Of course, it stands to reason that Torino is the actual Italian name for that city; I had only heard this rumor that NBC changed it to suit their purposes. Now I'm glad to see that they're not calling it the Turin Olympics.I've always been amazed by the arrogance of countries to change the names of places in other countries to suit themeselves. English speakers are not the only offenders here. In some cases, a name is translated somewhat directly, such as the French Angleterre for England and Etats-Unis for United States. But still, why not just call a country or city what it calls itself? Why must we say Rome, and not Roma? What would it hurt us?
We did it with China, you know; at some point, we all started calling Peking Beijing because that's how they say it. There's a Seinfeld I happened to see recently where George asks Jerry how Holland and the Netherlands can be the same country, and who are the Dutch? I'm not sure what they call their own country there, although I could look it up. Aren't the Deutsch people the Germans? Of course they are. (The people there call their country Nederland, and themselves Nederlanders. The language they speak is Nederlands. Holland is a region within that country, but the whole country is known as Holland in many parts of the world, although this is inaccurate. Thanks, wikipedia.)
Needless to say, I have not even started sorting my papers yet, but I did do a little work on the basement, since people are going to need to get some furniture out of there in two weeks time. I freed up the space to do that, and moved boxes and things off the top of those pieces. Once they're gone, a little room will be freed up, and then, eureka! The brilliant idea that came to me this morning while I was down there is that after R is gone, I will call the cleanout guys who took away my old living room carpet a couple of summers ago and I will have them take the two defunct treadmills down there and a handful of other unused items that are too big for us to move. Dare I ask the Hubs if it's time to get rid of the exer-cycle he hasn't used in nearly 20 years? Oh, I think so.
Changing gears here.
Three years ago today, Jack, my father, died. The entry I wrote about him that day is here. It is always difficult to know what to say at such a moment; there is so much I could say and yet no need to say any of it at all. Let's just leave it at this: I am lucky to have had him for my father and I miss him. Sometimes it seems like it must be years and years that he is gone (and my mother too, who died only nine months earlier) and at other times as if I could call him on the phone and he'd be there. As always, these thoughts make me wonder if Jack and Shirl, who lived into their 80s, continued to miss their own parents every day of their lives. I'd never thought to ask them when they were here.
Well, then. The girls should be driving home tomorrow, and I may be a little tense, but I think not like I was before they drove up there. Perhaps I will write later, again; it's early now. Tomorrow should be an interesting day.
