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do you say that to everyone who does not agree with you because i have heard muslim scholars about tawqa and they say what i had said.
so the word "Muttakin" means what according to you?
Someone who has "taqwa"? Or someone doing just "ittaqa"??
do you say that to everyone who does not agree with you because i have heard muslim scholars about tawqa and they say what i had said.
as you say that taqwa means fear of God then wouldn't it apply to only the people who believe in God? Muslims and people of the book?
I am an ex-Muslim with absolutely no present religious associations or affiliations.
As we can plainly see, the verse in its entire context of revelation is biased towards the belief in and obedience to Allah. "Taghut" means: The action of disbelief and disobedience to Allah and Islam.
Have you not considered the one who argued with Abraham about his Lord [merely] because Allah had given him kingship? When Abraham said, "My Lord is the one who gives life and causes death," he said, "I give life and cause death." Abraham said, "Indeed, Allah brings up the sun from the east, so bring it up from the west." So the disbeliever was overwhelmed [by astonishment], and Allah does not guide the wrongdoing people. -Koran 2:258
Muhammad ordered the assassination of Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf, who was one of the leaders of the Banu Nadir tribe. His crime was speaking badly against Islam. The assassination was done in the middle of the night, under the guise of lying to Ka'b to get him to drop his guard. Some Muslims lied to Ka'b about their abandoning Muhammad, and then proceeded to assassinate Ka'b.
this is about jews like Kab who went to Mecca in order to persuade polytheists to attack muslims, while jews were in a peace contract with muslims and the punishment of betrayer was to be killed according to the contract.
have you not seen those to whom a portion of the book was given believing in (the two statutes of mecca) jibt and taghout and say to those who disbelieve: 'those are more guided on the way than those who believe.' (2:51)
those are they whom allah has cursed and whosoever allah has cursed, you will not find any helper for him. (2:52)
Because of the assassination of Ka'b, and the attacks and expulsion of other Jewish tribes from Medina, and also due to the constant demands of jizya and alms taxes,... the tribe of Banu Nadir refused to pay yet another alms to Muhammad as "blood money" for the the deaths of two men that died in a skirmish that Muslims had instigated. For refusing to pay the alms, Muhammad accused the Banu Nadir of plotting to assassinate him, which he concluded based on "revelation."
it was he who expelled the unbelievers among the people of the book from their homes into the first exile. you did not think that they would go out, and they thought their fortresses would protect them from allah. but allah came upon them from where they did not expect, casting terror into their hearts that their homes were destroyed by their own hands as well as by the hands of the believers. therefore, take heed you that have eyes. (59:2)
because they broke their promise with allah and his messenger; and whosoever breaks their promise with allah allah is stern in retribution. (59:4)
After Kenana's execution, Islam's prophet Muhammad then married his grieving wife Safiyya bint Huyayy
"No compulsion in religion" was abrogated two years later in favor of jihad against non-believers:
But then Allah's saying (There is no compulsion in religion…) was abrogated and the Prophet was commanded to fight the "People of the Book" in Suratul Tawbah"
- Tafsir Al-Wahidi
"1. [This is a declaration of] disassociation, from Allah and His Messenger, to those with whom you had made a treaty among the polytheists.
2. So travel freely, [O disbelievers], throughout the land [during] four months but know that you cannot cause failure to Allah and that Allah will disgrace the disbelievers...........- Qur'an, Suratul Tawbah, ayah 1-5 (9:1-5)
1-Moses says :The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. -Deuteronomy 18
Jesus is different from Moses especially the birth of Jesus was a miracle and he is from israiletes not their brothers.
2-He said: "The LORD came from Sinai and dawned over them from Seir; he shone forth from Mount Paran(mountains around Mecca). He came with myriads(ten thousand) of holy ones from the south, from his mountain slopes.-Deuteronomy 33:2
if we accept that Sinai refers to Moses and Seir refers to Jesus but what about the Mecca mountains ! especially if we consider that Muhammed entered Mecca with it's ten thousand followers.
What sense does it make hate, or dehumanize, or to even have the permission or possibility to force people to convert or die, or to be lawfully allowed to take slaves?
I don't even remember what it IS now - will you kindly repeat for me what it is you now claim I "support",
Seems pretty logical, then, that "The
Khilafah" needs to be, um, shall we say
- "resurrected"?
Islam has a unified code and provision
for a central leadership, The Khilafah.
It was abolished after WWI by planting
the seed of nationalism and making
arabs fight the turks by giving false
promises to arabs. The effects of which can still be seen.
The muslims are unfortunately divide
by nationalities, sects, tribes etc while
Islam calls them to be united under
one faith.
If Islam operates on the concepts of "peace" and "no compulsion in religion," and is not seeking world dominance..... Please explain why the combined End Time prophecies of Allah and Muhammad detail a world-wide battle of Muslims against non-Muslims, especially the genocide of Jews.... and how Imam Mahdi will come to rule the Islamic One World Government and Religion.
If Islam's goal was freedom of religion
and peace, then surely such an
oppressive and totalitarian
eschatology would not exist, let alone
jizyah tax, slavery, or jihad.
Wildtimes here supports Khilafah. Is she a stealth jihadist??
Since it was founded in 1996, Khilafah.com has earned a reputation for being the foremost Islamic political and ideological website in the English language. Khilafah.com is dedicated to articulating the case for Islam as an ideology that provides solutions for all human problems and all human relationships. It is our belief that Islam must be understood ideologically that deals with individual and societal problems. At the forefront of the call of Islam (Da'wah) today is the case of presenting Islam as a challenge to the current chaos, inequality, despotism and international disorder – all a consequence of Western liberalism (Capitalism).
Jizyah simply is a protection tax unless you want non muslims to be freeloaders in an islamic state.
Originally posted by maes2
Islam (submission to almighty God) has been the only religion throughout history, religion of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad
Originally posted by logical7
Jizyah simply is a protection tax unless you want non muslims to be freeloaders in an islamic state.
Second of all, you suggested I was one of those "stealth jihadists." That is an awful link to make. It is libel, and I COULD sue you for it in the "liberal West".
Like I said, you are not to be trusted as
a real 'educator' in Islam. Kgnow has
blown your doors off - your agenda is
now exposed as nothing more than
impotent apologetics.
Basically the western way teaches(by actions) that this world is everything there is


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Reader Interactions
Love the sheer blouses
That first picture is so pretty!
Sheer is a must during the dreadful summers. I am right there with you! Love that first picture! Have a GREAT weekend!
Giveaway @ Because Shanna Said So
I love the pic with the cobalt blouse! I don't tend to so sheer in the summer, but love layering it over stuff in the fall and spring. 😉
I like the sheer look, it's perfect for summer.
ohh I love these choices! I am your newest follower! I cannot wait to read more of your posts and hope that maybe you can return the favor and follow The Preppy Student. I always comment for every comment left on my page and hope to start a friendly relationship with your wonderful blog!
Great choices my dear! I'm really thinking it times to update my wardrobe…and I need to "branch" out…
hey cory, thanks for the comment on my blog and believe it or not I can believe you don't own a maxi cause I just bought my first one a couple of weeks ago….
sheree x
I'm loving the sheer trend too! I'm going to see if I can find a top I like this weekend!
Glad you're enjoying CO so much!
I'm off to stalk your Pinterest and try to find the links to some of these fabulous tops.. xoxo.
The sheer look is a great way to layer during the summer! 🙂
Jen @ Librarian for Life Style, http://librarianforlifestyle.wordpress.com
love the post..loving sheer and these photos you picked are beautiful..first time linking up..going to explore your blog some more now
love from NY
Sheree x
I love the sheer trend. The tops are so flirty and sweet.
I've linked up for Fashion Friday!!
Have a lovely weekend:)
I love your choices. That swimsuit cover up and the very last blouse are just stunning.
I keep meaning to tell you that I am a huge Marilyn fan too. I keep noticing it on your main page!
That's so funny. I was just going through Polyvore looking for a sheer top. That blue one is heavenly! There's definitely no room for anything heavy this season so these are just perfect. Have a great weekend! x
I love the sheer trend too, perfect for summer and for us here living in the tropics.
Enjoy the rest of your stay in Colorado and have a great weekend!
I love the sheer look! It is especially good where we live since it is not really warm. I can wear a sheer button up with jeans and still feel a bit summery!
ok now im browsing through online shops!! i blame you. lol ❤ misskatv.com
that top picture is so gorgeous! Makes me want colorful sheer tops!
[…] a linky party today so don't forget to stop over at Blonde Episodes and say hello to […]


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Appleton speaks sense over squad imbalance
Rovers manager Michael Appleton has come out in public and said what we've all been thinking for a fair while now - there is a chronic imbalance assembled in our squad.
With the transfer window less than a week away it looks as if the club have got some work on their hands to fulfil the statement of the new Rovers manager, who has asked for at least three new signings and time to rebuild a squad which is awash with a plethora of attacking players but a lack of defensive cover.
