Personal
linguist:
- "What is a linguist?"
A linguist is a specialist in linguistics, the science of language.
The word is also used to mean someone who is fluent in a specific language.
I'm the first kind.
- "How many languages do you speak?"
"Asking a linguist (language scientist) how many languages he speaks is
like asking a doctor how many diseases she has." (Lynne Murphy)
I've studied about eight formally and more informally, but my work is
not so much knowing languages as knowing about languages.
To some degree or other I've studied
ASL (American Sign Language), French,
Esperanto, German, Latin, Russian,
Spanish, Sanskrit, Classical Greek, Old and Middle English, Hebrew,
Arabic, Sherpa, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and
Klingon
and probably others I can't recall offhand.
- I subscribe and contribute to
and others.
- I enjoy wordplay, puns, and such.
resident of:
Jew:
- I belong to Kol Tzedek,
a new Reconstructionist congregation in West Philadelphia.
- When I lived in Massachusetts, I was a member of Congregation Beth El of the
Sudbury River Valley. I sang in Shir El, our choral group, and took
part in the annual Purim Spiel.
- Some years ago I wrote this
meditation for Yom HaShoah
(Holocaust Remembrance Day).
related to:
- my wife Rene, who:
- is a librarian, whose work history includes:
- Assistant Library Director at the Framingham Campus of
Mass. Bay Community College.
- Aquinas College, which was run by the Congregation of
the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Boston
- member of the Metrowest
Regional Library System executive board
- was for many years an elected member of Framingham (Mass.) Town Meeting when we lived there
- is a past president of Framingham Townwide PTO (Parent-Teacher
Organization)
- collects dolls and
sews for them (including Iselle and Betriz from The
Curse of Chalion and Paladin
of Souls)
- as well as doing many other things too numerous to mention here
- except that I will add to the above list that I love her very much
- our daughter Susannah, alumna of
Harvard and
MIT (Comparative Media Studies)
- our son Jeremy
- our foster son Andrew Wray, now at Princeton
(all of whom are graduates of
Framingham High School)
- my sister Wendy Sue, who is an
artist among other things
- my nephew Roger Morehouse
and his wife Renate
- my cousin Richard Weissberg and his wife Barbara Kivowitz
- my cousin Mark Weissberg, and Jo Lindt
- my late not-wicked stepmother Jean Rosenthal Mandel,
and my step-stepfather Philip McIntosh
- my late father Howard Mandel,
who was VP for Research of the National Association of Broadcasters
- my late mother
Annette Tarr, who taught art at Music and Art H.S.
in Manhattan, and Erasmus Hall H.S. in Brooklyn, N.Y.
- my late stepfather Sidney Tarr, who taught speech at
Christopher Columbus H.S. in New York City
- and others too numerous to mention
sf & fantasy fan:
For other fans of Steven Brust I have compiled some information
about the world of Dragaera at Cracks and Shards; and I am
honored that Steve thought enough of it to cite it
on the Acknowledgments page of his book
Paths of the Dead. Real Life™ has interfered with my
keeping the site as up to date as I would like.
I subscribe to the lois-bujold discussion list. I sometimes make
horrible jokes there, and
elsewhere as well.
I participate or have participated in these conventions:
- Arisia.
- Boskone.
- ConCertino and other
local instantiations of the Floating
Northeast Filk Convention.
- Consonance 2003
as Interfilk guest: see below.
- I attended the Millennium PhilCon, the
2001 WorldCon in
Philadelphia. Here's my report.
- At Noreascon '04,
the 2004 Worldcon, I had the honor of creating the role of Dr. McKoko,
Lord High Evil Genius, in the première production of a new
space opera, The
Filkado, by Gary McGath and Terri Wells.
- I have been attending PhilCon, the Philadelphia Science
Fiction Convention, since... well, I guess, the Millennium PhilCon
singer of:
- filk music:
- other folk music: a 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and double-0hs folkie.
- Jewish choral music
- Yale Russian Chorus-type music: with a San Francisco men's Slavic
(and plus) chorus called
Slavyanka, once upon a time when I lived in
Berkeley.
student of Tàijíquán (T'ai Chi Ch'uan):
in Yang style short form; with Dennis Reynolds. Though I no longer go to
class, I try to do the form every day.
friend or acquaintance of:
also known as:
- Dr. Whom, Consulting Linguist, Grammarian, Orthoëpist,
& Philological Busybody.
Quite a long while ago the good Doctor started a
list of his pet peeves,
but he has never gotten very far on it.
- marqem la'Hom: Subcommander Markemm,
Klingon Sanitation Corps
- SilverBlack, in alt.callahans
once upon a time
- Windwolf, a long time ago on a BBS far, far away
I am not (but I have been confused with):
- Alan Mandel. Alan is my middle name, not my first. There is an
Alan Mandel who lives in Framingham, as I did for twenty years but no
longer do, and is married to a librarian, as I have been for even
longer.
- a Webmaster, sysop, listserv administrator, or ISP provider of any kind
- a writer of program notes for the Boston Symphony Orchestra
or an employee of WCRB radio, Waltham* (Massachusetts)
- a physician in Brookline, a Cablevision employee in Natick*,
or a MediaOne or Channel 13 employee in Needham* (all in Massachusetts)
- the media relations director for ABC Sports*
- a former member of the Automation Group at
United Airlines' Maintenance Operations Center (hi, wotten Wayne!)
- "the Mark Mandel who went to P.S. 220 in Forest Hills (alright,
alright, Flushing), New York"
- an alumnus of the Cherry Lawn School in Darien, Connecticut,
or of any grade school in Canada
- an ex-Torontonian now living in Las Vegas
- "the Mark Mandel who grew up on the south side of Chicago"
- the son of a Mystic, Connecticut, coffee
shop owner
- born or adopted in California
- adopted anywhere else, either
* although it's odd
how many of these are in broadcasting
I am not related to:
If a reasonable number of these characteristics match your search
parameters, then your search may be over.
If I am the Mark Mandel you're looking for:
email me!
Otherwise:
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Last modified 2010-06-19
