Sunday, February 01, 2004
Xin nian kuai le! (Happy New Year!)
This year I sent out Year of the Monkey cards, co-opting a page from a 1934 reference book meant to teach Chinese people the American slang of the day.
One of the book's entries is "Monkey with a buzz saw," described thus: "To take a dangerous chance." Right next to the English definition are 2 tiny old-style Chinese characters, and they seem to indicate how easy it would be to express such a thing in Mandarin. It fits into the overall sense of irony I get from many things Chinese: The complex is simple, the simple turns out to be, well, mind numbing.
The expression's apt for me because I'm closing in a month on the property next door. There's 2 empty lots in back, and I mean to build there. In researching at county deeds and records, I saw the lots were bought by Mabel and Galusha Bailey, back in the 1940s, and that seems to fit the character of the lots themselves as well as the houses I have in mind.
So far I've been calling the house meant for the undersize lot, what I hope will be a tiny well-designed jewel, Mabel. Galusha, of course, will go in the bigger, oversize lot.
I can hear the monkey and her buzz saw now.
This year I sent out Year of the Monkey cards, co-opting a page from a 1934 reference book meant to teach Chinese people the American slang of the day.
One of the book's entries is "Monkey with a buzz saw," described thus: "To take a dangerous chance." Right next to the English definition are 2 tiny old-style Chinese characters, and they seem to indicate how easy it would be to express such a thing in Mandarin. It fits into the overall sense of irony I get from many things Chinese: The complex is simple, the simple turns out to be, well, mind numbing.
The expression's apt for me because I'm closing in a month on the property next door. There's 2 empty lots in back, and I mean to build there. In researching at county deeds and records, I saw the lots were bought by Mabel and Galusha Bailey, back in the 1940s, and that seems to fit the character of the lots themselves as well as the houses I have in mind.
So far I've been calling the house meant for the undersize lot, what I hope will be a tiny well-designed jewel, Mabel. Galusha, of course, will go in the bigger, oversize lot.
I can hear the monkey and her buzz saw now.
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