I'm sad I've lost my native accent, but apparently when I'm tired or in a particularly good mood I revert. It certainly came back fast when I went back to Pennsylvania last June.

Isolated is a very good term for Greene County, PA. I was in a restaurant with my family, and something odd had caught my eye. Then I realized that the folks sweeping up and cleaning the tables weren't Hispanic. After a bit of Anglo discomfort, I said, "It's weird seeing people cleaning up who . . ." and I couldn't think of a way to say it, until my oldest sister, who lives in California, said, "whose birth language is English?" "Yeah!" Our middle sister, who has lived in our home town all her life, looked mildy baffled, but Sharon and I shared a Western-US-resident nod of recognition.

The homogeneity of Greene County--one of the reasons I left.

Accents and dialects are awesome things. As an English teacher (and having taught a lot about language variation), I really should know of books about American dialects, but most of the books I've read have been UK-centric. If I come across any, I'll let you know.

When I first visited England I spent a lovely evening at the Bridge Inn (near Exeter) trading accents with British students.

"So what's a London accent?"
"You know, like Michael Caine."
"Huh."

A mailing list I'm on says Tom Deitz died this morning. Talented people who are about my age or younger: please stop dying. Thank you.

Oh, I got a message about him at work - apparently he used to work at the UGA library. I can fish it out and email you if you'd like to see it.

Sometimes, I are dum. Kipling's "Just So Stories" /= Aesop's Fables.

But they were constantly served up in the same context when we were kids so you are totally forgiven.

Okay, Anathem is slow in starting, but it's finally picking up (Raz and Tulia just had the conversation about which orders they were expected to join).

Man, the made-up words are *killing* me, and I can't keep straight which belief system espouses what, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. And every time the Ita are mentioned, I think, "That 'I' should be lower-case."

And every time the Ita are mentioned, I think, "That 'I' should be lower-case."

Heh - I had the exact same problem.

The Anathem Wiki can be helpful for untangling the math/science historical references.

The Anathem Wiki can be helpful for untangling the math/science historical references.

The glossary helps a lot, but because the terms refer to real philosophies/philosophers (Socrates, Plato, and their posse), I have a hard time remembering what real philosophy maps onto any given made-up term.

Interview at Tor with Lois McMaster Bujold about the Vorkosigan Saga.