Diacritiques

Here are two really-much-too-long-drawn-out noun phrases I found in today’s idle browsing. The first one is from an AP wire (emphasis mine):

An independent commission to oversee coastal restoration and hurricane protection work in Louisiana has been proposed by the Louisiana congressional delegation. It would be called the “Protecting Essential Louisiana Infrastructure, Citizens and Nature Commission,” or the Pelican Commission, after the state bird.

Some might be wishing the state bird was an owl. And which of the Louisiana citizens and what parts of its nature count as essential anyway?

The second one was on a page from Stanford University, dug up by Google when I asked it to help me find out what sluicing is. (I’m still not quite sure, but I think i get the gist now.) The footer of the page contains a line that indicates, “A Stanford Humanities Center Mellon Foundation Research Workshop Program”. Whew.

What mitigates the sternness a little, though, is the line below: “this site is loved by philip hofmeister and he is loved back”. Humanity in the Humanities Center. Or at least on their servers.