Guy Wiener

A short break from my UML ranting to survey random content from my home directory:

• Sci-Fi and fantasy material, some of it for this site that I co-admin.
• Weird code. My favorite is a small-but-growing library of Python code that implements GoF design patterns as meta-classes.
• Over 100 non-pop music albums, most of them from independent Irish labels.

As an old fandom saying goes, “geeks of a feather flock together”.

I am mentioning all of this because in a recent survey that I ran, when asked “What is your favorite color?”, most students answered “I am too young to know Monty Python jokes by heart”. Alas, the shame!

I’ve been stuggling for some time to learn Chinese. It is difficult, because Chinese is a tonal language, and like most foreigners, I’m a bit tone-deaf. This is why finding out this similarity made me laugh:

老板 = lǎobǎn = Boss, landlord, shop owner

老伴 = lǎobàn = “Better half”, spouse, husband/wife

The phonetic difference is merely between third and forth tone on the second syllable. The difference in real life can be much more. Or is it?