Geography, American-style

On the train to work this week, there were three kindly-looking, middle-aged American men standing around blocking the carriage with their luggage, talking about the difference between longitude (east-west) and latitude (north-south).

As I was politely elbowing my way past them, this is what I heard:

"No, no, no. That's latitude. You know how I remember it? Ladder.
Ladder for LADIDYUDE."

Not only did I nearly wet myself with excitement at this little mnemonic that only works if you can do your most nasal American accent ever, I am now sorted for any future pub quizzes with a geography round. Thank you, tourism!

Losing a superpower

Giving blood is a nice way to indirectly (or directly) save somebody's life, especially for those of us not blessed with Superman's body, Wonder Woman's lasso or any dodgy nuclear facilities in the vicinity.

It turns out that the Medical Advisory Board says anyone on anti-TNF cannot give blood. The reasons are, I'm sure, valid. A fellow NASS member pointed out to me that anti-TNF suppresses an immune condition and so blood donation may cause a flare up, while immunosuppression can mask the body's normal response to some infectious and inflammatory conditions, so diseases that may be transmitted by donation could be missed by the Blood Services. I also know that the medication can affect specific white blood cell production, which might not be great for the donator or the receiver of the blood. 

I know all that, but I can't pretend that I'm not a little (okay, a lot) disappointed. Guess I'll have to go back to antagonising spiders again in the hope that a radioactive one happens to bite me and give me awesome musculature and a cool unitard. 

Everyone else: please do something amazing on my behalf!
http://www.blood.co.uk/

Bad Spanish Grammar

I spotted this on Pinterest the other day, while I was channelling my inner all-crafting, all-baking American housewife, and did a double take. I hate to be a partypooper*, but fashionistas, take note: "let's fiesta" is not a grammatically acceptable sentence in Spanish.Why not? Because fiestar is a non-existent verb. In English we can say: "I'm going to the party, because I like to party" where party is a noun in the first instance, and a verb in the second. In Spanish, la fiesta is a noun, and only a noun (so you have to say: let's *throw* a fiesta or *crash* a fiesta).

Of course, if we are speaking Spanglish, this might be alright, but I suspect not: even if you think a sentence like "sometimes I'll start a sentence in Spanish, and termino en español" is the work of the devil, it still obeys the rules of both languages.

Interestingly you can also say party in Spanish, but woe betide you if you try to make it into a verb. Partear, while it sounds hella fun, actually means to help deliver (a baby).





*Not strictly true. It was once suggested to me that I should call my fictional rock band Captain Buzzkill.