Who, in their right frame of mind, would look at the word colonel and read it as a piece of unpopped popcorn? (And yes, those hard yellow pebbles that collect at the bottom of your microwaved popcorn are kernels, and not the person with brass buttons and tin medals. They are also not fit to be thrown out the window, in either instance, and besides, its a physical hazard for pigeons, I'd say). In any case, it was either some floppy tongued Texan who came up with the pronounciation, or it was meant as a charade (as both are tough?). Another thing: try spelling sergeant. Luckily its done for you here, but I bet there's tons of Foogle searches that go by sargeant and sargent and seargeant. (Foogle, for the non-Googlist, its the Fruitless Foolish Google search).

What this in the most remote of sense relates to is the book "The Remains of the Day", by Kazuo Ishiguro, which I am reading right now and hope to finish soon enough. For those avid readers of this blog, you'd realise that I have already written a brief review on the movie that was modelled after this story, which I saw earlier this year. Happens that, for once in a gargantuan life time, the movie is better than the story. Kazuo Ishiguro has an  admittedly peculiar style of writing, and although fit for this very novel, is somewhat unappreciated in his other books, such as When We Were Orphans and A Pale View of Hills. The movie was well done in that aspect, for it preserved the very English noblesse-oblige (as well as the complete story-line, which is relatively hard to come by), and no doubt Anthony Hopkins did a splendid job acting the role of Mr. Stevens, ageing butler at Darlington Hall on a cross-country trip of nostalgia and mixed feelings. I keep seeing Hopkins in the novel, and perhaps that destroys the imaginative part of the book, but then again I can't make myself see anyone else but him in the very role. The language of Mr. Stevens is refined (albeit repetitive at times), conversational yet formal, relaxed and uneasy at the same time. A mention of the word 'Colonel' brought my previous comments to mind. A book review will be out as soon as I come back from my long vacation, although I'll certainly have a lot of homework-catching-up to do in the mean time. (ie: Theory of Knowlede essay (oh no), climate change field trip answers (I hardly remember what I saw), English comparison essay (slaps palm on forehead) and Chemistry  lab reports (du-du-du-daaah: for further sound effects consult Beethoven's 5th sympthony 'Fate', rather daunting a title eh?)

Written on Wednesday, July 28 at 5:14 PM