Sit back... this is probably the most honest assessment of the Blackburn squad I've head since Big Sam left.
Appleton the Lancashire Telegraph - "I would like to bring in a minimum of three. I am reasonably confident we can do that before next Thursday. It (the squad) is totally unbalanced. We have probably got 10 or 12 number 10s.
"Yet we find ourselves with an injury to one of our young players Adam Henley and we had to go out on loan to get a young right back because we have an experienced right back playing for another Championship club on loan.
"At left back we have Martin Olsson and, with the interest from West Ham as it is, the only other option we would have is young Josh Morris, who is not particularly a left back anyway.
"The balance of the squad has to be addressed, you are not going to be able to do that after coming into the building for a few weeks.'


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Can you tell she is posing and saying "cheese" for all of you. It is tricky to get a picture of her because she pauses for about a half second before she runs up to the camera and tries to see herself in the display on the back. So, she wanted to be a mermaid for Halloween. How did I know that this 21 month old spitfire wanted to be a mermaid? Because she can talk loudly, forcefully and in long sentences already. She loves all things mermaid and of course wants to have a mermaid costume. Who wouldn't, look how it sparkles, and as she says, "it is prip-pee" (that's pretty in adult speak).
I figured a toddler isn't going to be able to walk around in a mermaid style skirt and decided a pair of pants would work out better. I thought an added tutu would make it even prip-pee-er and then I found this cute pink swimsuit on clearance for $3 dollars. (If you think you might want to make a mermaid costume and use a swimsuit as a top head online right now, a lot of stores (Target) have swimsuits on clearance.)
- Mermaid Style Fabric
- 2 Sheets of Craft Felt
- Sewing Machine
- Scissors
- Thread
- Pants Pattern
How To:
I want to first tell you about the fabric I used. I found this glittery, sequin like fabric in the clearance bin at Jo-Anns. What I didn't realize is those shiny dots are actually stuck onto the fabric. While I was sewing, if my needle went through those dots it got sticky goo on the needle and then after awhile the needle would get so sticky the thread would get stuck on the needle and break. So I would actually recommend finding another fabric you like. I have since been back and found a fabric in their Halloween seasonal that looks like a mermaid fin and has a metallic sheen to it. You might want to consider it as an option, unless you have a ton of patience.
Lets start with the fin. Use a piece of 9×11 craft felt and draw an outline on it of your fin shape. Cut out two identical fin shapes to use on each leg of your mermaid pants.
Next the pants. I can't actually share the pattern with you I used for the pants. But here is one that is really close (Pants Pattern Tutorial). Follow the instructions and sew the pants according to the directions. If your pattern does not have a seam on the outside of the leg, mine did not and either does the link above, then lay your pants out flat and cut a slit the height of your fin up the outer side of each pant leg. With your pants inside out, pin the fin in place so it is inside the pant leg, between the two right sides. Sew along the edge of the pants to secure the fin in place.
How about the tutu? I actually found this tutu with an outfit on clearance for $3 and decided to go with it instead of sewing one myself. If you want to create your own no sew tutu, check out this link: No Sew Tutu. It is really simple.
Now you made a really easy mermaid costume for your toddler and now she can be oh so prip-pee too!


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Emily Dawn
I Dare You - Poem by Emily Dawn
It will always be easier to complain,
To find fault.
To revel in negativity,
Like a hog in a mud bath,
A dog in manure.
Because cynicism seeks you,
Like a shadow.
And if you lack material to report,
Others will eagerly
Contribute their criticisms
To your collection.
But, why choose what is easy?
Why embrace the first phrase
You are bombarded with?
You certainly don't accept a date
That proposes in such a way.
Why resign yourself to merely being sought?
Why not rebel?
Sidestep the nonsense, just for a moment,
And look around you.
Collect the endless beauty, the gratitude,
The sunshine.
Even when it rains, Remember,
Some thirsty plant somewhere
Is giving thanks.
Treasures are buried for a reason.
Seek deeper.
Do not bemoan the difficulty,
Savor the wisdom.
What you seek
Should be worth surmounting
Any hindrance.
Obstacles are a gift,
A map of your heart's desires.
The paths you forged through hardship,
That is where your true love dwells.
Do not let this morbid fascination
With spreading unhappiness
Like infection,
And scattering resentments
Like dandelion seeds
Go unchecked.
Do not sip from that poisonous cup.
Bitter weeds need no urging,
But sustenance requires gardening.
Tumble if you must,
But keep climbing.
< br>Help others,
Whether or not you have the strength.
Don't just cry for it when you feel weak.
You will always be weak.
But you are not the only one with needs.
Accept your humanity,
But transcend the temptation
To languish;
To sink into indolence.
Cultivate a different appetite.
A truer sight.
Collect the endless beauty, the gratitude,
The sunshine.
Even when it rains, Remember,
Some thirsty plant somewhere
Is giving thanks.
Be an Optimist.
Poet's Notes about The Poem
Comments about I Dare You by Emily Dawn
Read this poem in other languages
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem »
Emily Dawn's Other Poems
Famous Poems
Phenomenal Woman
Maya Angelou
Still I Rise
Maya Angelou
The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost
If You Forget Me
Pablo Neruda
Langston Hughes
Annabel Lee
Edgar Allan Poe
Caged Bird
Maya Angelou
Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
Robert Frost
Rudyard Kipling
I Do Not Love You Except Because I Love You
Pablo Neruda


text:
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text:
Source: PRB The World's Women and Girls 2011 Data Sheet
Notes: (-) Data unavailable, inapplicable, or not collected.
Source: PRB 2015 World Population Data Sheet.
Notes: Data are for 2015 or the most recent year for which data are available.
Source: PRB Family Planning Worldwide 2013 Data Sheet
Definition: The probability that a 15 year old woman will eventually die from causes related to pregnancy or childbirth. The measure combines the probability of becoming pregnant and the risk of death from each pregnancy (as measured by the 2010 maternal mortality ratio).
Notes: (-) Data unavailable, inapplicable, or not collected.
Definition: Public sources of modern methods include government hospitals and clinics, dispensaries, mobile clinics, government field workers, and maternity centers. Private sources include private hospitals, pharmacies, doctors, community-based distributors, and nongovernmental organizations. Also included are shops, kiosks, friends, and relatives.
Definition: Percent of married women ages 15-49 using modern contraception, by wealth quintile. Researchers divide the population into quintiles or five groups of equal size, based on an index of surveyed household assets that serve as a proxy measure for wealth. Data are shown for the poorest, middle, and richest fifths.


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I read through the mail archive and have looked through the docs, but I can't see an easy way to have the server parse all .html files as if they were .shtml. Is this possible? How can I do this? Is there a good reason not to do this? Thanks. ShawnReceived on Monday, 2 June 1997 18:39:01 UTC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.1 : Tuesday, 6 January 2015 21:25:31 UTC


text:
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a beautiful gift of fragrant gardenias full of fragrant blooms & buds.
included in gift
gardenia planted in ceramic arc bowl with saucer
care instructions
add to this gift with a tag made exclusively for Growing Gifts.
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After forty-plus years of nosing through the stacks of book stores, it's hard to surprise me. When I came across a Modern Library edition of Human Being by Christopher Morley while browsing in the Harvest Book Company store in Philadelphia, it was a double punch: not just a Modern Library title I'd never seen before, but a Christopher Morley novel that I couldn't recall.
I know most of the Modern Library list by heart–even the early oddities like Artzibashev's Sanine and Kuprin's Yama (The Pit). I should devote a post, in fact, to the curiosities that can be found in the full Modern Library backlist. And, of course, I've seen hundreds of copies of Morley's best-known books, particular his two bibliophile novels, Parnassus on Wheels (1917) (a Modern Library title from 1930 till the early 1950s) and The Haunted Bookshop (1919), and his biggest best-seller, Kitty Foyle (1939). And I must have come across Human Being before, as it went into at least six printings when it first came out in 1934. If I had, though, the memory has gone with the wind.
For a solid three-plus decades, between the late 1910s and early 1950s, Christopher Morley was one of the best-known literary figures in America. A prolific essayist, reviewer, and writer of every type of literature, from plays and poetry to short stories and novels. He was one of the founders of the Saturday Review magazine and one of the first members of the Book of the Month Club review board. He did not aspire to creating great art, although he has an enthusiastic proponent of bringing literature to the masses–editing, for example, a collection of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets for the popular audience.
Yet, at the same time, he appears to have been happy to follow his whims wherever they led, taking it for granted that enough readers to pay his mortgage would want to come along. And anyone who would read Human Being needs to be ready to follow Morley's meanderings, as he happily takes many a detour from the narrative.
Starting with the narrator himself. The core of Human Being is based around the attempt by Lawrence Hubbard, a semi-retired accountant, to construct a biography of Richard Roe–a man he meets just once, over lunch with some other acquaintances, a few weeks before Roe's death. But from the very beginning, another voice, clearly that of Morley, takes over, and reaches over Hubbard's shoulder to grab the pen whenever the spirit moves him. "This is not the biography of Richard Roe," he interjects at the start of Chapter Three, "but a biography of that biography." And, where needed to move things along, an omniscient narrator steps in to let us into the minds of Roe, his wife, his mother-in-law, and even his Pekinese dog.
