The Last Samurai

One thing that I like a lot is polynomials but I do not like the word binomial because it is wrong. I have decided never to use it. I always use the right word for a polynomial whatever anybody else does. My favourite Greek word is γαγγλíον and that is all the things I like today

13 December, 1992

It is 98 days to my birthday. One interesting thing that happened today was that I took Kalilah wa Dimnah on the Circle Line too and somebody asked if my father was an Arab. Sibylla said whatever gave you that idea. The person said isn’t that Arabic. Sibylla said Yes. Then she said but my father wasn’t an Arab. I was going to ask her what he was but then I decided not to.

I think that Greek and Arabic and Hebrew are my favourite languages because they have a dual. Greek has better moods and tenses but Arabic and Hebrew have better duals because they have a feminine dual and a masculine dual but Greek just has the one. I asked Sibylla if there was a language with a trial number and she said not that she was aware but she didn’t know all the languages in the world. I wish there was a language with a dual trial quadral quincal sextal septal octal nonal and decal, if there was that would be my favourite language.

It is boring on the Circle Line but I am up to Odyssey 15.305. 9 books to go.

14 December, 1992

97 days to my birthday.

One interesting thing that happened today is that we took the Tube one way and then we took it the other way and a lady got into an argument with Sibylla. Sibylla said let’s take the example of two men about to be burned at the stake, A dies at time t of heart failure while B burns to death at time t + n, I think we can all agree that B’s life would be better if it were n minutes shorter. The lady said she thought it was rather different and Sibylla said she thought it was exactly the same and the lady said there was no need to shout. Sibylla said she wasn’t shouting she just thought it was barbaric to force people to die at time t + n and she said barbaric so loud that everyone in the train looked around!

Barbaric comes from the Greek word βρβαρος which means a non-Greek but in English it means something completely different.

15 December, 1992

96 days to my birthday.

Today I was reading the Odyssey on the Tube and a man got on and said it was good that I was starting so young. He said he started Hebrew when he was three and I said I knew Hebrew and he said what have you read in Hebrew. I said I had read Moses in the bullrushes and he taught me this song:

Pharaoh had a daughter with a very winning smile

She found the baby Moses while swimming in the Nile

She took him home to Pharaoh, said I found him on the shore

Pharaoh winked at her and said I’ve heard that one before.

I sang it three times and he said splendid and he said it was never too soon to start on your religious education. He asked Sibylla if my father was teaching me or if I was studying at school or with a rabbi and Sibylla said she was teaching me herself. He said it was a shame all Jewish mothers did not take religious education so seriously. Sibylla said she was really only teaching me the language and he said of course, of course. I was hoping he would ask if my father was Jewish but he didn’t. When he got off the train I asked Sibylla and she said she didn’t know, it didn’t come up in the conversation, but she didn’t think so.

16 December, 1992

95 days to my birthday.

One thing that is funny is that even though I have been reading the Odyssey on the Tube for a long time nobody ever asked if my father was Greek. Today I read Babar but nobody asked if he was French.

Speaking of French a funny thing happened today on the Tube. A lady got into an argument with Sibylla who said let’s take the example of two men who are about to be ritually disembowelled. A dies at time t of heart failure and B dies at time t + n from having someone plunge a stone knife into his chest and rip the beating heart out with his bare hands, I think we would agree that B’s life was not improved by the additional n minutes in which the stone knife was plunged into his and the lady said pas devant les enfants. I said parlez-vous français? The lady looked very surprised. Sibylla said would you be more comfortable if we continued the discussion in Bengali? The lady said pardon? Sibylla said or perhaps some other language he does not know? She said her Russian, Hungarian, Finnish, Basque and Icelandic were not up to much but she thought she could manage something in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, Swedish, Danish or Bengali. I was surprised because I didn’t know Sibylla knew any of those languages. I don’t think the lady did. I asked when I could learn those other languages and Sibylla said after I have learned Japanese. I asked if my father was French and Sibylla said no.

17 December, 1992