Random quotes from Ian Rankin's Rebus series

I'm a big fan of Scottish author Ian Rankin and his Inspector Rebus series. Today I want to share a few quotes from some Rebus books with you. Tell me if you like them!

He tried to arrange a neighbourly smile on his face as he opened the door, but the actor in him had left for the evening. So there was something not unlike pain rippling his lips as he stared at the visitor on his doormat.

Funny how people with disabilities had that special gift of making you seem less able than them.

He prised himself out of bed and stood up. The alcohol inside him stood up too; then it began to pogostick its way around his head. Red wine and whisky. Bad news and a chaser.

'It's natural for me to worry, Brian. You're like a son to me.'
'And you're like a father to me,' Holmes replied, heading for the door. 'The fa-ther I get from you, the easier my life seems to be.'

'I make the jokes around here, son,' he warned.

Curt was smoking a cigarette. At the age of fifty-five, he'd decided he might as well start, since nothing else had so far managed to kill him. Rebus might have taken a cigarette from him, but they were Player's untipped, the smoking equivalent of paint stripper.

There was music, the kind that never went away: the Stones and the Doors, Janis Joplin, very early Pink Floyd. It was one of those evenings.

Rebus shook his head slowly. He knew what was coming. He'd seen Curt examine headless bodies and mangled bodies and bodies that were little more than torsos or melted to the consistency of lard, and the pathologist always said the same thing.
'Poor chap's dead.'

'I'm in charge.' The smile told Rebus he was as welcome as haemorrhoids at a rodeo.

He didn't often drive fast; dangerously... almost never. It was car smashes that did it, being on the scene at car smashes. You saw heads so messed up you didn't know which side was the face until it opened its mouth to scream.

Bothwell was sitting in his chair, prevented from movement by a sudden case of death. His neck flopped over to one side in a way necks shouldn't.

'Sign here,' the DS said. He had a typed chitty: RECEIPT OF ALL CASE-NOTES (8 BOXES) CONCERNING DERWOOD CHARTERS. Rebus signed.
'Date and time, too,' said the DS.
'You'll be wanting a tip next,' Rebus muttered.
'If you're offering.'
'Well, here's one for you: when lifting, bend your knees, not your back.'

The Farmer shifted - so far as he was able - in his chair. He was not a small man; it was not a large chair.

'This is unlawful entry.'
'Keep yapping, I'll show you unlawful entry.'

When someone announced that the karaoke would start in five minutes, Rebus knew it was time to leave. Been there, done that.

The paper was recycled, and so was the text.

Her eyes were small, as were nose and mouth. He tried not to think of a hamster, but then she twitched her nose and the picture was complete.

The morning was bright and clear, but Bill Costain was dull and overcast.

'Besides,' Rebus went on, 'I've got the mother and father of a headache. In-laws, too. Kids, neighbors, town and country.'

'He'll be ready. Wouldn't it be better to catch him off-guard?'
'That little bastard hasn't been off-guard since he was lifted from the cradle.'

'Me?' Rebus had offered hs own shrug. 'I just drink to be sociable.'
'And when does it start working?'

'We could get a table at a pub. Down by the rail bridge, there's a place called The Boatman's...' She stared at him. 'It's an Edinburgh tradition,' he explained with a shrug. 'In times past, professionals ran their businesses from the local howff.'
'We wouldn't want to mess with tradition.'

Languages die every day

Like living beings, languages are born, live and die. But the problem is, many of them just die, and at a dramatically increasing rate. Linguists estimate that there are about 6,000 languages on Earth, and half of them will disappear within the next one hundred years. That is about 30 languages disappearing each year. Among the 1,000 languages existing on the American continent, about 90% will disappear. Another figure: 96% of the world population speaks only 4% of the existing languages.

Languages have always disappeared, but what is new today is the dramatically increasing mortality rate. This is due to globalization, urbanization, and television (but it is interesting to note that Internet plays a rather positive role, by allowing more diversity).

Most of the languages today are not even described, and they will probably disappear without leaving any trace. Linguists are working to strive to describe them, working with the last speakers to draw up grammar books and dictionaries, but it's a painstaking work, and linguists have to be in the field.

To know if a language is endangered or not, we don't have to consider the number of speakers, but rather the way the language is passed on, the number of children who learn it naturally. For a language to stay alive, it needs a community with a cultural life, with its own traditions, its tales, its prayers...

Bilingual schools are sometimes double-edged, as they don't pass on this cultural heritage and can sometimes harness children insidiously, taking advantage of the situation to pass on the dominant language to them.

These days, we are very concerned about the extinction of certain animal species. This is a very popular concern, but we are much more hard pushed to worry about the languages that disappear, and that take a part of human heritage with them. When a language disappears, knowledge, including scientific knowledge, is lost too.

We must therefore try to conserve this diversity, not be afraid of bilingualism, and remember that a human being can easily speak two or three languages. Multilingualism is, in fact, the most wide-spread situation in the world. For now...

