Language, Politics, and Tartar Sauce

I have read some of the same stuff as you have about language, I think it was decades ago in Reader's Digest. Another thing I remember from that article is that almost every language in the world has the same word for "mama". The author figured that was because it's one of the first sounds that babies typically make, probably in the presence of their mother, who reinforces it with a smile because she thinks the kid actually understands what he is saying. Truth be known, the kid is just trying sounds at random, and this one gets a positive reaction, so he puts it in his repertoire. Another time, from a different source, I heard that English has more words in it than any other language. This should not be surprising, since most of the words in the English language were originally borrowed from some other language. This might be why English has become so popular as an international language, you can say more things with it.

If the Chinese guy you met in the park was any younger than we are, it's not surprising that he likes his government, since it's the only one he has ever known. Also depending on his age, he might not remember all the upheaval that accompanied the evolution of Chinese socialism into what it has become today. The Red Guards operated in the 70s, and I think that Tiannamin Square incident happened in the 80s so, if this guy was any younger than 30, he might not remember either one of them. I don't think they've had any serious uprisings since then. One reason may be that they finally killed off everybody who disagreed with them. Another reason is that their economic conditions have vastly improved in the last few decades, thanks to Uncle Sucker.

We have boots on the ground in Iraq? I just heard on the news tonight that they were conducting air strikes and weren't planning on going any farther than that. Man, if you can't believe what you see on television anymore, what the hell can you believe?

I understand that the U.K. has a vote coming up to withdraw from the European Union. This came from a fairly reliable source, an internet blog by a real Englishman, so it must be true. Also, Scotland has a vote coming up to secede from the U.K. They have been talking about it for years, and now it looks like they're really going to do it. I mean that they're really going to vote on it, not necessarily that it will pass. Last I heard, the Scots were divided on the issue.

The French invented Tartar Sauce? So then maybe the "Tartar" spelling is what the French call them. No, that can't be right because the raw hamburger dish is called "Steak Tartare", and I'm pretty sure that's French. I'll have to look that up one of these days, now that you've gotten me all curious about those Tartars. Now that I think of it, the Tartars I saw at the opera house a few years ago didn't look at all Oriental, so maybe they didn't come from Mongolia after all. I'll have to look that up as well.