Monday, August 27, 2012

Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a snark?



"Just the place for a Snark! I have said it twice:
That alone should encourage the crew.
Just the place for a Snark! I have said it thrice:
What I tell you three times is true."

Self-explanatory, I should think. The Quebecois, tripartite motif is reinforced by the element of stealthy moisture. Both the fleur-de-lys and water (and what is the color of this water? It is the color of water) are attributes of monarchy, the former being an attribute of the ancien regime and the latter (l'eau) being referred to by the Sun King in his pronouncement: apres moi, le deluge.

The Bellman is given to royal diktats of this sort which he clearly legitimizes with a Christian, trinitarian strategy. The hunting of snarks is not peasant's sport, it is the sport of kings.

 Pshaw to the separation of church and state that is so ballyhooed by our American cousins. What ho! saddle up, the last man afield is a prole!

5 comments:

  1. Obviously, the Bellman wasn't afraid of parting his hair behind. What this daring gesture tells us about his ability to eat snark... perhaps is not totally conclusive.

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  2. Good point … plus, remember, the Bellman is insane. His hair is also. He may prefer to eat a peach … look here: http://people.virginia.edu/~sfr/enam312/prufrock.html

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  3. The Bellman is a visionary, after all... perhaps his vision had him warned about J. A. Prufrock's future dilemma!

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  4. cf R Bellman, "Curve fitting by segmented straight lines", Journal of the American Statistical Association, Sep 1969. and of course the Bellman equation, for which the financial application is that a fool and his money are soon parted.

    also cf http://nnyhav.blogspot.com/2008/07/de-pche-mode.html if you dare

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  5. I love it when you talk dirty math to me, Dave!

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