Train to Nowhere

Seen today in Newark, Ohio. Anyone know why this car is parked here?

Get Ready!

Took advantage of the unusually warm weather to pay a visit to the boat, currently on the hard. There was a fine breeze too. Took the outboard and batteries home for servicing. Looking forward to an early launch this year.

Euro-english -- and Latin

For those not familiar with my rants on the topic, when I say "Euro-english" I refer to a curious linguistic phenomenon that results  when a European whose first language is not English translates his thoughts into English. It can also come into being when a novice  English-speaker makes a too-literal translation (I can show you some embarrassing examples from my younger days). The result is something neither English nor Italian/French/Portugese/Spanish, but some kind of third reality, a linguistic shopwindow mannequin that appears human but cannot speak to us. Today's example is a treat: a Euro-english defense of the study of Latin. The author is trying to tell us that a thorough knowledge of Latin will give us a direct access to our cultural and spiritual past. And then he says this::

A signal of an intellectual heritage too vast, fruitful and rooted to let it be imagined any caesura of its roots.

Plenty of irony here. We are being told that we need more young folks studying Latin. I could not agree more. But how can we learn enough Latin to get inside the heads of Cicero and Aquinas if we don't know enough English and Italian to make a decent translation of a short essay by Celso Morga Iruzubieta?

I remember walking past gelato shops in Rome that advertised "PROPER PRODUCTION" which was their attempt at translating the Italian produzione propria = homemade. I can tolerate that sort of thing in the window of an ice cream shop, but I expect more from  L'Osservatore Romano.

You can read the whole essay by CMI  here

Have you ever

Seen an uglier light fixture? It looks like something seen in a petri dish in the path lab.

Another victim

The Clarmont restaurant closes after 65 years

I used to go to the Clarmont once in a while. After enjoying a great steak, one could purchase and enjoy a fine cigar right there inside the restaurant.

Then the government outlawed smoking in restaurants.

The Clarmont took a hit but soldiered on.

Then the government subsidized ethanol, and the price of beef went up. Last year the corn crop was poor, and the price of animal-based protein rose even more.

Something had to give. And it wasn't the government. It was the Clarmont.

Nuts.

Last Train Video of the Season

As Christmas is nearly over I wanted to put up one video of both trains running, before I dismantle the Christmas scene. I know that no one will be so overly curious as to ask why the freight train goes past the station while the passenger train does not. Be assured that there are very good technical reasons for this. Really.

It takes a village...

...to make a village. This village scene took shape last night only because I had help! Many thanks to the omnicompetent Joe Horner and his highly talented sister Lucy. Joe conceived and executed the snow effects and trees, assisted by Lucy, who assembled the snack bar to the right of the train station. The station was painted several years back by their father, Bruce Horner. I glued together and painted the bridge if that counts for anything.