Taking the Snow Seriously

~ Clarissa

Just so you understand how much we appreciate snow, now that we’ve finally had a serious snowfall, I took a day off work yesterday to take Klara out to play in the snow. N is taking a day off today for the same purpose.

I looked up the climate in Greenland, and it’s encouragingly chilly. Are there any places of higher education there just in case it does decide to join the union?

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Published by Clarissa

12 thoughts on “Taking the Snow Seriously”

        1. Remember some months ago I said something to the effect that the main reason so many MAGA are pro-Russian and anti-Ukrainian is not them being misinformed, or their fear of WWIII, or concerns about money. These are all valid reasons to some extent, but the main reason is that many MAGA literally identify with the Russians. Superpower to superpower, so to speak. That they want to mess with neighboring countries or at the very least they want others to feel threatened by the possibility of the US messing with them… And you protested.

          Still think I am off-base?

          And as far as the argument “it is just trolling” goes – in Russia in about 2005-2007 it was also just trolling… How “Can Putin abolish University of Lviv or something?” sounds now?

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          1. There is no analogy here and an attempt to draw one causes me great pain. We are not an illustration or a pretext to make a partisan point. What else needs to happen, what else do we need to lose to not be treated as an example at least to our own faces?

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        2. I’m assuming this is a joke. But what’s the joke? You don’t think materials should appear in the Greenlandic language? Why? Or maybe you don’t think Greenland should have a university? Again, why? I don’t get what’s irritating about either.

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          1. Of course, it’s a joke about the language being too hard.

            No, I don’t want the language actually to be abolished. We all know I’m into languages.

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            1. “it’s a joke about the language being too hard”

              It’s wonderfully intimidating looking…. Many years ago a colleague (Polish but had lived in Scandinavia a long time) had a bunch of materials which I xeroxed… but never had the time/opportunity to look more closely at.

              For a time I was moderately obsessed by Greenland (closest thing to an indigenous American country) after reading a bunch of Inuit ethnographies and related books…. but my thoughts about snow and ice are the… polar opposite (get it? get it?) of yours so that’s something that is very likely not going to happen…

              They also do popular music in Greenlandic…. angry rap seems to dominate now but here’s something a bit more chill…

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            2. Hmmm, sadly suspect that the Inuit language(s or at least dialects) is losing its fight with English and French and no doubt Danish. Ititukg konqigugt is my pathetic phonetic effort atf “kiss my arse” when we were too young, laughing too loudly, and drinking far too much green(skunky) beer in Resolute ;-D

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              1. “losing its fight with English and French and no doubt Danish”

                Not sure about the first two but Greenlandic seems pretty strong (all things considered). AFAICT children still learn it as a first language and there’s broadcasting in it (and printing).

                Neither French or English have anything special to offer in terms of identity (not so sure about Danish since it’s also a smaller language).

                Not everybody wants to be assimilated into the English Borg (even if it’s a useful foreign language).

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              2. Good to hear that it is still strong in Greenland but Canada and Alaska? The group in Resolute were transolanted by the Canadian government supposedly to show sovereignty. The young men at the bar truly hated the French for some reason which is why we got into the language discussion some 50 years ago.

                This reasonably historically accurate rmovie lifted by Farley Mowat is somewhat like that era as things were rapidly changing.

                https://www.tokyvideo.com/video/the-snow-walker-2004

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