Skip to main content

Alulong


“A border collie has learned more than 1,000 words (1,022 toys), showing US researchers that her memory is not only better than theirs, but that she understands quite a bit how language works.”
Agence France Presse, 8 January 2011

MAGLALARO lang siya, kahit mabigat na gawain o hanapbuhay, paglalaruan lang niya—para hindi mahirapan, para hindi magsawa, para laging masaya.

Gano’n ang kakaibang pananaw ng aking pamangkin para makaya ang anuman, ituturing na laruan at pawang palaruan bawat lunan… Homo ludens.

So his father guffaws, tells me I must have infected his son with such a laid-back-- what-me-worry?-- contagion… that, I must have picked up from a Steely Dan standard, “Boddhisattva”—uh, that’s an earth-dwelling deity who goes through everything, acquits himself even over matters of life and death in a jovial spirit of play…

Jovial is derived from a variant name of Jehovah, Jove… so I’ve been taken under the Jehovah’s witness protection program… Thus, the writer of Ecclesiasticus notes that, “the mark of a good heart is a cheerful expression.”

And ‘god’ spelled backwards is… well, ancient Egyptian canine deity Wepwawet rules over royalty, unification rites, and warfare— uh-duh, kaya pala kami pinagsusuot sa leeg ng dog tag… so call my comrades-in-arms, soldadogs…

Chaser, the border collie who made the news in 2010 is a bitch—perra—and it took three years for researchers to figure out that she had command over 1,022 nouns, each one a toy… plus a bevy of verbs which include “nose,” “get” and “paw.”

Take command over a new word each day— 10 years of elementary and high school plus four more years of tertiary education… after college you’ll likely have an army of 5,110, so my composition mentor Jose Sabangan told me.

Hey, the School of Wisdom website posits that it takes a grasp of at least 700 words to get along with others…about 3,000 to get a job; 10,000 to have a place in society… around 60,000 to be in the league of titans like William Shakespeare, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Rabindranath Tagore or Kung Fu-tze…

Vodka neat, no chaser… uh, researchers reckoned that Chaser has cut her canines on more than 1,000 words… maybe more than 3,000 since she’s gainfully employed…

"We can't say anything definitive about this, but there is agreement among breeders," researchers said, pointing to decades of breeding for herding that makes the dogs particularly attuned to learning words. "The hypothesis is that they do have a special propensity to language, they listen to the farmer."

So Chaser plays it by ear… her amassed lexicon is at the level beneath the mastery of will power which corresponds to basic grammar… a notch higher, as the School of Wisdom claims, is word power congruent to mastery of one’s body… mastery of one’s soul entails effective communication… highest in the pecking order is poetry which demands mastery over spirit… not those that come in kegs, decanters, and bottles, like vodka.

We may concur on curs’ lack of will power translates to unconditional love and canine devotion…

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ALAMAT NG TAHONG

SAKBIBI ng agam-agam sa kalagayan ng butihing kabiyak-- at kabiyakan, opo-- na nakaratay sa karamdaman, ang pumalaot na mangingisda ay napagawi sa paanan ng dambuhalang Waczim-- isang bathala na nagkakaloob sa sinuman anumang ibulwak ng bibig mula sa bukal ng dibdib. Pangangailangan sa salapi na pambili ng gamot ng kapilas-pusong maysakit ang nakasaklot sa puso ng matandang mangingisda. 'Di kaginsa-ginsa'y bumundol ang kanyang bangka sa paanan ng Waczim. Kagy at umigkas ang katagang kimkim noon sa kanyang dibdib: "Salapi!" Bumuhos ng salapi-- mga butil at gilit ng ginto-- mula papawirin. At halos umapaw sa ginto ang bangka ng nagulantang na mangingisda, walang pagsidlan ang galak, at walang humpay ang pasasalamat sa mga bathala. Nanumbalik ang kalusugan ng kabiyak ng mangingisda. At lumago ang kabuhayan, naging mariwasa ang magkapilas-puso na dating maralita. Nilasing ng kanyang mga dating kalapit-bahay ang mangingisda-- na hindi ikina...
Post a Comment
Read more

Cal y canto con camote

FENG shui (literally, wind water flow) lore has it root crops embody a hidden store of treasures. Say, a local food conglomerate needs yearly 35,000 metric tons of cassava for livestock feed-- the available local supply falls short of 13,000 tons. Cassava granules sell for around P9 a kilo. Demand for the same root crop to be used in liquor manufacturing is hitting above the roof. Why, raising cassava is a no-brainer task— this is one tough crop that can grow in the most hostile patches of earth, providing sustenance for ages to dwellers in sub-Saharan parts of Africa. While the hardy cassava is nearly pure starch, the lowly sweet potato or kamote is considered by nutritionists as a super food, the most nutritious of all vegetables— kamote levels of Vitamin A are “off the charts, rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties.” A fist-sized kamote can supply a day’s dose of glucose to fuel the brain, muscles, and organs, so they claim. Count the country lucky...
Post a Comment
Read more

Wealth garden

‘TWAS CRUEL as smashing a budding green thumb: some years back, an abuela warned me about letting any clump of katigbi (Job’s tears or Coix lachrymal jobi for you botanists) from growing in our homeyard. That grass with rapier-like leaves that smelled of freshly pounded pinipig supposedly invited bad luck and sorrows—why, that biblical character Job wailed and howled a lot, didn’t he? (But was later rewarded with oodles of goodies, wasn’t he?) Then, I came across some arcane text that practically goaded folks to grow katigbi in their gardens—why, there’s a starchy kernel wrapped shut in the seed’s shiny coat. A handful or more of kernels could be cooked as porridge. Too, one could whisper a wish upon seven seed pods, throw ‘em pods in running water—a river or stream—and the wish would be granted! I was warned, too, about planting kapok or talisay trees right in the homeyard—these trees form a cross-like branching pattern. Pasang-krus daw ang bahay na kalapit sa puno ng kapok, tal...
Post a Comment
Read more