In giving his protagonist the name Richard Roe, Morley makes it pretty obvious that he wants to tell an Everyman story. Which requires, of course, a character with few distinguishing traits. Recalling Roe from their one lunch together, Hubbard remarks, in fact, that Roe "had a talent for not being noticeable." He does, however, remember one thing Roe said: "Not long ago, I went up Riverside Drive at night on a bus. Suddenly an electric sign across the river flashed on in the dark, caught me right in the eyeball. It said THE TIME IS NOW 7:59. You know that damned thing frightened me."
A short while after the lunch, Hubbard finds a short notice in the paper:
Richard Roe of 50 West 81st Street, manufacturer of stationery novelties with an office in the Flatiron Building, was taken ill on a Lackawanna Railroad ferryboat last night and died before the boat reached Hoboken. A heart attack was said to be the cause.
This leads Hubbard to decide to write a biography of Roe. Partly because "He had reached that period–it usually comes somewhere in the fifth decade–when a man decides that if he is ever going to do anything worth while he had better get started." And partly because, as an accountant, "He was a great believer in the only law that is unerringly enforced, the law of averages." Who better, then, to study, than an essentially unknown human being, to answer the question: "What was the basic alloy involved in being human?"
Richard Roe's story is simple: he gets a start as a go-fer in a touring theatre company and works his way up to house manager. He switches to publishing when offered a job and works his way up to a regional salesman. Then, on a suggestion and a little financing from one of his customers, he starts his own company, making and selling things like ink stands and deskpads. It fares well, even into the start of the Depression. And then he dies.
Morley tries to build a great tragedy upon this slight foundation. Roe marries the box-office manager, Lucille, while they are both working for the theatre company, but she turns out to be a shrew. Years later, he meets Minnie Hutzler, who manages the book section in a Chicago department store. The two are attracted to each other. Minnie inspires Roe to form his own business and comes to New York to help him run it. They eventually have an affair–a very tentative one–but Roe finds himself trapped. Morley would have us believe that Roe dies not of a heart attack but of a heart broken for a love he can never fully express and enjoy. It helps, of course, that Lucille is a bitter, jealous, and relentless harridan, while Minnie is what Alice Kahn called a "gal": sympathetic, supportive, but also as wily and worldwise as an Eve Arden or Thelma Ritter character.
In truth, what makes Human Being a rich and wonderful book is not the story but the detours. For although Roe's life "cuts a narrow groove along the canyons of Manhattan," as Morley puts it at one point, it's full of intersections that lead down fascinating side streets.
So Roe's time in show business leads Morley into a three-page meander into the classified ads in Variety. His office supply company gives Morley an excuse for a soliloquoy about inkstands and universal desk calendars. His time as a travelling salesman leads him to wander for seven pages through The Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines of the United States, Canada, Mexico and Cuba:
The Railway Guide became Richard's Outline of History, his Story of Philosophy. There was the Toledo, Peoria & Western ("The Peoria Road") which doesn't seem to go near Toledo at all on its own rails, but begins at Effner, Indiana. He found himself in imagination on a Mixed Train ("passenger service connections uncertain") passing a long night on the way to Keokuk. Number 3 leaves Effner at 8:30 p.m. It arrives Peoria Yard at 5:20 a.m. There must be a chance for coffee and sinkers at the Peoria Yard? And he would go out on Number 103 (good old Number 103!) at 7:45, arrive at Keokuk 2:30 p.m.–"Is there a bookstore in Keokuk?" he asked Miss Mac.
And there are endless wanderings into the diverse pleasures of mid-20th century Manhattan itself: the Flatiron Building, where Roe moves his offices; the L, which Roe takes to and from work each day; the Museum of Natural History, one of his favorite haunts. And the seasons:
New York is never so lovely as in early summer. In Richard's familiar region of Central Park West awnings burst out on apartment windows; asphalt streets feel soft under the point of a walking stick. Drug stores are draughty with electric fans, which blow out the gasoline cigar-lighter every time you snap it into flame. In the inner airshaft of apartments housewives indignantly observe little flocks of fuzz that come drifting over the sill from dustpans higher up.
In an essay on Human Being published in The American Scholar magazine back in 2003 (another reason I should have remembered the book), James McConkey described it as "more essayistic than fictional in nature." "Within the personal essay," McConkey writes, "subject is inseparable from authorial presence." If the fictional framework of Human Being is slight, what does that matter in the end, if all its display windows are packed with goodies to delight the eye of the streetside passers-by?
Usually, in the interest of having material to post on a regular basis, I tend to read books quickly. With Human Being, I took my time, happy to get dragged down another side street by such an enthusiastic and amiable tour guide as Christopher Morley.


text:
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was well and would meet NATO foreign ministers as planned on Tuesday, after reports he had hurt his arm.
Turkish media reported that the 62-year-old diplomat fell in a hotel and injured his arm while accompanying President Vladimir Putin on a trip to Turkey on Monday.
"The issue is of a minor injury that will not affect the minister's schedule," Interfax news agency quoted a Foreign Ministry source as saying.
The Kremlin has dismissed suggestions that Putin has serious health problems since he was seen limping at an Asia-Pacific summit in September. Russian government sources told Reuters Putin was suffering from back trouble.
Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Janet Lawrence


text:
Acquiring or enhancing a translation specialism:
the monolingual corpus-guided approach
Ailish Maher, Stephen Waller and Mary Ellen Kerans
Freelance translators/editors, Barcelona, Spain
Translators and editors who work in a specialised field—a particular branch of medicine, technology or finance, for instance—may find it difficult to acquire (or enhance) their domain-specific knowledge other than by learning as they go or going back to college. Both strategies can be slow and costly. Our paper describes a faster, more economical way to climb the specialist learning ladder, namely a corpus-guided approach to translating, revising and editing. We describe two tools for analysing a corpus of model texts: on the one hand, a user-friendly concordancer with an intuitive interface; on the other, an equally easy-to-use desktop-based indexer. Finally, we propose an approach to the issue of corpus size (sampling adequacy) that provides a practical solution for the working translator: we recommend creating a carefully chosen, cleaned text collection that functions as a reliable substrate corpus for language pattern guidance and adding to it an ad-hoc 'quick and dirty' corpus to further narrow the topic focus as needed.
Corpus, concordancer, translation, editing, corpus-guided translation.
1. Introduction
In the Mediterranean translation market, in which our experience is rooted, higher rates and better working conditions are commanded by specialist translators, editors-revisers of specialist texts, and revisers of specialist translations whose products answer to a very high standard. For translators working in fields in which they lack linguistic confidence, it can be difficult to acquire specialist knowledge other than by learning on the job or going back to college. Novice translators may wonder where to invest their efforts and which specialism might turn out to be their best choice 10, 15 or 20 years down the road. A trial-and-error process is painfully slow and typically results in uneven quality. As for training, there is a shortage of specialist courses, particularly of online short courses that would suit working translators.
A viable alternative is the corpus-guided approach, which consists of systematically collecting target-language texts in the same genre and knowledge area as the source text in order to create a corpus that can be mined using one or several of the software tools available for text analysis.
We have seen that educators of translators are increasingly calling for training in this approach to problem solving (López-Rodríguez and Tercedor-Sánchez, 2008; Wilkinson, 2005a; Varantola, 2003) and we applaud their effort. However, in our experience, relatively few language service providers (certainly not those working in specialist fields) have formal translation training. We have therefore become involved in continuing education for working translators who come from a variety of backgrounds and who stand to gain a great deal from learning how to design and exploit corpora. Our approach starts from a working translator's point of view rather than an academic one, although our perspective draws heavily on the principles of the late John Sinclair (1991). Although corpus analysis cannot be said to be well established in translation outside of academic circles, it is used widely in applied linguistics (see Hunston, 2002, for an overview and advice on applications), terminology research (for instance, Zweigenbaum, 2003), and in contrastive genre analysis of comparable corpora of relevance to translators (e.g., Williams, 2005; Moreno, 1997); it also underpins various approaches to specialist language teaching (Swales, 1990). The interest of these academics is largely focused on exploring language use in an academic sense and in studying processes and products. The time-strapped working translator or editor, however, is simply interested in emulating 'good' writing in the target language and genre —and this encompasses a wide range of issues such as terminology, word choice, grammar, register and style. Should data be used in the singular or plural in the computer field in comparison to other fields?1 How are forms of pathology used in different medical sub-specialisms? What, if any, are the differences in the use of face value, par value and nominal value in a financial context?
