They say Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

No, I’m not going mad about buffalos (although their steaks are nice, and Buffalo wings – which are made out of chickens, not buffalo, and are a specialty of Buffalo, NY – are also very nice).

In fact, "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo" is actually a grammatically correct sentence, an interesting fact that I stumbled upon on Wikipedia.

Stemming from three definitions of "buffalo" – one being an animal, one meaning to bully, and the third being the place – what it stands for is "[Those] buffalo(es) from Buffalo [that are intimidated by] buffalo(es) from Buffalo intimidate buffalo(es) from Buffalo."

So it all makes sense then? Good. I’m off to buffalo some Buffalo buffaloes (although they don’t actually exist).

For more details of this monotonic phrase, see here.

Ok, it’s just over a month away, and I can’t now resist promoting it!

London has been quite springlike for a while now, and with March just round the corner, a few of us though about doing some outdoor dancing. Well, I for one have missed it since my Lindy in the Park experience in San Francisco last November.

So on Saturday 29 March, come join a whole bunch of us Swing Dancers of London down on the South Bank near Gabriel’s Wharf for some al fresco swing dancing!

Bomb the Bank!
Lindy bombing the South Bank!

Saturday, March 29, 2008 • 2:00pm – 6:00pm
@ Gabriel’s Wharf (or in the skater area by National Theatre/QE Hall if it’s raining)

Already feeling springlike? Well, it’s back.

We’ll be Lindy bombing the South Bank again right by Gabriel’s Wharf near the Oxo Tower.

4 hours of al fresco dancing, free to everyone. Nominate a tune to play or bring your own, it should be a fun afternoon.

If you can’t make this one, we’ll be aiming to do many more over the summer, so watch out on the SDL page!

Song Requests:
If you have a particular song you want to hear on the day, post it on our discussion page and we’ll try to play it on the day!

Weather Forecast:
We’ll provide updates on the weather on our Facebook event page closer to the date, but we want it to be sunny!
 

So there we go. Why not come along?! 

Links:

Swing Dancers of London

The BBC reports that the US has decided to bring its own food to the Olympics, thereby turning down the biggest Chinese Takeaway in Beijing for a very long time.

Understandable in many ways, an athlete has to be confident that s/he is getting all the right nutrients. After all, that’s what all those dieticians and nutitionists are being paid for in a team.

Mind you, I love the question from the journalist who this of the senior official, Kang Yi, at the Chinese press conference:

Ms Kang and her colleagues were asked about the allegation that chickens on sale here are so full of hormones that athletes would test positive for steroids if they were to eat them.

There is no scientific evidence for this, insisted Lu Yong, who runs Beijing’s municipal food safety monitoring centre.

(Courtesy BBC News)

Touché. Only a Chinese journalist could have so much cheek.

More details can be seen here.

Link:

BBC NEWS: US to take own food to Olympics

Another video for you all. Over the last 4 weeks at Wild Times in London, we’ve been learning the Dean Collins Shim Sham. On Monday, we performed it in public for the first time.

So, with thanks to our teachers, Paul and Natasha, the London Swing Dance Society and a bunch of Swing Dancers of London, here’s how we did.

With thanks also to Arasan for pointing my camera at us!

Links:

London Swing Dance Society

Swing Dancers of London Facebook Group

Forget "God" and the like, I believe in both Murphy’s Law and the Law of Averages.

For the uninitiated, Murphy’s Law basically states that where something can go wrong, it will go wrong. The law of averages basically states that the probability of the occurence of something will tend towards the average.

For me, combining the two is like saying that the glass is half full. Except that someone else has drunk the first half of your drink.