Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Hair, taking a break, goose-stepping, sunshine

Blog hair
Today as we were walking in the sunshine to a little park The Man looked at me and said, "What happened to your hair?"

Then he laughed and laughed and laughed, and we both knew why. Sometimes I wonder whether telling him about my blog was a good idea.

Take a break before you start
This is how I do housework, and I must say it doesn't really work unless what you really need is a break, in which case it works very well. Unfortunately what I really need is to get some clearing up done.

Goose-step
Yesterday I watched a short video from North Korean TV, in which the soldiers are all goose-stepping, and I wondered where goose-stepping originated.

(The video is the second from the top, via Kottke)

I looked it up, and it seems that the goose-step is of Prussian origin, (pdf), invented during the time of Frederick II. I also discovered this: After WWII, the goose-step was outlawed in West Germany, making it the only human gesture to be officially banned by a state.

(That second link says the goose-step has been traced back to 17th century Prussia, but Frederick II was 18th century, so one of them is wrong, obviously. Just don't ask me which one.)

Does any other country still use it, besides North Korea?

Sunshine
We weren't the only people enjoying the sunshine in the park.

3 comments:

Bill C said...

Maybe the 2nd link writer meant 1700s instead of 17th century. Or there's been *another* rip in the fabric of the space-time continuum and a 17th century Frederick II leaked into our s-tc.

One or the other, that's my guess. But I don't know of any goose-stepping countries; maybe Yugooslavia?

Pookie65 said...

I find that sharing my blog with my T has been theraputic. All I need do is drop a subtle message in a post for him and he picks right up on it. Sometimes much quicker than if I looked him in his beautiful eyes and told him directly.

The power of the sublime is wonderful.

Hope your cold gets better soon, hon.

Hugs!

She Weevil said...

my lurgy made my hair very odd, if it's any consolation.