English humour

It takes a little intelligence to have and enjoy sense of humour; you need to grasp and look ahead of the present situation, and then skillfully betray the expected outcome. I am especially fan of the sarcasm and the cynical sense of humour of the English people.

Many years ago when I was travelling round England, I visited the great hall of Christ Church College in Oxford. It was in the days when "Harry Potter" was not even born and had not invaded the old town. It was famous for the beautiful old college buildings and "Alice in Wonderland".

I think I was the only visitor in the hall (yes, Harry was not born yet), and the guide of the hall started a little chat with me explaining the details of the room - the windows, the paintings, the high table, the long table of the students, and in those days, the long bench type seats (this picture was taken in 2011). The guide seemed very gentle, nice old man, very proud of and faithful to his job.

The guide told me about a group of high school students from the U.S.A. who came to study and stay on campus one summer. His soft gentle face turned a little sour.

"Those American children, they are really loud and noisy, and when they come here for their meals, they can't make up their mind to eat or to talk. They shout over the table to their friends seats away and burst our laughing, and you know, because these benches don't have the backrests, when they laugh their heads off the whole lot on the same bench fall over. "

I imagined about 4 high school boys flipping off their bench and landing on the floor. It must be really painful on the head landing on the hard floor.

"And they make a great mess on the floor, those ruddy boys. It chips off the corners of the bench, makes scratches on the floor, food scattered and the plates broken."

The guide was not concerned if the boys were hurt or not, he was concerned about the damage caused to the great hall and its furnishings.

And after saying that, he chuckled.
He was very very faithful to his job.

konmaring Life-Changing Magic of Tidying up

Japanese people make a great fuss about the big cleaning up at the end of the year. Not just cleaning up but people would go through their wardrobes, cupboards and bookshelves and dump things that they would not use anymore.

For some people, carrying out the cleaning in efficient steps and making decision on what to dispose or keep are rather difficult, so in Japan, there are many how-to books on cleaning up and decluttering.

Marie Kondo wrote a how-to book on decluttering and organizing, and it has become a big hit not just in Japan but overseas too. The style of her cleaning is named "Konmari method". Konmari is her name Kondo Marie shortened.

There even is a verb generated from this "Konmari", "konmaring". On twitter, there is a hashtag "#konmaring", "#konmari", and some with pictures are showing how they are trying to organize things at home they have accumulated over many years. There even was a post talking of "konmaring" their life or their twitter account. So the verb does not just refer to cleaning up the house.

Hashtags clearly show how big a hit her method is.

How come her method became such a hit?
The secret is in the title and the magic spell which is constantly repeated in the book.

"The life-changing magic of tidying up. The Japanese art of decluttering and organizing"

It is not just your ordinary how-to book, the book tells you that tidying up is MAGIC! It is a book of magic. And it is a magic that can change your life! Cleaning the house is not a job that most people enjoy or do it for hobby, but if it is a magic that can change your life, now, that is exciting!

The title also tells you this method is a Japanese art. To a non-Japanese reader, it would give the impression of Zen or oriental philosophy. The cleaning is purification. The slight guilt that comes from being manipulated in commercialism and materialism can be written off with this magic method.

However, this Japanese art does not tell you to throw away everything and live in modesty. Repeatedly, the book chants the magic spell,

"Does it spark joy?"

The book tells you to keep the things that sparks joy to you, and throw away the things that does not. Presents from your ex-boyfriend, jumpers and scarfs that you got on Christmas or birthday that are not quite your taste, skirt that you want to wear when you succeed in working out at the gym...etc. They do not spark joy so you should throw them away. You only keep the things that make you happy. Cast off the shackles, freedom from material means freedom of your mind.

It does seem like magic.

Yes, her book is magic - contracting her name and making it the verb to refer to the method, the selection of the words in the title, casting magic spell repeatedly in the book.

Split Infinitives 03 George Bernard Shaw's opinion

Our formidable George Bernard Shaw, the writer who admired and respected Henry Sweet, showed a great disdain in the ungrammatical usage of the language. Here is a letter from Shaw to the Chronicle sarcastically, with contempt and hatred, claiming to replace the columnist of the paper. The main reason, because he uses split infinitive.

If you do not immediately suppress the person who takes it upon himself to lay down the law almost every day in your columns on the subject of literary composition, I will give up the Chronicle. The man is a pedant, an ignoramus, an idiot and a self-advertising duffer... Your fatuous specialist... is now beginning to rebuke 'second-rate' newspapers for using such phrases as 'to suddenly go' and 'to boldly go'. I ask you, Sir, to put this man out... without interfering with his perfect freedom of choice between 'to suddenly go', 'to go suddenly' and 'suddenly to go'... Set him adrift and try an intelligent Newfoundland dog in his place. (Letter to the Chronicle, 1892)

Split infinitive is solecism enough to utterly infuriate a writer and to bitterly destroy a man's career.