Huh. I wonder what the Elizabethans meant by "supper"? From the context, I'm guessing it was probably the last meal of the day...
In NJ, we always used "dinner" and "supper" interchangeably. But here in the South things aren't that neat (or that clouded, depending on your point of view). If someone says they had X for supper and X for dinner (or vice-versa), they may not be repeating themselves; they may actually have eaten the same thing twice in the same day.
(A quick Google search shows that the confusion finds its way into a lot of ESL-type fora.)
I think 'supper' tends - in most cultures and dialects - to be more late evening than early evening, although there is admittedly a lot of interchangeability with 'dinner' (for the main meal of the day).
I think we can see the point of Bacon's maxim, that he's contrasting 'early' and 'late'. How early and how late (and whether we might also - or instead - call it something else) doesn't really matter.
A leading presenter on China Central Television's English-language channel has revealed himself to be a xenophobic hate-monger. WHY does he still have a job? Lobby for his dismissal - by any and all means.
Days Ai Weiwei was detained
80
With ironic, sinister symmetry, the celebrity artist/activist was incarcerated on the same day that my friend Wu Yuren was finally released from 10 months' detention.
Now, like Wu, he's been released on extremely restrictive 'bail' terms - but could face re-arrest at any moment. He was detained incommunicado from April 3rd to June 22nd 2011.
Days Wu Yuren was in prison
307
"Released on parole" after 10 months; "parole" lifted another year later. The original charges against him were apparently dropped without his trial ever being formally concluded.
Froog is an escaped lawyer - but there is no need for alarm; he is only a danger to himself, not to the general public. An eternal wanderer, he now lives in an exotic city somewhere in the 'Third World' *, where he is held prisoner by an unfinished novel (or, more precisely, an unstarted novel). He spends a lot of time running, writing, taking photographs, and falling in love with women who fail to appreciate him. He also spends a lot of time in bars.
[* OK, I'll come clean: I've been living in Beijing since summer '02.]
2 comments:
Huh. I wonder what the Elizabethans meant by "supper"? From the context, I'm guessing it was probably the last meal of the day...
In NJ, we always used "dinner" and "supper" interchangeably. But here in the South things aren't that neat (or that clouded, depending on your point of view). If someone says they had X for supper and X for dinner (or vice-versa), they may not be repeating themselves; they may actually have eaten the same thing twice in the same day.
(A quick Google search shows that the confusion finds its way into a lot of ESL-type fora.)
I think 'supper' tends - in most cultures and dialects - to be more late evening than early evening, although there is admittedly a lot of interchangeability with 'dinner' (for the main meal of the day).
I think we can see the point of Bacon's maxim, that he's contrasting 'early' and 'late'. How early and how late (and whether we might also - or instead - call it something else) doesn't really matter.
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