The normal Irish word for ‘two’ is Dó, cognate with French ‘deux‘, German ’zwei’, English ’two’, Swedish ’två’, Danish ‘to’, Spanish ‘dos’, etc. We could go on for a long time, through most Indo-European languages and arguably a few others. ‘Two’ is pretty stable.

Irish Gaelic, however, has some oddities. I may not actually *speak* it, but you pick up a few things in 30 years of news bulletins *as gaeilge*.

One oddity is the eleven distinct L-sounds, possibly a world record, including ‘Light L’, ‘Dark L’, and ‘Bloody L’. And don't even mention lenition.

Another is the VSO (verb-subject-object) word order, which is relatively unusual. Irish sentences begin with the verb, following it with the subject and object, the shaker and the shook. Most languages put the verb in the middle like English (‘John verbs Mary’) or at the end, like Deutsch (‘Ich habe mein Springer verloren’).

Thirdly, Irish has the remnants of a different number system for counting people. This phenomenon is actually found in languages from all over the world, some with highly elaborate parallel number systems. Its origins, presumably, lie in some ancient time before the development of mathematics but long after the evolution of a number sense. Why should three people have anything to do with three stones? In many Native American languages, a basic set of grammatical distinctions is between the animate and the inanimate. One theory suggests that this feature is actually universal, and traces of it remain even in English (certain verbs ‘sound right’ with living or nonliving subjects) … hidden, but unquestionably there.

In Irish, however, the separate counting system only reaches three, and the person/nonperson words for ‘3’ - triúr and trí, are similar. The main difference is in the words for ‘two’: dó, (when counting, dhá or dá (with a nonperson), and *beirt*’ (for two people).)

Beirt was the problem.

This might amuse you -- I dug out the book that Ken Bruen mailed to me after our meeting/interview. It wasn't even one of his own, which is typical of his generosity and eccentricity. He also has an incredible life story, which included several months in a South American prison on trumped-up charges. He has suffered, and he is a kind man who writes brilliantly and helps out other people quietly. I admire him hugely.

Not one Korean person in the world has ever heard of the TV show or the movie.

I asked everyone in Korea about it and in three years not one has ever seen or heard of it.

Which is just as well- since the TV show is the most unadulterated tripe ever to hit the screen-

Alan Alda, with his smug earnestness that just makes you want to hit him over the head with a chair:

"If only someone could come up with a cure for the common war..."

by Andrew Sweeny

"In the august sky
In the rolling thunder
I went off to die
In the mountains alone

Now I sing to the pines
In the high north country
I feel a chill in my marrow bones

In another life I was a farmer
My people were starving
With black poison tongues
In another life oh we were married
My blood was the earth
And the sky was our home..."

sigh

That is a nine year old <Bob Dylan> "official Sony video".

The confusing thing about <youtube> is that they really do sign copyright deals with the major labels to earn the right to broadcast the material.

And these deals can be different for different countries.

Obviously Sony has made a deal with Korea youtube to allow the Dylan video-

But not in America.

????

There was a big stink recently because the British divisions of the big labels were holding out for more money from <youtube> so for a while there about six months ago, almost EVERY SINGLE MUSIC VIDEO on youtube was blocked in Britain.

Sigh.

WarnerMusicGroup vids are the most troublesome because youtube has NO deal with them- the old one lapsed, and WMG wanted a lot more money- talks broke down, but have since resumed, but with no deal yet.

I noticed a bunch of King Crimson vids were taken down recently- they are under WMG copyright.

As is Genesis, sadly enough.

I also think that the individual artist management has a lot to do with what videos are banned-

For example, no <Pink Floyd> video has been barred or taken down to my knowledge- right now, every one of their studio records is posted on the internet.

I think this has to do with <Roger Waters> not giving a crap.

I do know for a fact that <Tony Banks>, who was always the most business organized of Genesis, is strongly demanding that Genesis material under WMG copyright not be posted on youtube.

I don't blame him personally- Genesis didn't make ANY MONEY AT ALL until Pete left and Phil started making hit pop singles.

All through the early 70s Genesis toured almost non-stop to make money, because record sales was not enough.

And even then, in 1983 Pete went bankrupt.

Luckily, his mid 80s smash pop hits like "sledgehammer" on MTV made him rich for the first time in his life, and he rose to the top five live concert moneymakers in the world during the late 80s- along with Bruce Springsteen, U2, Paul Simon.

I know that Pete's constant touring put a gigantic strain on his marriage and family.

Luckily, I've stolen all of his music and have it on my hard drive now.

Also, disreputable sites like <metacafe> will allow any post, no matter what the copyright.

That's why I had to put my two Genesis videos there.

<Dangerous Moves> was the English name for a Swiss film made in 1984, loosely based on Korchnoi and Karpov. The critics weren't impressed - http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/rev... - but I liked it, and it won the Oscar for best foreign film.

Whatever its name, the Lambert movie was crap, and I didn't like <Christophe Lamb Bear> one bit. Smug bustard. Smug bilingual bustard with no interest in chess.

Game Collection: OVERLOADED! OVERLOADED! OVERLOADED! OVERLOADED!

Kan vs Korchnoi, 1951 96 ... c2-c1=Q! White c8-rook cannot protect c1-promo,f8-mate squares

Gelfand vs Nakamura, 2010 28 ... Qd8-d3! White f1-bishop cannot protect *both* g2-mating,d3-sq

K Haznedaroglu vs Nakamura, 2010 29 - Rb7xb2! White f2-rook cannot protect *both* b2-,f3-squares

24 d6xc7

click for larger view

White has just played 24 d6xc7, threatening the Black d8-queen. What did Nakamura playing Black do about this threat?

He made an <EQUAL OR STRONGER THREAT (EST)> of <MATE> to the White h1-king with 24 ... ♘g2x♖e1!.

24 ... ♘g2x♖e1! Δ 25 ... g3-g2#

click for larger view

I just love <EST>s like this: you threaten my queen, I ignore it and threaten to mate your king! *THAT* is how you play aggressive chess.