Lavengro

Why Christmas

The other day I went to a carol concert here in Barcelona. It finished with White Christmas – or it should have, but this is what we got:

I'm dreaming of a why Christmas
With every Christmas card I wry
May your days be merry and brigh
And may all your Christmases be why.

It’s the final-consonant problem of course. Native English choirs pride themselves on all hitting the sound at the same instant. However, Catalan does have words that end with t, unlike Spanish, which has no words ending with the airway obstructed or the mouth closed.

Or so I thought till I went to YouTube and found that Bing Crosby misses the t’s too.

So what? Happy Christmas to those who celebrate it, and enjoy yourselves anyway to those who don’t.

I have been otherwise occupied in the last few months. I hope to resume normal service in the New Year.

Outstanding

Outstanding is an ambiguous word. Something that stands out is different from the rest. An outstanding result is an extraordinary one, and the word is specifically positive; on its own it implies excellence. But something that is a matter that still has to be dealt with or a debt that has not been paid is also said to be outstanding.

A similar word is overlook. A hotel room can overlook the sea or you can overlook (i.e. ignore) a mistake that someone has made. The basic meaning is the same but in one case by looking out the sea you can see it from above while on the other by figuratively looking over a mistake at something else you do not see what is below you.