Garden of Thought

So, my daughter introduced me to "Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir" which she discovered while learning some French - hee hee! Yes, the episodes are predictable and have about as much content as a bag of potato chips but I'm finding I'm quite enjoying the characters. Ended up watching the entire first season on Netflix over the course of a week, quite pleased to see the second season is supposed to be out this summer. Also, I realize now I'd seen their 'miraculous' sidekicks as keychains at some point but didn't know what they were then.

You do have to allow that in this universe the "Superman Effect" is functioning, i.e. that Clark Kent's glasses have the ability to somehow keep everyone from knowing he is Superman. The two leads work as a superhero team without knowing each other's identities but are also classmates at school - she has a crush on him as her classmate and he has a crush on her as Ladybug but they never figure out they are the same people because....well... because a mask changes everything? The only explanation given is "magic" - works for me.

I get the distinct impression that the illustrators just really like to draw Paris. Also, it's way better in French with subtitles than with the dubs. Want some light superhero fun? I recommend!

So, yesterday I was wandering around and something went by that referred to a "decapitated arm."  Ever since then the hamster of the wordly part of my mind has been chewing on it.

A decapitated arm?

Let's see. Body minus head = decapitated body.  Arm minus body = disembodied arm. 

Arm minus head?  Um, what would aliens who have heads coming off of their arms call that?  If Zaphod Beeblebrox, for instance, went a step further in his cosmetic improvements and added an extra mini-head to his arm and then some governmental authority pronounced upon him the sentence of decapitation and he used that one for the one to be whacked off and then had to describe the condition of his arm later when a passerby innocently inquired why he had it bandaged up in a sling...?

Body minus bowels = disemboweled. Bowels minus body = ...er, detached?  With bowels in place, I suppose a body could be described as being 'emboweled,' not that I've had occasion to note to a reader whether or not a character has that feature currently functioning in their body.

I can't say I can quite see using 'disembodied' for bowels.  (*cue creepy sound effect* Madame Fluffhat shrieked in terror upon beholding the ghostly glowing disembodied bowels floating above the table.)  Do bowels count as one (collective) body part the way an arm includes fingers or would it only work with specific portions (i.e. a disembodied liver)?

Tongue minus head = disembodied also?  Is there a word for a head minus a tongue aside from "mute"?  Would it be delinguated?  I think we have to fall back on the inelegant but succinct "tongueless" there, similar to the way we would note a piece usually there is missing (The alien slapped down a wide, toeless foot), but it lacks the connotation that the missing piece was forcibly removed.

Which takes me back to the arm. What would you use to describe a disembodied arm that also has the connotation that it was disembodied by force, rather than just floating about as a glowing blue ghostly arm?  Decapitated does have that sense, but what fits other parts when they are off on involuntary field trips of their own?

There are times when the English language fails me.

Early this morning the sky was a light overcast drizzle and as we came up over the mountain to head towards the kids school a golden sunlight washed across the grey sky and there, smack in front of us as we came over the rise was the hugest, brightest, most gob-smacking rainbow we'd ever seen. This was not a rainbow, it was a RAINBOW in tall, blinking, neon letters - framed by wet, golden fields and dark evergreens. There was a collective gasp and I actually pulled the car over to the shoulder just to gape.

What language can capture such overwhelming out-of-this-world beauty? I wondered if some African tribe somewhere that uses onomatopoetic sounds might help, but then figured if they *did* use onomatopoeia, it would probably be something like "GUH..oooooo!" which would hardly be an improvement.

Unless the Elves pulled it off, there are some things that are just too amazing and beautiful to be captured with words.

Dang. Really struggling here with Greek.

My kids new school is a marvelous thing, and we have really enjoyed doing this half-home-school routine, but the one thorn in the proverbial side is they have to have Greek. I understand the idea, that the kids would eventually be able to read the New Testament in the language in which it was originally written, a very noble cause - but shoot, it's in another *alphabet* for pity's sake... My kids now have Greek homework and I am completely helpless, I can't even understand what I am looking at much less what to do with it if they need aid. They are having a really difficult time with it too, the only point of real stress we've had raise its ugly head.

Grrr.

I miss Latin! At least it used the same alphabet and I could puzzle things out and help them.

Sigh...just venting.... mutter.