This is a short story. This story is very silly. In fact, you would be better off not reading it.
John lived at home. At times he went out, and came back later. John had a cat. The cat’s name was Cat. John wasn’t very fond of complicated things.
John taught philosophy at university. There he spoke of the reasons behind it all, the matters of life and death, the purpose, the subconscious, the unconscious, and the …

Idioms are often beguiling in their incomprehensibility. This is particularly palpable when learning or teaching a new language. For example, Finns say that “cold coffee beautifies,” referring to coffee that has been sitting on the table for too long and is drunk anyway. I am still not entirely sure what the phrase really means, though all the words gathered together seem simple enough.
It is not only language learners that confuse these expressions. A …

“I swung on to my old guitar,
Grabbed hold of a subway car,
And after a rocking, reeling, rolling ride,
I landed up on the downtown side”
Bob Dylan

Today on the metro I watched as the sun left us behind and we ducked into the tunnel near Sörnäinen. The booths feel like sections in a diner, but no table. Like the Pub tram that winds through downtown, but less beer. And orange.
Today three strangers sat with me and I was the only one not talking into my cell phone. Three mobiles pressed to three ears and three mouths a-jabbering.
Immediately above us was a …

In addition to a profound and passionate interest in linguistics, I am equally driven, if not even more so, by a brain-stimulating, soul-shaking fascination towards the North American continent, the U.S. of A. in particular. The questions, research and casual, that arise from a nation so wonderfully contradictory and attached to its past are copious and complex enough to keep me from ever getting a full night’s sleep.
From a “foreigner’s” perspective, it’s always a question …