Warren G. Harding: Lousy President, Great Bloviator

The only disagreement among reputable historians about the President who returned the USA to “normalcy” is whether or not he was the absolute worst holder of the office (the other candidate being Ulysses S. Grant.) Harding didn't particularly want to be President, but he had the look of what Republicans liked in a president. Even so, the affable Ohio newspaperman wouldn't have demonstrated the Peter Principle to the nth degree had not Theodore Roosevelt inconveniently died when he did, leaving the GOP kingmakers like Mark Hanna an opening to nominate a good-looking boob who could turn out wondrous malapropisms like “normalcy.” Actually Harding wasn't that dumb; he called his speechifying “bloviating,” a word that has made it into some dictionaries. What demonstrated that he was not as dumb as he sounded was that he knew what he was doing.

Eisenhower was another great bloviator, projecting himself quite deliberately as a not-overly-smart but lovable, well-meaning, even-tempered uncle. The difference between Eisenhower and Harding is that Eisenhower was a genuine leader covering up state secrets such as the U-2 program, CIA-arranged coups in Iran and Guatemala, and under-the-table-but-very-credible threats to nuke the USSR and China if they didn't stop the war in Korea. Harding was merely covering up his mistress, his bootlegger, his gambling, and his blind eye to what his cronies were up to, such as stealing millions of government dollars when a million dollars was really worth something.

Harding may well have done at least one statesmanlike thing: He died before the big scandals broke. He happened to die in San Francisco, which is why there used to be a Harding movie theater in the Western Addition.

Tragically, very few bloviators know they are bloviators because they really believe their own B.S.

And now for some of my own bloviating.

I just discovered Japanese with Chris, wherein Christopher M. Ball shares his adventures in trying to learn (some) Japanese. He lists his sources rather thoroughly. Rather than overload his comments section, I decided to make a somewhat similar listing here. Seems appropriate, since the main theme of this blog is supposed to be my efforts to master enough Japanese to decipher a manga series that has no official translation and no active scanlators other than myself. These are my non-electronic resources (although I have scanned and otherwise bashed quite a lot of material from my library.)

Manga series

Toritsu Mizushō 都立水商! (22 volumes, complete, of course!!) (And I have ordered the light novel the manga is supposed to be based on.)

Jōō 嬢王 (12 volumes, the complete first series)

Some volumes of 「魔法先生ねぎま」、「ああっ女神さまっ」、「かりん」、「ぱすてる」、「ガチャガチャ」in both the original and in authorized English-language editions. Nearly all of these have at least one unofficial translation floating around somewhere on the web, so it can be quite interesting to see how much “your mileage may vary” between two different translators. For AMS/Oh My Goddess! there are two authorized translations available for some volumes, one done by Studio Proteus when Dark Horse was bringing out the series in flipped, monthly comic-book form, and a new one for the Complete reworking of the early parts of the series (which also restores the colored artwork.) I have other manga, translated or original, but few matched pairs.

Volumes 1 and 3 of Kenshi Hirokane's Division Chief Kosaku Shima, officially translated by Ralph F. McCarthy, with the original Japanese in the margins—part of the Kodansha Bilingual Comics series.

In the same vein, a tiny bilingual Volume 1 of the venerable series Sanae-san, 4-panels from 1947.

Books for Japanese Study

Jack Halpern's Learner's Kanji Dictionary

Spahn & Hadamitzky's Kanji Learner's Dictionary

Wayne P. Lammer's Japanese the Manga Way (a gem)

Manga University's Kanji de Manga, volumes 1-6; Yojijukugo; Japanese Sound FX

Tuttle's Colloquial Kansai Japanese and The Complete Japanese Expression Guide

Japanese in Manga Land, Volumes 1-3

Zakkenayo!

Barron's 501 Japanese Verbs

Japanese Slang Uncensored

Best Line I Ever Heard in Real Life

On TV, and especially in the movies, clever lines abound, but few of them were ad-libbed by the actors or polititions, who both use writers. I'm going to tell you about the best line I've ever heard in real life (that is, what you and I would have if we didn't spend our lives in front of computer screens.) I can't remember exactly who said it so long ago (more than thirty years) but I do remember the time and place. It was in the Petty Officer's Club in Rota, Spain where someone who'd had too many cervezas tried to pick a fight. The object of his non-affection said to the guy: "Don't mess with me! I know karate!! ... and several other Japanese words."

Anyway, back then I probably knew fewer Japanese words than my clever friend and not only did not know any kanji but never expected to learn any. But now that I do know at least a few kanji, I'd like to tell you about the connection between karate (空手) andkaraoke (空オケ). That's right, they both begin with 空 (sounded "kara") ; kara-te is "empty hand" and kara-oke is, roughly, "empty voice," -oka being a contraction. And 空桶 is "empty bucket" although it sounds just like karaoke. This suggests to me that many karaoke singers should be required to sing with buckets over their heads so they will have a chance to realize just how awful they are, or at least a chance to muffle their voices a bit. Oh, 空 can also be sounded "sora" in which case it means "sky" or "heavens," and is the Kanji 長谷川 空　(Sora Hasegawa) of Ah! Megami-sama! uses for her personal name.