Our corpus-guided approach to translation is monolingual: although it is the source text which presents us with a problem (terminology, vocabulary choices, phrasing, sentence patterns, etc), we look for solutions in 'good models for the target text'. This simple definition of a corpus arose in the course of developing a continuing professional development workshop for working translators and language editors, in which practical tasks based on genuine translation problems are combined with practice-and-theory grounded perspectives. To date we have experimented or worked with specialist corpora created for various medical sub-specialisms, engineering, financial reports, rock mechanics, association bylaws and eighteenth-century medicine. Our approach to solving a translation problem, once the source has been understood, focuses on exploring the target language directly, after we have ensured that:
- We search texts that are restricted to those that can be strictly matched in terms of genrewith our source text (e.g., respiratory medicine as it appears in journals or other collections for peer readers, known in applied linguistics as a discourse community (Swales, 1990); UK financial reports written for investors and other real users of the information).
- We examine co-occurring text (co-text) in the specific knowledge area of the source text (e.g., genes or proteins in the context of small cell lung cancer, or derivatives accounting in the context of financial reports).
With these givens, we can confidently explore and examine possible alternative solutions to our editing or translation problem. All we need is a suitable tool that will enable us to rapidly conduct linguistically relevant and creative searches.
Our target readers for this paper—the translators or revisers for whom a time investment in the corpus-driven approach is worthwhile—will be practitioners such as:
- a novice translator who has decided to specialise in a particular field;
- a more experienced translator who wants to shift from a generalist to a specialist market and who wishes to give consistently high quality output while taking a proactive stance to career building;
- a translator who has a steady, valued client in a specialist field; or
- translators working in a team that needs to converge in terms of domain-specific language choices.
So that readers can see what kind of questions a corpus can answer, we first briefly describe two easy-to-learn, intuitive tools for analysing a corpus. We then discuss the basic steps involved in creating a suitable corpus (focusing on issues of text selection, collection and storage). In resolving the issue of sampling adequacy (corpus size) in a practical way, we propose combining a stable, cleaned substrate corpus in a knowledge field coupled with a more rapidly compiled ephemeral or ad hoc corpus to add greater topic specificity. We close with a brief discussion of whether the web can be considered a corpus and a reminder of why this approach must be distinguished from open-ended web searching.
2. Two corpus analysis tools: a concordancer and an indexer
Once good models for the target text have been collected and saved in a directory (i.e., a folder in a Windows environment), they can be analysed using a concordancer,2 which works best when the corpus is composed of plain text (*.txt) files. If the corpus is composed of other file types (PDF, Word, HTML, etc), these can either be converted to plain text or analysed directly using an indexer.3 The main practical difference between the two tools is that the former requires a time investment in pre-processing and cleaning up the files (an effort which ultimately pays off in more refined search outputs), while the latter requires only that the user store the model texts (Word documents, HTML files, PDFs) in a folder.
2.1. A concordancer
For translation purposes, the most intuitive, immediately useful feature of a concordancer is an output called a keyword-in-context (KWIC) display, also called a concordance. Figure 1 illustrates such a display, which consists of a list of occurrences of the keyword (or phrase) and its co-text or span (i.e., around 10 or 15 words to the left and right of the keyword). The concordancer we use, called AntConc,4 was developed for use by autonomous learners of English for specific purposes (Anthony, 2006). This tool, which has a highly intuitive interface, centres and highlights a keyword or words. It also has a function for right- and left-sorting concordances (Figure 2) to check for collocates and to test or confirm hypotheses in relation to how a word or phrase is used. Varantola (2003) discusses a wide range of problems student translators solved with another concordancer like this one. Wilkinson (2005a) shows further examples of concordancer outputs; they are particularly interesting because they are from a corpus of travel literature and so reveal that this approach is useful even for apparently simple translation specialisms. Although many might consider such an area not to be a specialism at all, Wilkinson reveals how the production of any text type that can be characterised, and for which a well-defined corpus can therefore be built, will benefit from this approach.
Figure 1. AntConc concordances for the search term ground* in the respiratory medicine corpus. The asterisk can be used to reflect inflections or to replace full words occurring between, before or after other words.
Figure 2. AntConc output for decay* in the signals and antennas corpus, with a 1-right sort (green)/1-left sort (red). The sort function helps identify patterns. The translator was asking two questions: a) What words might express the notion of a reduction in an exponential function (forms of reduce and decay)? and b) What adverbs might be appropriately used as intensifiers?
A concordancer also allows a greater amount of context to be quickly examined (the file view function in AntConc). A word list function rapidly provides information on corpus size (number of tokens and types5) and gives a perspective on the salient features or 'aboutness' of a corpus by ranking words by frequency. This feature can be used to guide a translation team; it can also be used to extract keywords from a source text and guide a search for texts for a corpus. Other concordancer functions—of use mainly to researchers who analyse large corpora or educators—are the 'collocate' and 'cluster' functions (which tell us about 'the company a word tends to keep') and a keyword identifier that works by comparing one corpus to another.
2.2. An indexer
Although corpus analysis has lately become synonymous with concordancing, a corpus is not necessarily defined by the storage of texts in any particular form; any collection of model texts defined by appropriate criteria is a corpus. And any such collection, provided it is in digital form, can be mined with an indexer. We use a desktop search application called Archivarius6 that most users will find easy to use because of its Google-like output (Figure 3). Its text analysis functions are more limited than those of a concordancer as far as analysing syntactical patterns is concerned, but that may matter little to the translator who wants to mine downloaded texts immediately without having to pre-process them in any way.
Figure 3. Two superimposed sample Archivarius outputs for the search terms nominal value and face value in the annual accounts corpus. When the user selects any of the Google-like hits on the left hand side of the Archivarius screen, the relevant section of a document is automatically displayed on the right side of the screen as simple text.
Since an indexer facilitates early adoption of a corpus-guided approach to translation, it is of immediate benefit to those who may still be uncertain as to the area in which they will specialise or who are still exploring whether conversion to text files (required for using a concordancer) is worth the effort. Many working translators already have a collection of model PDF or HTML texts associated with past work for regular clients, so using an indexer to mine such material merely requires grouping the texts in a single folder for indexing purposes.
3. Corpus creation
From the working translator-reviser-editor's point of view, the practical steps in a corpus-guided approach are to 1) accurately identify the type of text needed and find a source, 2) collect a sufficient number of the right text type, 3) store them in an appropriate form for analysis, and 4) analyse the language components. The previous section dealt with step 4—describing tools with which corpora can be analysed. We will now look at steps 1 to 3.
3.1. Identifying model texts
Corpus design—identifying the right content—is the key to confident decision making later. Failure to define the desired text model accurately can ultimately lead to translations that sound 'off' to the target reader. A client does not want a research article which sounds like a patient education pamphlet. Nor does the client want an annual report that sounds like financial journalism. Off-register error can also occur in the opposite direction: a client wanting the translation of a patient education pamphlet will not want to see mucosa used to refer to the lining of the nose and trachea—and that is what is likely to happen if a research article translator switches to patient material without consciously choosing a different model. We discourage broad sampling of the Internet by topic keywords alone if working to a high standard within a specialism. We recommend attention to genre and a discourse community's reading preferences, given that our goal is not primarily to find 'a good explanation of subject matter' (Lopez-Rodriguez and Tercedor-Sánchez, 2008), a purpose for which other research strategies can be equally effective. Rather, we wish to open a window that allows us to observe a community's language use. To define a corpus useful for that purpose, we ask these questions: how does the end user define the characteristics that set apart the texts we want to emulate from other texts on the same topic? Where are such texts to be found?
A translator familiar with the client's discourse community may well be able to answer these questions unaided. We created a respiratory medicine corpus of half a million words that we eventually came to refer to as a 'foundation' or 'substrate' corpus (explained in more detail below) to guide a team's translation of research articles, review articles and case reports. This corpus was created on the basis of our own direct experience of the journals most highly valued by academics in this field and in medicine overall. We knew how to identify peer-reviewed journals (see Gile and Hansen, 2004, for a discussion of academic peer review from the translator's point of view). Furthermore, within the peer-reviewed journal domain, we knew how to identify quality journals based on impact factor, indexing, editorial board prestige and other criteria. We recognised differences between these journals and industry-sponsored pseudo-journals or website look-alike content. Knowledge of which article types are typical in medicine also came from our own translation and reading experience. However, if we lacked familiarity with a discourse community, we would be guided by the reference sections of the articles to be translated. The fact that references are provided in such texts is, in fact, a distinct advantage for academic translators. In the field of finance, on the other hand, where references are not a systematic feature of texts, we were also able to quickly compile a million-word corpus to guide financial report translations based on a reliable list of the UK's biggest publicly quoted firms (the FTSE 100).
A translator who cannot characterise the scope of the text types he/she requires will need an informant—an expert who can confirm that the translator's impressions about relevant corpus content are accurate or complete enough and provide guidance on what a discourse community values. In compiling a quarter-million-word corpus for antennas and signals engineering, we first compiled a list of relevant candidate peer-reviewed journals and then asked a senior researcher to validate our choices and to inform us as to article types in this field. A rock mechanics corpus was similarly created on the basis of a client's input. Such consultants can be used either to establish corpora, as in our last two examples, or to verify that corpus-based observations seem accurate to real members of the community (e.g., Anthony, 1999).
