Things that make you go Hm

Reading through my Statutory Interpretation text today, there's a section on what kinds of materials are used by judges to interpret legislation. Depending on how obscure the statute is, they can look at the history behind the drafting of the statute, encyclopedias, or even dictionaries to figure out what the drafters intended to say. However,

In looking up English words it is common to consult British and American dictionaries. In looking up French words, it is common to consult dictionaries made in France. While Canadian dictionaries may be used, they generally are ignored by the courts.

Um... why?

burbles

Justin is sick. I got a call yesterday from the day care around 3pm (I usually pick him up around 4pm). They were concerned because he wasn't playing and hadn't wanted any afternoon snack.

"I'll be there in about ten minutes," I said. When I got there, he ran up and jumped up and down and hugged me and chattered at me, and the teacher who'd called me was very apologetic.

"Really, he wasn't doing much a few minutes ago... we really think he's sick..."

I reassured that I didn't mind and told her his brother was the same way - not with the food thing, but with the activity level. They're both almost terminally hyper. "Seriously - the first time Daniel said he wanted to lie down and have a nap, I took him to Emerg," I told her.

So today Justin has been either with me or Chris or with his favourite babysitter, Laine. And it looks like he'll be with her again tomorrow while I go visit my mom. I don't think he'll mind. Laine has a pool and popcorn ;)

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Legislation class today. Our prof mentioned the thing about how courts usually use either French dictionaries from France or English dictionaries from England and the US, but not Canadian ones. "Yes, we're still doing the colonial thing - in both official languages!"

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Went back to choir. Damn it, the new songs are gorgeous. We're rather clueless wandering through the complex tempo changes and call-response and three African languages (Zulu, Xhosa, and Msuthu) in the African Celebration piece, but we raced through Laus Deo in record speed. Just about sight-read it and had it close to perfect by the end.

Latin's different from other languages though, when you're a choir person. Nkosi sikelela and xa sekulin gila may cause you concern, but Laudamus and Adoramus Te are like falling off a log. It also helps that musical Latin only seems to have a vocabulary of about fifteen words. Once you've learned Excelsis Deo and Agnus Dei and Glorificamus, what's left?

Latin society must have been very boring, I think. We have no songs from them about courting, or snazzy new chariots, or even It's Hard To Get A Good Slave These Days. Nope, it's all about God. Strange.