Why will the New Year be the ‘Ox’ year and not the ‘Cow’ year?

Sun, 18 Jan 2009
2 min read
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That’s a very interesting question. I Googled around but couldn’t find any answers, so I turned to the OED.

cow, n.
3. a. The female of certain other large animals, e.g. elephant, rhinoceros, whale, seal, etc., the male of which is called a bull. See BULL n.1 2.
b. attrib. In sense of ‘female’, ‘she-’.
4. transf.
a. A timid, faint-hearted person, a coward. Obs. Cf. COW-BABY, -HEARTED, COWISH a. 2.
b. Applied to a coarse or degraded woman. Also, loosely, any woman, used esp. as a coarse form of address.
c. An objectionable person or thing, a distasteful situation, etc. Austral. and N.Z. slang.

ox, n.
1. a. A large cloven-hoofed, often horned ruminant mammal, Bos taurus (family Bovidae), derived from the extinct Eurasian aurochs and long domesticated for its milk, meat, and hide; a cow, a bull; (in pl.) cattle. Freq. spec.: a castrated adult male of this animal, esp. as used as a draught animal; a bullock.
b. As a proverbial type of strength, brawn, fortitude, obstinacy, etc. Chiefly similative, esp. in as strong as an ox.

My best guess is that the word ‘cow’ is perceived to have more negative connotations/associations as compared to the word ‘ox’, which has more positive connotations e.g. the word ‘cow’ usually brings to mind docile, brainless creatures while the word ‘ox’ brings to mind strong, brawny creatures.

More importantly, I think the real deal here has to do with gender. An ox is usually thought of as masculine creature, whereas a cow usually refers to the female of the species e.g. female elephant, whale, etc.

If you look at the 12 zodiac animals, they’re all male – as opposed to having a tigress, mare, chicken, bitch and sow, we have their male equivalents there.

So I guess it’s really about how the world has been shaped for us, or how the world continues to be shaped – through masculine lenses, through masculine eyes. I’m not particularly in favour of this, so I’ll stick to calling this new year the Year of the Cow.

Thanks for pointing this out and I hope my interpretation helps.

Nakhon Kitchen.

Mon, 15 Dec 2008
1 min read
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Didn’t manage to take pictures, but plugging this restaurant cos it’s really good. The food rocks, it’s value-for-money, service is good though the restaurant needs more staff, chairs and tables at the rate that business is increasing cos it’s got quite a name for itself now.

MAJOR SELLING POINT: Ask me in private and I’ll tell you. Heh heh heh…

Read other reviews with pictures:

  1. Nakhon Kitchen @ HungryGoWhere.
  2. Nakhon thai restaurant at Hougang street 21.

~

Address:
Nakhon Kitchen
212 Hougang Street 21
#01-341

Tel: 6286 8785 – They do take-aways too! Perfect way to beat the crowds.

Law and poetry.

Tue, 4 Nov 2008
2 min read
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Or, why communication skills are important for teachers.

So as I was busy being wowed by how podcasting is used in education, I discovered a lecture by Professor Lawrence Joseph titled “Why Poetry Matters”. The tagline for this was “Does law get to the bottom of things? Writing poetry – not an alternative but a necessity.”

This had me wow-ing even more, and I was determined to find out what the lecture was about. So as the podcast was downloading, I made breakfast for myself and when I was good and ready, I plunked myself down on my chair to commence breakfast and what I thought would be an interesting lecture.

Well, let’s put it this way – breakfast was interesting enough. Or maybe I should be slightly more transparent – the lecturer left much to be desired in terms of his communication skills.

Because I spent half the time trying not to be bored by his monotone, that was half the time lost to what would’ve been a very insightful lecture. I had to play back several portions of the lecture several times, so much so that I just gave up on watching the damn thing and decided to do a Google search instead.

I found a document that I think pretty much sums up his thesis and argument, but then again, I could be wrong, because I didn’t catch the entirety of what he was saying.

It’s kinda sad because it only serves to show that even the greatest technology won’t be able to help any teacher if her/his lesson or the way s/he conveys it is completely not engaging at all. Moreover, to have to use a text-based Internet source in place of the video is retrogressive and a complete waste of technology, time and effort.

Now, physician, heal thyself! *chuckles* I have to go create a lesson plan now!