We also grappled with the question of whether or not to choose texts written by non-native speakers of English. In finance, we chose publications by major companies that were likely to have been professionally produced by teams of native speakers and communication companies. In medicine and rock mechanics, our corpora lean towards native speakers' texts, but must necessarily contain prose by non-native English speakers in fields where such scientists lead a branch of research. Although speakers of English as an additional language (whose articles are labelled E2 in our corpus logs) may provide very adequate help with specific terminology, not all parts of their texts may offer appropriate models.
Finally, a word must be said about dating texts. Corpora need to be updated because language changes over time. The more modern term CT scan, for example, would not have appeared as often as the now outmoded term CAT scan in a medical corpus closed in the mid-1990s. Furthermore, some jobs may require diachronic comparisons, making it important to log the dates of items in a corpus. Recently, it was necessary to carefully compare our eighteenth-century English corpus with texts from the middle of the nineteenth century. The source text from the Spanish Enlightenment discussed public and workplace health a good half century before the English public health movement gained force in the 1830s and 1840s with the work of Edwin Chadwick. Many English expressions now associated with that pre-germ–theory era come from Chadwick's period and tend to suggest the evident smells of vapours. The Spanish writer used expressions that suggested the essential changes of those vapours (described with forms of corrupción) rather than their manifestation (smells). Had the later expressions been adopted—particularly the term putrid—the translation would have made the Enlightenment author seem to be speaking off-century. This potential error could be avoided through diachronic analysis of properly dated corpus material.
3.2. Collecting texts
Forty years ago a linguist's corpus might have been a collection of facsimiles or a stack of books set aside in a university library carrel. Twenty-five years ago a corpus might have been a set of photocopies. And 10 or 15 years ago it might have been a batch of photocopies or originals to be scanned and digitised. Today, however, the great availability of texts in digital form undoubtedly facilitates the corpus-guided approach to translation and editing. Three digital collection issues need to be taken into account, however, if corpus building is to be useful: a) access to free, readily available texts, b) sampling adequacy, and c) fair use.
3.2.1. Access to material
Translators in some fields are more favoured than others when it comes to free access to texts that are used by insiders in a discourse community. Academic medicine is particularly well served. Many high-quality sub-specialist journals provide open access after six months or one year, and the main general medical journals have similar policies. Even journals that limit access to subscribers allow texts to be plucked as free-access editor's choice articles. Certain medical publishers, such as Biomed Central, are entirely open access to readers. Other academic fields might be slightly more difficult to sample, but hardly impossible. Many journals, for instance, will give free access to one sample issue. Harvesting several journals in this way, plus editor's choice offerings, should yield a small starter corpus. For certain fields—our engineering corpus was one example—a university access key or a visit to a university library will be necessary.
Harvesting appropriate texts in non-academic fields—or defining hidden corners in those fields—will require more creativity. Our corpus of FTSE 100 annual reports, for instance, was obtained by downloading free reports from company websites. User manuals for medical equipment, in contrast, were found to be largely inaccessible, although manufacturers have given us files willingly when we explained how we planned to use them. Certain text types—belonging to what Swales (1990) has called 'occluded' genres (never published and only seen by insiders)—are almost impossible to sample quickly and so best left to researchers in applied linguistics: reviewer and editor reports are an example, and researcher point-by-point responses to these reports are another. Access to these and many legal documents may require an insider's assistance, and even then there may be questions of confidentiality to be resolved; safeguarding anonymity may mean that the effort is not worth it except for translators who are fully dedicated to that sub-specialism.
3.2.2. Sampling adequacy
How large should a corpus be? This is an issue that speaks directly to those of us who must trade off an investment in time against longer-term benefits. A major reason translators or editors might choose to be guided by a corpus is because they wish, in the vaguest possible terms, to emulate the language of the domain; over the longer term, however, a wise translator begins to realise that using a corpus helps correct idiolect and reduces the possibility of over-generalisation from limited personal experience with language varieties. A corpus pulls together a broader set of models, reducing the temptation to rely on selective recycling of salient phrases that are sometimes too long and may leave an author open to accusations of plagiarism or cut-paste writing (Kerans, 2006). A corpus that is too small can lead, like personal experience, to skewed language choices.
We have been unable to locate a frank discussion of corpus size applicable to our working context, and are therefore still attempting to devise and validate a way to plan size in advance. However, after years of working with different-sized corpora, we have come to the conclusion that although size may affect the number and type of questions we can answer when mining a corpus, over-worrying about size may prevent wordface workers (translators, editors, language instructors, etc) from getting started at all. We must therefore say something about it.
Early on in our practice we observed that while a corpus as small as 40,000 words proved adequate to temporarily guide instructors entering in a new field of specialised language teaching, it was much too small for translation purposes. Yet the million-word corpus linguists often assume to be a minimum goal may be too time consuming to create (particularly if it is to be cleaned of artefacts and logged, as we recommend in section 3.3 below). By way of example, we mention that harvesting, converting and superficially cleaning a million-word eighteenth century prose corpus required a full day's work by an experienced corpus builder. The reason this was deemed worthwhile was that it would guide the translation of a book of 35,000 words into a form of English spoken by no living persons; the project, furthermore, required consensus between the translator and an expert editor (Kerans & Stone, 2008).
We advise novice corpus builders to quickly compile about a quarter of a million words and observe what kind of responses they get for questions posed. We found that this was the point at which our respiratory medicine corpus, for example, began to provide sufficiently useful answers to guide a team of translators converging toward shared practice. This corpus became even more useful when its size was doubled to half a million. At this point, however, it became clear that we would need to solve the problem of insufficiently broad scope. The logical solution, choosing highly topic-specific texts for addition to the core corpus, was an approach that would require time for detailed analysis. It was then that we introduced a more practical concept, that of using the half-million word corpus as what we have come to call a 'substrate' corpus because it provides a firm base for more ephemeral corpora. A substrate corpus contains carefully chosen, logged texts that have been cleaned of non-linguistic artefacts to a high standard so that it can reliably provide both frequency counts and information about the collocation patterns that give a specialist language its underlying form.
With this concept in place, once we accepted that there was a practical size limitation with regard to building such a clean substrate corpus of good models, we were open to the notion of adding what Tribble (1997) described as 'quick-and-dirty' (Q+D) corpora, meaning 'small, informally produced corpora'. Although Tribble was encouraging specialist language instructors to study such small corpora rather than rely on instinct, the phrase has come to be used to characterise any corpus rapidly harvested from the Internet, but not cleaned or logged for systematic safekeeping and building. Ideally, the texts for a Q+D corpus will offer models for usage that are of similar quality to those of a substrate corpus in terms of genre appropriateness. The uncleaned corpus will simply give a more haphazard-looking output, or may include duplications, making some concordances more difficult to interpret.
Our Q+D corpora mainly serve to enhance topic range quickly, solving the small-corpus problem of inadequate sampling. In other words, we have invested the necessary time and effort in building very clean substrate corpora for respiratory medicine and other fields, but, on a job-by-job basis and only if needed, we supplement them with terminologically rich Q+D corpora created for specific topics. It is possible to do the harvesting in a highly automated manner. One translator on our medical team has added as many as another million words within minutes using an online corpus creation tool (WebBootCat7). Other team members have manually gathered as few as an additional 40,000 words of highly specific prose or up to 150,000 new words on an emerging topic or a new research design. Such enhancement is necessary only when a particular job requires terminology within a narrow topic range. Many translation commissions are adequately guided by a substrate corpus alone, however, so we are free to load an additional Q+D corpus or not, as we see fit.
3.2.3. Fair use
The question of fair use refers to the legality of collecting, storing and using texts without first obtaining permission from copyright holders, an issue discussed in detail from a practical corpus-for-translation perspective by Wilkinson (2006b). The main problems arise not with using a corpus for personal reference purposes but with two related circumstances in working translators' and academics' lives: a) reproducing extracts in research articles (e.g., as KWIC displays like those in this article), and b) sharing corpora with colleagues.
In regard to the first of these issues, according to Davies (2002, as cited in Wilkinson, 2006b), the copyright law that matters is that of the country from which the corpus is distributed and not the country in which the texts were created or in which the corpus user accesses the material. We are uncertain of Spanish law in regard to the use and reproduction of corpora. However, our position is that when we reproduce figures such as those in this paper, we are not citing the ideas in the specific texts. Rather we are displaying language patterns that are not specific to the usage of particular authors; as the concordance reveals, they are more generally applicable patterns. Hence, citation of the original authors' work is irrelevant, though technically possible in our logging system.
Wilkinson (2006b) also states that the fair use issue is even 'murkier' with regard to sharing corpora. At present, we share corpora with a clear conscience; when making a corpus freely available to translation team members or colleagues through a non-profit professional association's workshops,8 we do so in good faith and feel no harm is done. The receiver's use is personal, and our practice is analogous to a university professor sharing medical articles with students. Note, moreover, that for many fields for which a corpus might be created, the issue is moot: the annual reports in our financial corpus are all freely and widely distributed and carry no copyright statement at all.
