santa_replacements epitome of incomprehensibility Idea: have my cousin L.'s present come from Gnome Chomsky; draw a card with syntax trees. My brother is getting stuff from the wizard Merlin, as usual. 211207 ... epitome of incomprehensibility For family "Christmas" tomorrow, Dad's also getting a present from Gnome Chomsky, Gandalf willing. It all started when the Presbyterian Ayatollah expressed a desire for a German-English dictionary with more words than our little Kompactwörterbuch, because he needs to understand German grammarians' arguments about ancient Hebrew verbs. And he specified that he wanted a used one, because thriftiness. For a while I searched in vain. The Word bookstore in Montreal had no German dictionaries when I was there (but I got myself a book about Hypatia_of_Alexandria). The U of T bookstore in Toronto had a new, expensive type, but it didn't look like the kind to have detailed grammar terms. Then David and I stopped at the BMV the day before Christmas. He spotted it first: a used heavy-duty Collins dictionary, great condition, for only $7.99. Das perfekte Weihnachtsgeschenk für Papa. 211226 ... tender_square uh, blather synchronicity. either I stole the concept of gnome chomsky from you, kirsten, or I had the same idea. my girlfriend has an advent calendar with a gnome figure that contains unique props for each day and we spent time last week dressing him up in various outfits and photographing him in different scenes, it was awesome. she was like, “you were the friend who I knew would get a kick out of doing this with me.” i’m totally texting you the pics. (also, i love the idea of gifting dictionaries. have you heard of the book "word by word: the secret life of dictionaries" by kory stamper?) 211226 ... e_o_i No, but I looked it up and it sounds really interesting, thanks!! 211226 ... e_o_i Oh, and I'm pretty sure you had the "Gnome Chomsky" idea independently, especially if you've been thinking about gnomes! (The silent "g" makes them more elegant, says e_o_i Anne-of-Green-Gables-ishly.) 211231 what's it to you? who go blather from