No Comment, Quotation — December 24, 2008, 8:41 am
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Pender de un leño, traspasado el pecho,
y de espinas clavadas ambas sienes,
dar tus mortales penas en rehenes
de nuestra gloria, bien fue heroico hecho;
pero más fue nacer en tanto estrecho,
donde, para mostrar en nuestros bienes
a donde bajas y de donde vienes,
no quiere un portalillo tener techo.
No fue ésta más hazaña, oh gran Dios mío,
del tiempo por haber la helada ofensa
vencido en flaca edad con pecho fuerte
(que más fue sudar sangre que haber frío),
sino porque hay distancia más inmensa
de Dios a hombre, que de hombre a muerte.
Read an English translation here
–Luis de Góngora, Al nacimiento de Cristo, nuestro Señor (ca. 1617)
Listen to the traditional Castellian Villancico “Riu riu chiu,” traditionally sung on Christmas Eve, in a setting by Mateo Flecha el Viejo from about 1550, performed here by Kalenda Maya, a Norwegian group specializing in music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
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Years of consideration preceding the inclusion of the word “phat” in Random House’s 1996 Compact Unabridged Dictionary:
Scientists created crash helmets that stink when cracked and fruit flies to whom blue light smells delicious.
In Belize, a construction company bulldozed a 2,300-year-old Mayan temple to make road fill.
“This is the heart of the magic factory, the place where medicine is infused with the miracles of science, and I’ve come to see how it’s done.”