To sum up, we feel that the technical capability for creating and analysing useful corpora is far in advance of the law's awareness of the practice. In the absence of clear instructions, our need to know about these tools and put them to use in benefit of our clients and their readers takes precedence. By way of contrast, however, we mention the more careful approach of the Professional English Research Consortium (PERC),9 which is compiling a 100-million word corpus representative of several knowledge and practice fields. The PERC anticipates that the corpus—in fact several sub-corpora—will eventually be used by language researchers under license; they are therefore carefully soliciting and obtaining permission from copyright holders.
3.3. Preparing and storing texts as a corpus
In one sense, corpus storage merely means placing a collection of texts in a directory or folder. When storing texts for processing in a concordancer, original format files (PDFs, HTML documents, etc) can be stored alongside text files conveniently in the same folder and with the same names, as AntConc will only load the files with the *.txt extension.
Certain decisions about file labelling and storage can save time over the long run and facilitate problem solving, however. And most importantly (as seen in Section 2 above on corpus analysis), how we decide to save files affects which tool we can use. This section will cover: a) why and how we log and label files systematically; b) the merits of various ways of creating text (*.txt) files; and finally, c) how to clean up a text file to varying degrees—and why it is worthwhile to do so—versus when to simply work with Q+D corpora.
3.3.1. File names and logs
File names should give information about the provenance of a hit at a glance, so that the editor or translator who knows the content of a corpus can factor in that information when judging suitability. Above, Figure 2 shows AntConc file names in the right-hand column; Figure 3 shows Archivarius file names—referring to companies—in green under each hit listed on the left of the output screen. Codes known to the translator or editor who uses the corpus give information on—for example—which academic journal published a text (e.g., PrMAP refers to Proceedings: Microwaves, Antennas and Propagation) followed by the main topic. It is useful to look at and learn from poor file labelling too: note that Figure 1 shows hits only for two files whose names provide very little information. The first file is a set of website texts from hospitals and university programmes containing instructions on how to perform diagnostic and surgical procedures, whereas the second file—referred to with the tag PR (indicating that it is peer-reviewed)—is a set of texts from formal medical journals. Although both contain texts written by professionals for other professionals, they represent different genre families. These file names—dating back to our early corpus creation period—provide too little information about text provenance and topic. It is still possible to go to the File View option to check those files, but a working translator wants to make informed decisions quickly. Therefore, with later additions to the corpus, our labelling became more enlightened. Now, the informed user of our corpus assessing the merits of an item in a KWIC display can immediately know topic, whether a text is British or American, or whether an author's first language is not English (E2). Suitably informative file names are also useful in another way: they permit an editor or translator to load files selectively from overlapping sub-corpora and so make corpus coverage wider or narrower.
Logging corpus content (Figure 4 shows a simple example in Word, although we are now beginning to use databases) may seem unnecessary, but we have found that doing so avoids duplicated effort if a corpus is shared by a team or if a lone translator keeps and updates several sub-corpora in a single specialism. Valuable time is obviously wasted if the same file is prepared by more than one person or more than once.
Figure 4. A log as a Word table. Databases or spreadsheets can also be used. This log contains a short but immediately informative file name (used for both the original-format file and the text file). It also describes the genre (article type), and provides bibliographic information to ensure the entry will not be duplicated, a word count, and additional keywords.
3.3.2. Conversion to plain text
Files are saved both in their original format (usually PDF or HTML) and with the *.txt file extension, and under the same names. The original format is a readable document that is useful for examining tables and figures or for learning about content. This version is also useful in order to be able to correct any errors that occur during conversion and cleaning.
The text (*.txt) format that is a standard requirement for conventional concordancers can be obtained in a variety of ways. Some documents can be directly downloaded from the web as off-copyright e-texts (e.g., from the Project Gutenberg or similar repositories). For some specialisms, adding e-text to your search string can locate useful book additions in a very clean form.
Many specialisms are best served by PDF or HTML collections, however. A feasible procedure is to convert texts using the browser's 'save as' option (choosing 'text file' from the sub-menu) or using Acrobat Reader's 'save as text' option. Cleaning such files can be time-consuming, however. Coding artefacts must be removed and the converted text proofread to rectify jumbled lines or paragraphs. If you must use this option, we recommend converting from the HTML version as the cleaning and checking process is usually easier. A much better conversion can be obtained by using a commercial PDF file converter—a small but worthwhile investment for a corpus-guided translator or editor.10 The resulting text files are almost ready to use, and how much more work you do depends on the level of cleaning you need.
3.3.3. Cleaning files—is it necessary?
In our experience, minimal clean-up of a well-converted plain text file (with content in the correct order) is necessary, at least for a reliable substrate corpus that shows patterns faithfully. Cleaning enriches outputs because it ensures that a search will include all instances of a word or phrase and will not exclude occurrences because of a punctuation, spacing or coding anomaly. Here are the basic steps to follow:
- Remove reference lists (if present). Although you have chosen a text as a model to emulate, you have not chosen each of the references used by an author. Hits from titles in the references section (chosen on the basis of non-linguistic criteria) can distort frequency counts and introduce non-preferred usage.
- Remove non-linguistic content. This step may be unnecessary if a good PDF converter has been used. If HTML documents have been converted directly from the browser, the beginning and end will have large blocks of coding. In both cases, leave only sufficient labelling at the beginning of a file to allow easy identification of the source. Remove coding for most tables and figures but leave legends and titles, as these often have useful language information.
- Remove extra spaces. Failure to remove extra spaces can skew frequency counts. A search for a two-word string like pathology report, for example, will not include clusters that contain more than one space between the two words. Note also that apostrophes are also sometimes followed by unwanted spaces after conversion.
More exhaustive cleaning involves the following additional steps:
- Correct words that appear with anomalous characters or symbols (often denoted by a question mark).
- Correct problems related to hyphenation in the original text. Sometimes words at the ends and beginnings of lines in the PDF are joined together or broken up. Correct these and also remove any discretionary hyphens (marked by the symbol ¬) that may be present.
Opening a text file in Word and using the search and replace options can make cleaning easier. Switching on the spell/grammar check function also helps locate anomalous artefacts. Before saving the file as a text document, check that it includes, at the head of the file, the bibliographic information that identifies it.
Finally, remember that for logical cost-benefit reasons, translators need to be sensible about the levels of cleaning thoroughness to apply.
4. Discussion and conclusions
Using corpora to guide translation or editing work is a way to compensate for any or all of the following: a) uneven field knowledge; b) non-contact with language genres and registers outside our normal range of use; and c) source language interference from lack of contact with our native language. In general terms, using corpora can help us mature as specialist language users.
We described two tools that can be used for analysing corpora. Although the search possibilities for studying collocations with the concordancer (AntConc) are more sophisticated, the indexer (Archivarius) has the advantage of enabling searches of a variety of text formats. The indexer, therefore, allows a corpus-guided approach to be applied when, for practical reasons, we need immediate corpus research capability and may already have model texts to hand. Over the long term, however, the serious specialist will require the sophistication of a concordancer to be able to address trickier language issues.
Irrespective of which tool we prefer to use at any given time, however, we cannot emphasise enough that building a successful specialist translator career on the basis of corpus-guided translation or editing largely relies on the quality of the substrate corpus. This is not to say that uncleaned, topic-oriented corpora do not have their uses. We previously referred to a hierarchy that can range from time-consuming manual corpus creation to instant and automated corpus building with a web-based tool fed with keywords. The different approaches are complementary and can be combined, and in some cases, a web-harvested corpus alone may be adequate for certain subject areas or tasks (as found when we created a bylaws corpus to guide the translation of an association's charter or when a colleague translated an oceanography website). A rough-and-ready corpus must be mined with care, however, as it has sampled the wider web's many genres indiscriminately. To quote John Sinclair (2004):
The World Wide Web is not a corpus, because its dimensions are unknown and constantly changing, and because it has not been designed from a linguistic perspective. At present it is quite mysterious (…) and it is not at all clear what population is being sampled. Nevertheless, the WWW is a remarkable new resource for any worker in language.
We agree that the availability of a vast range and quantity of digital texts that can be rapidly harvested off the web is a key factor underpinning the current practicality of the corpus approach. Success, however, requires using appropriate models to minimise errors of style, register and terminology. There is no substitute for applying well-considered human criteria to the creation of a reliable, well-characterised specialist corpus in which we have confidence when making decisions. The serious specialist who is ready to benefit from a judiciously compiled and very clean substrate corpus will have to deal with the three issues we have raised: ease of access, which varies according to knowledge field; corpus size, for which guidelines are still needed if time investment is to be kept under control; and fair use, for when a corpus is likely to be shared. The obstacles thrown up are surmountable, however, and the short- and long-term rewards considerable.
- Anthony, Laurence (1999). Writing research article introductions in software engineering: how accurate is a standard model? IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication. 42(1); 38-46.
