existence of god.

So maybe they had a point. But I'll stick with polyphony, thanks a lot.

Profound gratitude to Dicki and Val from the Boston Children's Foundation who came to Taiwan to hold a workshop on Dance Movement Therapy / 舞蹈治療, in particular treating the trauma of little children who survived the floods and landslides of Morakot typhoon. The Foundation paid for their travel expenses and they held the workshop gratis, training thirty therapists in the Rainbowdance, who will soon begin working to help those children.

兩個外籍舞蹈治療師自費來臺灣訓練一批治療師，幫八八水災的創傷兒童的心理建設，在下很感動。

但我又不得不搖頭：如此治療師不遠萬里而來之事，喊「愛台灣」的人不聞不問；外國人勸陳前總統收斂一點，以免引起戰爭害死臺灣，右派聲音就大：「外國人不可以過問台灣的事！」

今天射箭時，一箭偏高，打到靶上緣，往上跳，飛到靶後谷壑。箭沒找到，卻找到了一顆完整的龜甲。卜：大吉。

While I was shooting today, one arrow skipped on the top of the target and flew off into the ravine. I haven't found the arrow yet, but I did find a complete turtle shell and carapace. A good sign.

從前部落一位長老，Oro，問我，「Yugan，現在月亮是不是沒有以前那麼亮？」

「你說多久以前，Oro?幾百萬年前，有可能。」

「沒有，我感覺到，現在月亮沒有我年輕時候那麼亮。我年輕時，夜間從部落走到工寮，只要有月亮，走山路、過森林，我就看得很清楚，可是現在不行。是不是月亮比較不亮？」

「嗷，Oro，大概是上了年紀吧。我們看書、看近的東西，要戴老花眼鏡，就是因為到了一個年紀，眼珠子比較不能吸收光。」

「也不是，Yugan，我現在眼睛還是很好。應該是月亮比較不亮。」

「才幾十年，月光沒那麼快就變化。我覺得，現在天天晚上開電燈，可能是現在眼睛比較習慣電燈，所以沒有電燈就看不清楚。」

「嗷，實在，有道理！我年輕的時候，沒有電，手電筒長甚麼樣子沒看過。現在到處都有電燈，難怪晚上看不清楚。」

A couple of years ago, a tribal elder named Oro asked me, "Yugan, is the moon less bright than it was before?"

"How long ago do you mean, Oro? A couple million years ago, maybe."

"No, I feel that the moon is not as bright as it was when I was young. When I was young, I could walk from the Tribe to my hut at nighttime with only the moonlight, on mountain paths, through the jungle, and I could see fine, but I can't do that now. Maybe the moon isn't as bright as it was before."

"Ao, Oro, it may be age. When we read or look at things close up, we need reading glasses, because when you get older, your eyes don't absorb light as well as before."

"No, Yugan, my eyes are fine. I think the moon isn't as bright as it was before."

"That's only been a couple decades, the moonlight wouldn't change that quickly. I feel, now every night we have electric lights, maybe our eyes now are used to electric lights, so we can't see clearly without electric lights."

"Ao, balay, that makes sense! When I was young, we didn't have electricity, and I had never even seen a flashlight. Now there are electric lights everywhere. No wonder we can't see clearly at night."

泰雅司機遇到狗躺在馬路中間：「牠沒受過教育，所以必須讓牠。」

Tayal driver, commenting on a dog lying in the middle of the road: "He's never been to school, so you have to yield to him."