I trump CMOS!

From the latest Q&A page on the Chicago Manual of Style website:

Q. I’m editing a translation of an ancient Chinese text, the Dao De Jing, which is largely concerned with describing the ideal “Daoist sage ruler.” The translator has chosen to use the generic masculine pronoun because in the historical context of the text, rulers were exclusively men. (For instance, “Of the best of all rulers, people will only know that he exists.”) I’m inclined to accept this argument, but should I be concerned about gender bias?

A. Although most of us are rooting against gender bias, it probably doesn’t help to write it out of our history. If you’re concerned about the effect the language will have on impressionable readers, work with the translator to include a note about gender issues in that historical context.

Normally I'd agree with this, but in this case, since the Chinese word for "he" is the same as the word for "she", you can use any pronoun you like (including singular "they", which I have pointed out before is not bad English, even though the CMOS has stopped recommending it). "Ah" my sinologically-inclined readers will say, "it may be the same word but there are two different characters." Yes indeedy, but only in modern Chinese, not in classical Chinese! Hahaaa, I win!

u2

yesterday i lost my iPod and omg was that truaMATic but i found it in uncle solris briefcase though ive no idea how it got there. anyway 2day i borrowed his mp3 player which was a grody blakc stick imean hes so tight he wont evn buy 1 of those zen muvo things. of course its full of rly OLD music like led zepelin and james brown. i dont want to spk ill of the dead (at least i think led zepelin r dead or at least most of them anywya) but come on uncle solri, listen to stg new for a change!!!! what made me laff was theres this band on there called u2. heres uncle S teling me off for writing "u2' instead of "you too" and he's listening to a band called u2!!! i didnt know they even HAD sms & IM in those days. acksherly their not bad. i think their some kind of latin band cuz they sing about this chick called gloria and it sounds like spanglish. i axed uncle S what it meant and he said "i dont know,its prolly just a ripoff of that pati smith song i just put it there for the giutar riff." duh - the guy majored in english and music and thats all he can say??? now hes gone to bed im gonna dlt all teh dinosuar rock and put in some avril lavinge :-P