From New York City, this is Lexicon Valley, a podcast about language.

I'm John McWater, and you know, last time I did all Steely Dan, well this time we're going

back to the showdoons, sorry, some of you, but I want to celebrate an experience that I just

had and I want to bring it on with I've been to a marvelous party, this is Patricia Routledge,

singing in a review called Cowardy Custard, back in the 70s, this is one of my favorite songs ever,

we'll just do a bit of it. I went to a marvelous party with Nuno and Nadar and Nell,

it was in the fresh air and we went as we were and we stayed as we were which was hell.

Poor Grace started dancing at midnight and didn't stop singing till fall. We knew the excitement

was bound to begin when Laura got blind on DuBonny and Gin and scratched her veneer with a

cartier pin I couldn't have liked it more. Oh, I've been to a marvelous party, I must say the fun

was intense. We all had to do what the people we knew would be doing a hundred years hence.

Deo Cecil arrived wearing armor, some shells and a black feather bar. Poor,

Millis and Twater surrealist comb made of bits of music from some peaters in room,

but the weight was so great that she had to go home, I couldn't have liked it more.

Anyway, I haven't been to any marvelous parties lately for the obvious reason but I have been to

a marvelous book and that book is by Alan Michail, M-I-K-H-A-I-L, Alan Michail, it's the A-L-A-N

kind of Alan and the book is called God's Shadow, God's Shadow and it's about the Ottoman Empire,

specifically Sultan Salim and it's really one of the best books I've ever read and I'm not going to

do an interview with Professor Michail for this episode because it's not a book about language but

boy did it get me thinking about language as the linguist person that I am. Basically God's Shadow

is a book about a particular period in the history of the Ottoman Empire and it opens your eyes

to what the Ottoman Empire was and how central it was to quote unquote the world at the time.

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