- Anthony, Laurence (2006). Developing a freeware, multiplatform corpus analysis
- toolkit for the technical writing classroom. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication. 49(3); 275-286.
- Gile, Daniel and Gyde Hansen (2004). The editorial process through the looking glass. In: Gyde, Hansen, Kirsten Malkmjær and Daniel Gile (eds). Claims, Changes and Challenges in Translation Studies. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins;297-306.
- Hunston, Susan (2002). Corpora in Applied Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Kerans, Mary Ellen (2006). Avoiding innocent plagiarism—the plagiarism of innocència by authors and their language consultants. Online at metmeetings.org (consulted 24.02.2008)
- Kerans, Mary Ellen and John Stone (2008). Notes on the translation and editing of Masdevall's Account of the Epidemics and his Opinion on health in the textile industry [Translators' notes]. Masdevall Joseph. Relación de las epidemias de calenturas pútridas y malignas. Account of the epidemics of putrid, malignant fevers afflicting the principality of Catalonia in recent years; chiefly concerning their discovery in the year 1783 last in the city of Lerida, the plain of Urgel and many other administrative districts and divisions; including the successful, quick and certain method for curing such diseases. Barcelona: Ars XXI, 55-61.
- López-Rodríguez, Clara Inés and María Isabel Tercedor-Sánchez (2008). Corpora and students' autonomy in scientific and technical translation training. Journal of Specialised Translation, Issue 9, 2-19. Online at: http://www.jostrans.org/issue09/art_lopez_tercedor.php (consulted 29.02. 2008).
- Moreno, Ana I. (1997) Genre constraints across languages: causal metatext in Spanish and English RAs. English for Specific Purposes. 16(3), 161-79.
- Sinclair, John (1991). Corpus, Concordance, Collocation. Oxford University Press
- Sinclair, John (2004). Corpus and text — basic principles. Martin Wynne (ed.) Developing Linguistic Corpora: a Guide to Good Practice. Oxford: Oxbow Books: 1-16. Online at http://ahds.ac.uk/guides/linguistic-corpora/chapter1.htm (consulted 27.02.2008)
- Swales John (1990). Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Tribble, Chris (1997). Improvising corpora for ELT: quick-and-dirty ways of developing corpora for language teaching. Melia James and Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk (eds) (1997) PALC 97 Proceedings, Lodz University Press: Lodz, 106-117.
- Varantola, Krista (2003). Translators and disposable corpora. In: Federico Zanettin, Silvia Bernardini and Dominic Stewart (eds.) Corpora in Translator Education. Manchester: St Jerome.
- Wilkinson, Michael (2005). Using a specialized corpus to improve translation quality. Accurapid Vol 9 (3). Online at: http://www.accurapid.com/journal/33corpus.htm (consulted 27.02.2008)
- Wilkinson, Michael (2006). Legal aspects of compiling corpora to be used as translation resources: questions of copyright. Accurapid Vol 10 (2). Online at: http://www.accurapid.com/journal/36corpus.htm (consulted 27.02.2008
- Williams, Ian (2005). Thematic items referring to research and researchers in the discussion section of Spanish biomedical articles and English-Spanish translations. Babel 51:2, 124–160.
- Williams, Ian (2006) Towards a target-oriented model for quantitative contrastive analysis in translation studies: an exploratory study of theme-rheme structure in Spanish-English biomedical research articles. Language in Contrast. 6(1), 1-45.
- Zweigenbaum Pierre and Natalia Grabar (2003). Corpus-based associations provide additional morphological variants to medical terminologies. American Medical Informatics Association Annual Symposium Proceedings 2003; 768–772.
This article developed out of the workshop entitled 'Corpus-Guided Editing and Translation of Specialist Texts', first piloted in Barcelona in July 2006, offered again in Barcelona in May 2007, and in Madrid in October 2007. It will run again in Split, Croatia, on 10 September, 2008. This workshop is part of MET's expanding continuous professional development programme. For more details, visit http://www.metmeetings.org/.
Ailish Maher, a freelance translator and occasional author's editor, holds the Institute of Linguist's Diploma in Translation and an MA in Translation Studies. Her thesis was on the subject of acquiring specialist macroeconomics expertise using a purpose-built corpus. She is Training Chair of Mediterranean Editors and Translators (MET).
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Stephen Waller, a freelance translator specialising in business and finance, has a degree in German and French. His interest in corpus-guided translation comes from the experience, common to many translators, of having to write convincingly about a wide range of specialist subjects.
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Mary Ellen Kerans, a biomedical translator and author's editor, received her MA in TESOL. Her career in special-purposes English instruction fostered her interest in applications of corpus analysis.
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Note 1:
See Tim Johns' Kibbitzer 6: http://www.eisu2.bham.ac.uk/johnstf/revis006.htm.
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Note 2:
A concordancer works by aligning keywords—its most basic function—so that the other words occurring in the vicinity can be identified, patterns discerned and the meaning of frequencies assessed.
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Note 3:
An indexer works like Google or any search engine. A desktop indexer, however, will invite the user to establish collections of texts within folders, so it is particularly appropriate to a corpus-guided approach to translation.
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Note 4:
AntConc is freeware, available from http://www.antlab.sci.waseda.ac.jp/.
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Note 5:
A text with 100 words is said to have 100 tokens. However, because some words will be repeated, there may be only (say) 40 different word types in this text.
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Note 6:
Archivarius (not free but very reasonably priced) is a desktop search tool that we find particularly well suited to our purposes: http://www.likasoft.com/document-search/.
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Note 7:
WebBootCat is accessed via http://sketchengine.co.uk/, a site which incorporates a simple online concordancer. An annual subscription is required to use the corpus builder and concordancer. A 30-day free trial is available.
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Note 8:
Mediterranean Editors and Translators: http://www.metmeetings.org/?section=workshops.
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Note 9:
Readers can learn more about PERC and the CPE at the group's website: http://www.perc21.org/.
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Note 10:
Two popular file converters are Iceni Gemini (http://www.iceni.com/gemini.htm) and Abbyy PDF Transformer Pro 2 (http://www.pdftransformer.com/).
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In 1820, the U.S. Supreme Court issued Loughborough v Blake, 18 U.S. 317. It seems to suggest that the Court believed Congress is free to provide for a voting member for the District of Columbia in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The case concerned whether Congress could tax residents of the District of Columbia. But it also says this: "Although in theory it might be more congenial to the spirit of our institutions to admit a representative from the District, it may be doubted whether, in fact, its interests would be rendered thereby the more secure." Thanks to Michael Warnken for this. Here is a link to the opinion.


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Four-time Olympic medallist Emilie Heymans retires from competitive diving
Canadian diver Emilie Heymans, who medalled in four consecutive Olympics, fights back tears as she announces her retirement from competition, in Montreal, Wednesday, January 16, 2013. (Paul Chiasson / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
The Canadian Press
Published Wednesday, January 16, 2013 2:28PM EST
MONTREAL -- With four Olympic medals under her belt, Emilie Heymans is putting an end to her professional diving career.
The 31-year-old diver made her retirement official today at the Montreal training facility where it all started for her two decades ago.
Heymans retires after winning medals in four consecutive Summer Olympics -- the first female diver and first Canadian Olympian to do so.
She had 84 podium finishes in international competition, including 14 titles.
The Belgian-born Heymans, who grew up near Montreal, started out in gymnastics but was too big. She decided to switch to diving at age 11.
She won her record-setting last Olympic medal at the 2012 Summer Games in London, grabbing a bronze in the three-metre synchro springboard event with partner Jennifer Abel. It was Canada's first medal at the Games.
Heymans also won a silver medal in Sydney in 2000, a bronze in Athens in 2004 and another silver in Beijing in 2008. Three of her four medals came in synchro events with three different partners.


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Malicious Intent is a guild centered on community and cooperation. Our mission is to create an environment in which mature players can enjoy World of Warcraft with others who share their love of gaming in an organized environment. Malicious Intent follows a "guild first" philosophy. From the Guild Leaders and Officers, to the newest players, everyone is expected to contribute time, effort, and treasure toward the guild's goals. These goals are conquering raid content, excelling at PVP, completing achievements, and getting the most out of everything WoW has to offer. All of this is accomplished through a well-structured framework of rules and guidelines that ensure honesty and fairness for all members.
Currently we are level 19 and working on building a raid team. Our members are ages 18+ and we intend on keeping that in place to reduce as many problem as possible and maintain a mature environment. Majority of our members are married, employed and have children so this guild is centered on a release from real life responsibilities and obligation. While we want to exceed at everything we do, but we are not looking to be the elite of the elite. We are building a community of friends who enjoy playing as a group or just hanging out and chatting with other guild members, both ingame and using our TS3 server.
If Malicious Intent sounds like a guild you would be interested in joining, don't hesitate to leave a message here or contact either myself or Rofure in game and we'll have a chat.


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What does JCME mean in Military?