LingvoSoft Suite 2008 for Pocket PC and Windows released

LingvoSoft has just announced all new 2008 versions of its popular and practical LingvoSoft Suite for both Pocket PC and Windows. A unique collection of the most popular and useful applications that are Windows Mobile 6.0 and Vista ready, new LingvoSoft Suites are now available for Pocket PC or Windows and include a combination of award-winning titles to make using a second language easier than ever before - anytime, anywhere. A global solution for handheld devices or laptop and desktop PCs they answer all your language management and translation needs reliably and accurately.

This essential set of software features a unique combination of advanced talking Dictionary, human voice enabled travel PhraseBook for all commonly encountered situations, and five effective and fun FlashCards learning games. A fully integrated system, it incorporates all the latest innovations from our team of specialists, to make understanding and getting the most out of a foreign language more intuitive, so you can be more successful.

With unique User Dictionaries, newly updated vocabularies, complete language resources and full compatibility with the most popular MS Word applications they make tackling any and all language learning tasks more efficient. A single installation file provides the power of three of the most effective language applications ever designed. When you buy LingvoSoft Suite 2008 as a complete language study solution you benefit not only from superior extended functionality but also obtain significant savings over the cost of separately purchased components.

Find out more about these remarkable applications and choose your language pair here.

About LingvoSoft
LingvoSoft is an award-winning developer of translation and linguistic software for all major platforms. LingvoSoft engineers, programmers and linguists are responsible for developing one of the most respected lines of language-learning, dictionary, translation and localization software products for over 45 languages. LingvoSoft programs are known for their quality, effectiveness, and their use of the latest technologies.

How it all began, 10 years ago

So what happened 10 years ago? On July 17, 1997, I received an email from a friend with whom I was used to share some free software. Like I knew of a program and I would send him, and he would do the same. This time he sent me a small free English-French dictionary, saying it could help me with my studies. I installed it and found it quite handy and interesting. The menus and the help file were in French, but there were many mistakes, and there was also a note saying we could contact the authors of the program if we found any mistake. So that's what I did, and a few days later Mr Frits van Zanten kindly answered. He introduced himself and explained how he came up with the idea of writing a dictionary program. He said he went to Italy and had searched the web for a free Italian-Dutch dictionary, but couldn't find any. So he made it himself, wrote the program and a small wordlist. He then mentioned his friend Tom van der Meijden, who had rewritten the code of the program, and asked me if I would be interested to join the project and to open a website in French.

Those first emails, in July and August of 1997, marked the very beginning of the project. I was interested because I liked the idea of those handy free dictionaries, and because it was a nice opportunity to learn to build and manage a website. I had been on the net for two years already, but I spent almost all my time chatting late at night with American friends on the IRC. Frits taught me everything I should know, not concerning the building of the webpage in itself (I was using FrontPage, if I remember well, so it was not difficult), but especially concerning the indexing and the promoting of the site. Frits was mad about statistics, counters and what was not yet called SEO (search engine optimization). I was a bit reluctant, as promoting a website has always been a boring task to me, even at the time, but after a while I understood how important it was for a free website to have a large number of visitors. It was the only way the project could grow, and Frits knew it. In the merciless jungle the web has become today, Frits' lessons are still precious, and I'm very grateful for his teaching me.

On November 15, 1997, I sent an email to Frits, announcing him that my webpage was up and running. There were about 5 pages: homepage (with a counter!), download, online dictionary, information and contact.

To be continued, stay tuned!

Freelang celebrates its tenth anniversary!

Freelang has actually been on the web for 10 years now, or at least the French version of the website, to be precise. Let's celebrate this event together, during the next few days. We will tell you how it all began, what the main steps were, and what lies ahead in the future. We will also have the opportunity to thank all the people who have supported the project, but also to give a few red cards, as we have also had a few problems along the way. There will also be updates on the site, of course, and, best of all, a big event followed by a competition. Stay tuned for more information!

I'm full of emotion when I think back over these last ten years. The origin of Freelang was just a lucky coincidence, it was all about meeting the right people at the right time. Many people have contributed to the project over the years. Some of them have been around since the beginning and are still here today, while some others got involved during a time, then moved on to other things. Some remained anonymous, and some became friends. Thank you to all of you.

In a next article I will tell you how the project was started, how it all began, when Freelang didn't even have a name but was just called "The Dictionary website".

Happy anniversary, Freelang!

10 days countdown to Freelang 10 years anniversary

Taking into account a new Samoan dictionary that we will publish soon, our Brazilian friend Renato Figueiredo is the author of no less than 16 Freelang dictionaries. Isn't that worth an entry in the Guinness Book of Records? It is worth at least an interview on Freelang's website, and it is one of the many surprises we're preparing for the celebration of our 10 year anniversary.

A new feature in our blog: you can now subscribe to comments via email. This makes it a lot easier to stay in the conversational loop after you've commented on a post somewhere! More details here if you need.