Knossos, Crete This time last week I was in Rethymnon, Crete, to give a talk about nominative case in Irish English and Late Middle English to an expert workshop audience . Concerning the talk itself, it was an instance (pun avoided) of "least said, soonest mended" – an unfashionable, and probably unhelpful proverb. Yet, in addition to discovering how outdated my theoretical knowledge had become, I did learn many useful things. Ironically, all of these lessons are even older than my education, and have greater relevance than ever. The trip began and ended with in-flight movies. '...for we will shake him …or worse days endure.' Shakespeare, Julius Caesar The Oryx entertainment system on the Qatar Airways flight from Haneda to Doha offered about 100 movies, almost none of which were watchable unless bad rom-coms or Marvel comics are your thing. The one remarkable outlier, in the Classic Movies section, was the 1953 Brando/Mason/Gielgud MGM production of...
Random and considered thoughts