Thursday, October 25, 2018

OctPoWriMo Day 24: Typographical Musings on Finnish

For the first time in my life, I've been grounded by the doctor, who not only took issue with my having gone into work at all today, but has vehemently issued an order that I stay at home and rest tomorrow for complete recovery (apparently I have a bad infection in my lungs and an equally bad inflamed throat, and the fact that I actually didn't even know, because I'm so used to working while feeling utterly crappy, is...kind of telling, really.)

So I'm about to go do just that, but I had to at least finish up today's poem. 'Opening' could mean a lot of things. I wanted to take it in a more serious direction, but then I got waylaid by Finnish, and it took me in a whole other ridiculous compass point away from serious (I learn Finnish in my spare time, because I want to read untranslated books and many of them that I really like are in Finnish. I'm also interested in hand lettering, calligraphy, and typography - part of it may be in the blood, as my father was a printer in the typesetting days before digital printing. But that's another story. )


DAY 24 : TYPOGRAPHICAL MUSINGS ON FINNISH

‘Helvetica or Neue Haas Grotesk is a widely used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedingerwith input from Eduard Hoffmann.

Like many neo-grotesque designs, Helvetica has narrow apertures, which limit its legibility onscreen and at small print sizes. It also has no visible difference between upper-case 'i' and lower-case 'L', although the number 1 is quite identifiable with its flag at top left.[26][27] Its tight, display-oriented spacing may also pose problems for legibility.’

--
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helvetica

Today I learn that the Finnish word for ‘world’ is maailma:
Maa, earth, ilma, air.
Ground. Sky.
Hell. Heaven.

Today I also learn that the Finnish word for ‘hell’ is helvetti,
Which is not a compound word like maailma
But one complete word unto itself.

Ergo: If  helvetti is hell, then Helvetica must be a close relative. 


10 comments:

ms_lili said...

delightfully clever :) Please take time to rest and recharge. Hoping you have something salving to breathe in to comfort your lungs.

Shuku said...

Thank you so much Jade! Yes I do, and I'm using it. It's kind of bad that I didn't realise I was sick, but I live with chronic pain enough I really can't tell some days :/

paeansunplugged said...

Ah! Clever indeed. Please take of yourself Shuku.

Esther Jones said...

Haha. This made me smile.

Sarpadeon said...

HAH! It's an interesting linguistic quirk though, says a lot about the approach to the concepts of Heaven and Hell. So by itself, this goes deeper than just surface level. Funny, engaging and educational - thank you for sharing.

Jane Dougherty said...

That thought did cross my mind too...

Ornery Owl of Naughty Netherworld Press and Readers Roost said...

Hope you feel better soon, and do take care of yourself. I am well acquainted with the practice of working when very sick. I suppose if there's one blessing from my thyroid going all Walking Dead on me, it's the fact that my body will no longer allow me to get away with doing this. It resulted in the end of my nursing career, in fact. I was doing home care nursing for pediatric patients, working while very ill because my pushy coordinator insisted that I could continue to work because I'd contracted a wretched respiratory ailment from the patient I was working with and therefore couldn't re-infect him. Because my diabetes had rendered me much less resilient than I had been in the past, I ended up having a small stroke and falling into a very deep slumber for about 20 minutes. The patient's father found me that way, and I was fired. Now I deliver food for low pay and am on Medicaid, because, after all, a person who has become disabled needs to know just what a pos they are and should probably die and decrease the surplus population. (Sarcasm, for those who don't recognize such.)

Ornery Owl of Naughty Netherworld Press and Readers Roost said...

I meant my pancreas in the last comment. My thyroid went walking dead on me back when I was 16. I've felt tired for most of my life but my activity intolerance increased sharply when my pancreas tanked.

Richa said...

Loved this!❤

Augusto Torres said...


The portucigano economy is in the toilet, and droves of it's citizens are fleeing to neighboring Spain to work just to put food on the table! Those who don't go to Spain are swimming, or jumping on bannana boats to go to Angola or Mozambique just to sell their corpo for cod to feed their families. The slightly better off portuciganos are flying to Brasil to live in a favela that is much better than the poor, decrepid conditions they live in now; at least here they can eat.
I observed the portuciganos to be an ignorant bunch stuck in a mental time-warp that only focus on "how" good things were in the distant past rather than focusing on their now deteriorated, non-existant economy, and how bad things really are today.
Perhaps, this is "why" they can't seem to see the log stuck in their eyes but see the splinters in everybody elses eyes. I do find it ironic that they are racist toward Spain, Angola, Mozambique and Brazil only to later go look for a better life in these countries!

***PUTUGAL E UMA MERDA!! E VERDADE E VERDADE AMIGOS!!!***

TE VEJO NO SOPAS DOS POBRES A NOITE COM SEUS IRMAOS DESEMPREGADOS :)