English is Weird!

By Madeleine Kando

The English language went through a fairly uneventful childhood. It was born a Celtic language, which is still spoken in Wales, Scotland and Ireland. But after the numerous invasions of the island, English could barely keep up with the deluge of foreign influences.

First came the Romans. They left scraps of Latin on the English plate, before they departed for good.

The Celtic language of the clan (clann) who lived in bogs (bogash), ate crumpets galore (ge leor) and smashed (mescaen) chairs (chaiere) to smithereens (smidrini) after they drank tons of whiskey, easily incorporated words like triumph, ovation, consul, dictator and circus.

But soon, the Anglo-Saxons came. Because the land of the Anglo Saxons often got flooded, they started to look for new places to farm and grow crops. Britain seemed like a nice dry place.

They brought their own language and the Celtic language started to cave in under the sheer abundance of new words. Celtic was pushed into the remote corners of this beautiful island and Old English took over. It was very different from modern English though. If you met the (anonymous) author of the poem ‘Beowulf’, you wouldn’t understand what he was reciting.

But that was not the end of it. After the Anglo-Saxons, came the Vikings and left more scraps behind. These Vikings were an angry and awesome band that often went berserk. They were chubby and knew how to crochet. But they were also ugly, ran amuck, drew skulls and knives, liked to die but loved cake! These words represent the character of a fighting, raiding culture.*

To top it all off, came the Norman invasion. They quickly overran England with their armies and their French language. English was force-fed French words, like stuffing a goose. Written English practically disappeared and spoken English was in danger of becoming extinct.

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Are Liberals Funnier than Conservatives?

By Madeleine Kando

'Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs;

he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter."

  - Friedrich Nietzsche

Greek philosopher Democritus, known as the “laughing philosopher” had a tendency to laugh at the stupidity of his fellow citizens. He felt it was better to laugh at the world than become depressed by it.   

But laughter predates the Greeks. One of the best scenes in the movie ‘Quest for Fire’, is man’s discovery of laughter. When a primitive tribesman is hit on the head by a small falling stone, a woman from an advanced tribe starts to laugh. The less advanced tribesmen haven't heard such a noise before, but when one of the tribesmen deliberately drops a small stone on his friend’s head, everybody laughs. The woman taught the tribesmen how to laugh.

So if humor is universal, why doesn’t everybody have an equal sense of humor? Or is humor like beauty? Is it in the eyes of the beholder?

This is what author Dannagal Goldthwaite Young argues in her book ‘Irony and Outrage: The Polarized Landscape of Rage, Fear, and Laughter in the United States’. She explains why progressives watch late night comedy shows like Steven Colbert and John Stewart and why conservatives prefer Fox News’ prime-time political talk shows such as Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly.

According to Young, an individual’s affinity for a particular genre of humor is determined by a set of psychological traits. She defines these traits as:

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