nem tudom¹

October 20, 2001

Adopt these cats at Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society

This Year's Bird Sightings:
Plum Island Year List

Today's Reading:
Autumn Across America by Edwin Way Teale, The Gilgit Game by John Keay

This Year's Reading:
2001 Book List

Photos:

Blue

Goldie

Trinity

Skye

There are too many toys in Blue's cage. Some of them aren't even really toys. They're tiny bells from inside other toys. Those have got to go. Even an older, experienced cat like Blue could eat one of those. Apparently the morning shift was shorthanded and a lot of things didn't get done or things got done in some odd incomplete way. A couple of sticky medicine droppers on the counter need to be washed so I put them in to soak. Then I find other things strewn about needing washing so they go into the dishpan to soak also.

Those cute boys, Anthony and Ash, who came in last week have already been adopted. I knew they wouldn't be here long. There are yet more kittens. Apparently this has been a multiple litter kitten season. Please spay/neuter your pets.

There weren't any Central Asian films we hadn't already seen at Acme Video so Nancy had this bright idea that we should find a Hungarian film. We picked one called After the Revolution, which according to the description was about a blocked novelist and his cat seen from the point of view of the cat. The premise was that the cat gathered scenes for the novel, or something like that. How could I resist a movie in Hungarian from a cat's point of view? At the very least I'd get to hear people speak Hungarian a lot and could practice trying to recognize words. (Gee, am I having some kind of Hungarian withdrawal? I don't even have my "have to give a speech in Hungarian and the prompt cards are in Spanish" recurring dream anymore.) Nancy encouraged me, saying "You'll get to hear them say "nem tudom" a lot."

Can a movie be intertextual? I'm not sure what the word is for when you include film clips from other movies in your movie. This cat's point of view seemed to include a lot of footage from Sergei Eisenstein movies.

So what is it with postmodern intertextualism in Hungary?

Exactly one character said "nem tudom" exactly once. Way less than the frequency of that phrase in ordinary Hungarian conversation.