Snow fell yesterday.
So on my morning bike ride I was careful, remembering times I’ve slipped on icy streaks. And later our two-mile trek to the food bank was a little precarious.
Some surfaces, such as brick, get rid of snow more quickly. Grass reappears under trees; that can’t be because the snow was stopped by the branches, from which it has dropped; is it because the rootmass warms the ground?
The words for “snow” in Arabic and Hebrew are thalj and sheleg. Delightful!
In Proto-Semitic, which may have been spoken in north-eastern Africa five or six thousand years ago, the word must have been thalgu. The reconstructed language is more similar (at least in phonetics) to classical Arabic of around 600 AD than to classical Hebrew of many centuries earlier. Several consonants fell together in Hebrew as sh. The consonant g became j in Arabic dialects, except in Egypt. Final vowels dropped in both languages, except in certain circumstances. The stress in sheleg is on the first vowel; when a word ended in two consonants, they became separated by a vowel, as also happens in modern Jerusalem Arabic.
And I’m tempted to pour in more about Arabic and Hebrew delights; but enough.
There was something I meant to add to my piece about the Earthrise photo.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia proposes to build, from sea to sea, a hundred-mile continuous city, called The Line, as part of his five-billion-dollar development plan Neom, a “civilizational revolution.”
Back in 1969, young architects calling themselves Superstudio conceived the Continuous Monument, a brutalist office block encircling the world and dwarfing the features, natural and human, past which it ran, such as Italian seaside towns and the mesas of Monument Valley.
Superstudio was satirical, warning against overdevelopment. But their Continuous Monument may have inspired The Line.
A non-stop shopping mall across the Arabian desert. Raping the territories of the classic Bedouin tribes, Khazraj, Qahtan, Abs, Dhubyân, and the oases, the scenes where the pre-Islamic poets paused to remember their exploits in battle and romance.
I am repelled by megalomania in constructions, epitomized for me by freeway interchanges and the Chinggis Khaan Hotel in Ulaan Bator. In a world “united in diversity,” I would hope for human islands separated by much larger areas that have been allowed to return to nature.
__________
Sometimes I make improvements or corrections to a post after publishing it. If you click on the title, rather than on ‘Read more’, I think you are sure to see the latest version.
This weblog maintains its right to be about astronomy or anything under the sun.
Just regular snow? Not climate change snow? Ah, weather and the four seasons, perpetual change set amongst monotony, so delightful to the human spirit! How does the Esperanto handle snow, you make me wonder?
Over a century ago my grandfather, Milo Hastings, promoted the idea of Roadtown, A Continuous House. There was an exhibit in the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915. Thomas Edison donated his concrete construction patents. There was an article in Sunset Magazine. Nothing came of the idea at the time. Did Superstudio or the Crown Prince know of Roadtown or did they each reinvent the idea?
I recommend the sole foray into dystopian science fiction of one of my favorite authors, Paulette Jiles (yes, the “News of the World” author). It is called “Lighthouse Island” and is set in just such a continuous metropolis (on a dying planet Earth) as you are anticipating.
Thank you for sharing glimpses of the beautiful corner of London you have wound up in.
Marcia Barr
Like many cities now The Line will be a monument to the car best described as a road with buildings rather than a buildings with roads.no doubt Elon Musk will be keen supply them with environmentally friendly Tesla electricity guzzlers to drive up and down the Line using up the planets dwindling resources to build 2 ton metal boxes only 1 person will ever sit in and will get you just as dead as a petrol car if one rides into you if you brave Walking the Line as I think Glenn Campbell once sang.
The Crown Orince’s idea is singularly a bad one. Also if we can toss about the term “Fascist”, around divorced from its originakl meaning as we do nowadays, then architecture in general must be considered the most Fascistic of art forms. ALL architecture is Fascist. Any other art form, or individual piece of art can be avoided if you do not like it, but architecture imposes itself on you, is neccesarily a part of your life, even if you move to the woods an dbuild your own home, architecture will have forced you to do that when you might not have otherwise. To avoid a piece of architecture you do not like YOU must alter your life, walk a city block out of your way, or move your esidence. If you don’t do this, you will see it, ifyou look away you are forced to lookj away. So architecture affects your lif etotally—it is totalitarian in the way that Fascism is. Or Communism for that matter. so it may be better to say that architecture is the most totalitarian art form. Doesn’t rea;y matter what type of architecture. If you like Neocasscal, then you might NOT like the Bauhaus, If you like both, you might find the International Style annoying. If you like Victorian, you might not like Brutalism, If you like Brutalism, you might get offended by a well kept Victorian mansion. Getting back to this idea of the Prince’s such a construction, besides its environmental consequences, which are potentially disruptive, might also not be economically defensible. Cities tend to be organic, in foundation and growth, they get messed pretty quickly when they are articficially founded or overplanned. (See Chandigarh). New York City, Rome, Moscow, London, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, etc. are where they are because of geography, trade routes and ecnomic and military considerations, mostky dictated by natural features, these are cities tha tare cebters of financial, political religious, cultural and other forms of power, and are world class cities. The planned more artificial cities like Brazilia, Chandigarh (designed by le Corbusier) have not been as successful. The exceptions might be St. Petersburg and perhaps Constantinople—present day Istanbul. But the site of Constantinople was chosen in part due to its strategic position on the connection between East and West, Asia and Europe, Black Sea and Mediterranean. Even today a much more visiyted place than the present day cpitak of Turkey Ankara. Brazilia’s location I am not aware of the reasons for, but I would wager most visitors to Brazil, see Rio de Janeiro, but far fewer get to Brazilia, and that more commerce goes through Rio, Sao Paolo, or even say Manaus or Pernambuco. (Last two are just a guess on my part). In short the linear city idea seems even more far fetched than any other planned city I have heard of. Don’t think its likely to be built.
Snow always lifts my spirits. It cleans pollutants out of the atmosphere and enhances nature’s beauty with billions of glistening sparkles. It transforms the entire landscape though if falls so gently and quietly.
When men were all asleep the snow came flying,
In large white flakes falling on the city brown,
Stealthily and perpetually settling and loosely lying,
Hushing the latest traffic of the drowsy town…
This is the beginning of “London Snow” by Robert Bridges.
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Looks like Monty Don must live down the lane.