If it hadn't been for SzélsőFa, I wouldn't have known that my blog was linked to Wikipedia. I found her by way of Charles at razored zen, whom I found through Lisa, at eudaemonia. I discovered Lisa's blog through Karen of Beyond Understanding (sustenance scout). SzélsőFa is a Hungarian woman who has two blogs on Blogger: --The Copper Moon Project about her efforts to write a short story in English, and Gondolatok az erdőben (not to worry--it's in English). In the latter blog I found a post about the Hungarian revolution of 1848-9. There were quite a few revolutions in 1848. All of them failed except one: the French deposed their good Citizen-King Louis Philippe, and installed the foolish and pompous Louis Napoleon, who called himself Emperor Napoleon III. America benefited from these failed revolutions, as many well-educated Germans, Czechs, Hungarians, and others had to flee, and quite a few of them landed on our shores.
Thinking about Hungarian history reminded me of my favorite song by the Malaysian singer-songwriter Pete Teo: "Budapest, " with the explanation, "inspired by Krudy, 1896." Gyula Krudy was a Hungarian journalist and novelist who is not well-known outside his home country--it's amazing to me that a Malaysian singer would have read him, But Pete isn't just any Malaysian singer. (I haven't read him, though I'd like to. I only learned of him because of Pete Teo. ) While looking at Pete Teo's Wikipedia site, I clicked on the link, "The Music of Pete Teo," and found myself back on my own blog. Since my post about Pete Teo is a Wikipedia link, I updated it to include his latest video on You Tube. Thanks, SzélsőFa, et. al.
13 comments:
Wow, I've just checked back to see one of my favourite Hungarian writers in your blog, Steve!
You got the Wiki link wrong, unfortunately, it's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyula_Kr%C3%BAdy
(He was born inthe same town as I...)
His voice is so unique, dome find his writing tiresome, a burden, others see it as an old wrinkled, carpet, full of gems, some polished, some raw.
Methaphor, by me, right now :)
Thank you form mentioning my blogs!
I have also noticed that you wrote a nice entry abuot Lucas and I wanted to tell you that we in Hungary have names attached to each day of the calendar, so people in Hungary can celebrate not only their birthday but their name-day as well.
To cut long story short: today (Oct 18) is Lucas's day.
There was quite a roar of people and quite a flow of revolutions and freedom wars in the mid-lat 19th century...but almost all of them failed.
Stay tuned for I'll be reporting on 23 October soon.
Guess what?
Another revolution that failed in 1956.
If you wish to dig into the subject, please find my archives 2006 October. You'll see a YouTube movie about what the police did to us.
Szelsofa-Thanks for mentioning the link error--it's corrected now. If we celebrated saint-name days here, mine would be December 26. My wife, whose birthday is December 30, finally gave up--we celebrate it on her half-birthday, June 30.
I'll look forard to your report on the 1956 revolution. I've read a little bit about it. apparently the Soviets allowed the Poles to have a more moderate government, but drew the line on Hungary. I'd say that they were simply more tolerant of their fellow Slavs, but then they didn't tolerate Dubcek in 1968.
Small world-wide web!
But that has to be a first -- discovering your own site while searching far and wide.
Peter--Actually, I could have taken the blog trail back through simply wait, slow reads, and a line cast, a hope followed. But I was pretty amazed to come back to my own site.
Re: name days.
Steven/Stephen/István is celebrated here on the 26 December as well :)
and 30 December is my son's birthday :)
In the Hungarian calendar, each day is assigned to at least one name.
For example, Oct 19 is Nándor and Ferdinánd. Those who are called Nándor OR Ferdinánd can expect little surprises from family or friends.
István is a VERY popular name in Hungary - I guess it goes back to our first Christian King, Szent István (St Stephen.)
Gives a whole new meaning to "nth" degree of separation. I could end up viewing my own insides if I'm not careful.
I guess you just never know where those Google searches will take you. I've always wondered who creates the Wiki entries anyway. It could be anyone, right?
Szelsofa--That's really a nice tradition. But if your name has more than one saint's day, what happens? My wife is named Kathleen, a form of Catharine. And there are St. Catharine of Alexandria and St. Catharine of Siena. I know she'd pick Siena if she had to choose, but maybe she'd get presents on both days.
Charles--Maybe. But given your amazing dreams (anyone else reading this should check out razored zen for his description of the rainbow dream), you may not need the internet to see your own insides.
Lisa--I think there's a way to find out who, or at least what computer, made a wiki change. But it would take someone more comuter-savvy than I to do it
Most names have only one day in the calendar. But there are the frequent ones like Steve/Stephen, and Katherine/Cathleen/and co. -they have two or three dates to celebrate. It is up to the person to decide which day s/he chooses to celebrate her/his name on. Some people do not celebrate their names at all.
My surname is a rare one, I have only one day. No choice here.
My husband has a frequent name, he has 2/3 options. He chose one and he sticks to it.
No one can choose to celebrate twice a year, I'm sorry...
Hi STeve! Thanks for stopping by my blog and writing that great travel story! Too funny! I'm always so glad to find new blogs to read. This was amazing!
Ello,
Thanks for visiting. I notice that in your site, you're a Gryffindor. I took the test and found I'm a Ravenclaw. In an earlier post,
http://ontheslowtrain.blogspot.com/2007/08/anselm-vs-albus-and-other-thoughts-on.html
I realized that while I might be a Ravenclaw, I'd be standing outside the door a lot, waiting for someone else to answer the riddle.
I think Ravenclaw's are smarter, though, right? ;o) While the Gryffindor's are the crazy don't look before you leapers?
I think it was a fun exercise for sure, though! And I liked reading that blog post you directed me to. Very nice analogies.
Glad to have been part of your internet adventure. And I love your discussions here with Szelsofa. Nifty stuff.
Charles, your first comment cracked me up. K.
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