I bought two chrysalises a few weeks back and put them in my butterfly container. One was quite fat and housed a moth; the other was thin and dead looking and housed a delicate butterfly. I was told the moth was hibernating and would take weeks or months to emerge while the butterfly would be out and about within a week. The moth came out after about a month–a fine brown specimen–but the other chrysalis didn’t stir at all and looked pretty shriveled. I gave up on it. But last night, miraculously, it emerged apparently no worse for wear! It’s a beauty. It was in the chrysalis stage for well over a month. Now I just have to stop the cat from clawing at the container which is made of mesh.

Tina Fey’s impersonation of Sarah Palin was certainly very funny, but it missed some of the less attractive parts of its target. The voice was high and almost melodious but Palin’s voice has grown guttural and aggressive. Fey’s intelligence and general niceness shone through but Palin is neither of those things. I found Palin’s endorsement speech frightening, depressing, and incredible–indicative of dangerous tendencies.

For even the nicest tabby that was ever born and weaned

Is capable of acting, on occasion, like a fiend

 

“In Respect of Felines”, T.S. Eliot

Is it possible to mean something (in the Gricean sense) by being silent? Surely yes: we have the pregnant pause, and silence can speak volumes. I could also make an arrangement with you whereby if I don’t speak at a certain time I am wishing to communicate to you that (say) I want to leave. But then meaning is possible without a speech act, without any kind of utterance. How then can speaker meaning be an action at all? Speech acts need not be acts! Could all communications be silent? If so, Gricean speaker meaning is not a type of action in its essence. Speaker meaning happens to consist of acts with us most of the time, but this is quite contingent. So-called speech act theory is not essentially about acts.