five . . .

Question: How many Assyriologists does it take to change a light bulb?

It's sad, but true. And it takes them an hour or so to do it . . .

kurnugia . . .

I think I've done something to offend the Annunaki . . .

First, today was bloody hot here in the Bay Area . . . besting previous record highs by close to ten full degrees . . . the high in the East Bay was 93 . . . granted I lived in Dallas for three years, but after the gorgeous "winter" the 90s is unbearable . . .

Secondly, I got the dreaded jury summons today . . . like I said . . . kurnugia . . . make that bloody kurnugia . . .

I promise to post something of substance in the near future . . .

warning . . .

I've been reading omens for one of my Akkadian classes this term. Today's caution for modern students comes from TDP 19 lines 12-13, a diagnostic text . . .

DIŠ GU2-su i-tar-rak SAG.DU-su ŠUB.ŠUB-ut ŠU-2-šú u GIRI3-2-šú it-ta-na-aš-[ga-gu]
u ANA qa-qa-ru ú-ḫa-an-na-aṣ KI.SIKIL.LIL2.LA2 DIB

"If his neck constantly throbs, his head keeps bobbing, his hands and feet keep stiffening so that he rubs (them) on the ground, the lilû lady will seize him."

or, as I interpret it for the modern-day student . . .

"If he's got a sore neck, his head keeps bobbing (due to that darn falling dream), his hands and feet keep getting numb and tingly so that he has to keep rubbing them on the ground (to wake them up), the lilû-lady gonna getcha . . ."

Sounds ominous, eh? I'm going to keep this as a warning for any future students that might fall asleep in my classes . . .

comparative . . .

Be sure to check out Eisenbrauns's Weekly Sale on phenomenal Semitics/Afro-Asiatic linguistics titles . . . however, I won't be purchasing any . . . why? I already have them all (which is actually rather scary to think about . . . )! Why do you think I'm advocating their purchase?

welcome . . .

A hearty welcome to Brooke Lester who has recently joined the blogging world. His blog title, Anumma, is difficult to ignore being Akkadian and all (an absolutely fascinating word given its function as a discourse marker, primarily in not a few OB letters in which it explicitly signals [and delays] the crux of the speaker's reason for communication thereby heightening the anticipation [i.e., "Ladies and Gentlemen, if you would direct your attention to the center stage for the main event" . . . {drum roll} . . . ] . . . more on discourse markers in the days ahead . . . ). One wonders how much, if any Akkadian he'll blog about since he touts himself as primarily a Hebrew Bible guy. Brooke's a recent Princeton grad doing the whole adjunct thing at a couple places in Illinois . . . looking forward to his insights into that book most of us study . . .

Welcome, Brooke, to blogging and the elite fraternity of Mesopotamian language blog-names . . .

critical . . .

Doug Mangum's recent post on "Apologetics, Logic, and Critical Biblical Scholarship" is a nice summary of problems in much conservative biblical "scholarship." Doug discusses many of the inherent fallacies in their arguments. Above all, Doug has the right of it: there are problems in the Bible. Rather than trying to explain them away through some misled ideas of faith, these should be wrestled with and openly discussed, not vilified and shunted. More importantly, all scholars in all fields, even Assyriology and linguistics, should take heed that their own arguments, whether "critical" or "conservative" do not fall into similar fallacious traps (something I see in almost all of my earlier work and am constantly fighting in my present work). After all, for we academics, the process and journey is often (should be?) the most enriching part (and the most respectful to our disciplines), not necessarily finding the "correct" answer or verifying our own presuppositions.

daddy's . . .

Three quick stories about my daughter to show that she's my girl . . .

Today, she's started actually calling me "da-da-da" . . . I was hoping for "adda" or "a-a", but that's real close . . . I also would've been happy with "abu", "ab", "av" or any other form of the common Semitic word . . . I'll take what I've been given, though . . .

Yesterday, I came home to find her paging through my Eisenbrauns catalog which had come in the mail . . .

Lately, when I break out my text copies to work on translations, she'll grab them, look at them, and start reading them out loud . . . she often disagrees with my translation . . .

late . . .

e2-šed6 = bīt šitti

Look it up . . . I kid you not. And that's my very late contribution to 1 April (which is when we spent a good 15-20 minutes . . . maybe more . . . double checking the meanings . . . no I didn't start the process . . . I only helped extend it by pointing out the Akkadian). The joke is on multiple language levels and may lead to a new etymology for the English word (not really . . . but we checked to make sure) . . .

Now that I've finished accessing my prepubescent self, back to work . . .