Language

Hereinbelow follow sundry anecdotes centering around language (and a little bit of weather).

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When BSM was home sick a while ago, I taught him what his class had learned in chumash that day. We read the psukim, and I explained them as needed. When we got to the part where Yaakov sets up a matzeva after his dream, I started to explain that a matzeva is like a mizbeach [alter] made from only one stone, but BSM interrupted me, "Yeah, like when someone dies! And they put a big rock on his kever [grave]." Right. I never realized that it was exactly the same word. Once he pointed it out, it's obvious that a matzeva is easily translated as monument, and once I have the word monument, a matzeva is more literally a standing stone. (And now that I've found that link, it turns out that Wikipedia already knew that a matzeva is a standing stone. Well, don't I feel less clever now.)

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When we came back from America (mazel tov, Piano Toes and your missus!), we were a wee bit tired upon our arrival. So as soon as we got home, we dumped our many pieces of luggage in our house's entrance and dining room, each ate a sandwich, and all took naps. When we awoke blessed hours later and came back downstairs, FF took one look at the room (or what little he could see of it under the piles of luggage everywhere) and said, "It's תוהו ובוהו!" Yes, that mess was bad enough to warrant a name a bit stronger than "mess" or "balegan", but c'mon man, the primal chaos from the beginning of creation?! It wasn't that bad... Right?

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The other night, BSM was playing with the timer on my phone and discovered that he can access alternate alarm sounds from the app. "Summer Rain," he read proudly, and then promptly cracked up. "Summer rain?! What???" So I explained that in some places it rains in the summer, and yes, it sounds just like regular winter rain.