This page is about the meanings of the acronym/abbreviation/shorthand JCME in the Governmental field in general and in the Military terminology in particular.
Joint Collection Management Element
Find a translation for JCME in other languages:
Select another language:
Discuss this JCME abbreviation with the community:
Use the citation below to add this abbreviation to your bibliography:
"JCME." Abbreviations.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2018. Web. 18 Feb. 2018. <https://www.abbreviations.com/term/23297>.


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Nearby points of interest
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Distance: 1.39mi
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Distance: 1.39mi
Nearby points of interest
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Distance: 0.99mi
Distance: 1.39mi
Distance: 0.22mi
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Distance: 0.99mi
Distance: 1.39mi
About Harper's Restaurant and Bar
Harper's Restaurant & Bar is a contemporary interpretation of the American Tavern offering refined food in a casual, rustic setting. A throwback to simpler times with a modern reworking of fresh American food. Harper's is committed to sourcing and using fresh, local, and seasonal ingredients whenever possible.
Dobbs Ferry, NY 10522
Dining Style:
Casual Dining
Contemporary American, Comfort Food, Gastro Pub
Hours of Operation:
Dinner: Monday - Thursday: 5:00pm - 10:00pm, Friday - Saturday: 5:00pm - 10:30pm, Sunday: 5:00pm - 9:00pm; Brunch: Saturday: 12:00pm - 3:00pm, Sunday: 11:00am - 3:00pm
Cross Street:
Main St between Elm and Chestnut
Dress Code:
Casual Dress
Price Range:
$30 and under
Payment Options
AMEX, Discover, MasterCard, Visa
Phone Number:
(914) 693-2306
Live Music. Please call for details.
Harper's proud to offer both on-site and off-site catering and event planning. No event is too large or too small. Weddings, Bar & Bat Mitzvahs, showers, birthday parties, Christenings, 1st Communions, holiday parties, corporate functions.
Parking Details:
There is a municipal lot behind the village hall and police station. Street parking is free after 6:00 pm.
Public Transit:
Dobbs Ferry train station via the Metro North Hudson Line.
Executive Chef:
Christopher Vergara
Private Party Facilities:
Harper's offers a semi private dining area and Patio that can be reserved for private events. The dining area is perfect for birthdays and intimate gatherings, while the patio is an ideal location for mingling with guests and enjoying the weather.
Private Party Contact:
Justin Montgomery: (866) 350-1531
Banquet, Bar Dining, Bar/Lounge, Beer, BYO Wine, Corkage Fee, Entertainment, Farm to Table, Full Bar, Happy Hour, Late Night, Non-Smoking, Outdoor dining, Private Room, Takeout, Weekend Brunch, Wheelchair Access, Wine
Harper's Restaurant and Bar Ratings and Reviews
Met my friend and her son there for an early, pre-movie dinner. Cool place, was pretty empty at 5:30 on Sat night until we left at 6:45ish. Initially our waitress was attentive but after that she was hard to find. They have some offerings for the kids but not that awesome to tell you the truth. The pasta my two kids got was not fresh...seemingly reheated in a microwave? The kids burger was good quality but they charred it on the outside so was not appealing in taste to my son. Adult meals were good but I was expecting my chicken to be REALLY GOOD or GREAT since my waitress recommended it as one of the top dishes. That said I would try this place again. Feel like it was just one of those off nights.
Food was spot on. Very well executed, and truly enjoyable. The back dining room was relatively quiet and cozy. Love the low ceiling and retro decor. Cocktails were on point, and nice selection of wines by the glass. Cannot recall the name of our server, but she was outstanding: genuinely hospitable, knowledgeable and personable. Overall we were very happy we chose Harpers as our rendezvous for the evening.
Had reservations but ended up snagging two bar seats, which my husband and I prefer (as long as the stools have backs, which they did!). Bar tenders were fantastic- personable, dry humor. Ambiance adorable. Food incredible- we ordered the Brussel sprouts (I almost ordered a second batch they were so good), endive salad, fried duck leg, and a burger. All of it was perfection. We cannot wait to go back to try more off the menu!
The food was amazing as always! But I was disappointed by the lack of festiveness for a Christmas Eve dinner and professional decorum of the hostess( very casual demeanor and juvenile dress) and the waiter (who was chewing food as he took our order once). I am certainly going back but not for special occasions.
My husband and I absolutely love Harpers. It's in a quiet neighborhood in Dobbs Ferry with interesting shops around it. Parking can be a bit tricky but every time we've come we've not had a problem. The food is excellent; the chef is very creative. I've ordered the duck every time I come and each time it's prepared differently and is cooked perfectly. Side dishes and salads are delicious. Had the beet side dish this time and it was great, and the bread pudding was a wonderful happy ending. Service is excellent. Michele was our server and she was very attentive to our needs without being overbearing. The decor is like an old pub with dark wood, wall paper, votive candles.
Dinner started out well. Our Brussels Sprouts appetizer was delicious. An agnolotti with short ribs was tasty but a little too salty. But then, there was the duck breast, which was awful. The sauce tasted like pure vinegar and it had something crunchy but practically inedible throughout that made me think that I had broken a tooth or was trying to eat crushed sea shells. I could not eat it. Very disappointing.
Harpers is one of our standards. My wife and I had dinner here Saturday night. We were reminded that we are surprised every time by the quality of the food. The ambience is rustic/local bar restaurant. Comfortable and very pleasantbut not noteworthy. Don't be fooled-there is a serious chef in the kitchen.The menu appears to contain fairly standard items, but pretty much every one is amazingly well prepared with a special twist or two. This time we had the burrata and brussel sprouts appetizers. The burrata comes with concord grapes, pepper, toast and a blueberry vinegar sauce that combine for a perfectly balanced, beautiful dish, the pepper and vinegar offsetting the rich creaminess of the burrata. The brussels sprouts are perfectly roasted with breadcrumbs and come with a delicious lemon aoli.
The roast chicken entrée is sublime. One of the best ever, with a crispy, fragrantly seasoned skin, and moist tender meat. Linguine with crabmeat, lemon and chilies is divine.
Our server was wonderfully attentive and enhanced the meal.
Our only cavil is with the music—It sounded like indie pop and was enhancing to the experience. If not for that, we'd have given 5 as the overall score.
My husband and I have been patrons of the restaurant for many years and have often referred friends to Harper's. Saturday night, we were sadly disappointed to find that there have been many changes to this, one of our favorite restaurants. First off, the apple and cheddar salad... what happened? We've had that salad countless times but this version was perplexing. The lettuce was rough and tasteless (definitely not Boston lettuce as in the past), the dressing was bland if it existed at all and I have no clue what kind of cheese or apple was used. My main course of trout (a mainstay on the menu) was totally unrecognizable. A confusion of unidentifiable greens and I really don't know what else (faro? Maybe) made a bed for a grossly over cooked fish. Terrible. As for the service, an area wherein this restaurant shone in the past, it was scattered at best. We had to call for our waiter several times and it obvious that he was not keeping tabs on what was going on at our table. The noise level at this restaurant has always been on the high side and Saturday night was no exception. Normally, that's something we'd overlook as all the other factors were always so satisfactory but I'd say don't bother until the chef is replaced and the staff gets a good tutorial.
When we arrived I gave my name and told them that I had a reservation but they didn't seem to care. We were seated with menus and it took 30 minutes for a server to come to us and ask if we wanted to order. We had not even been offered drinks at that point. We wanted wine so that took another 10 minutes and then we ordered food. There seemed to be one server for the entire restaurant. It is a very pretty place and the food is good. The service is terrible. As we were eating I received an email from opentable saying I did not show up for my reservation. This added insult to injury. No one cared if I had a reservation and then they reported that I didn't show up. I told the server and she said it would be corrected.
I got served Arctic char that was completely spoiled. Unfortunately I ate a bite of it and my stomach has been upset for hours. When I told them they apologized and brought me a pasta dish. When I got the bill I was shocked to see that they had charged me for everything and made no accommodations for serving me food that could have killed me. My kids were tired so we paid and left. My night is ruined.
I chose this place for its positive reviews and convenient location between NYC and Sleepy Hollow. I booked a table for my mother's birthday. We were all very pleased! Adorable setting and layout. Upscale casual. The drinks were excellent. The food was perfect. The favorite among our group was the chicken liver crostini. Our server was very sweet. I'd visit more if it weren't a bit far for me. I'm very excited about discovering this great little place!
Second visit, and hoped that it would be a better experience than our first ( slow service, refusing to make adjustments to the menu), but it really wasn't. No one else arrived while we were there, but it still took 45 minutes to get our orders. Indifferent service. Burgers were fine, but overpriced. It shouldn't be $20 to have a burger with cheese and and a couple of toppings (IMHO). And another entree (at $29), lacked a side dish. Way too many other options in the Rivertowns - won't return.
Perfectly grilled, smoky, charred octopus; delicious roasted beets in vinaigrette; crisp, fresh well dressed field greens; small portion of well cooked Arctic Char ($30) without accompaniment; oysters lacked taste and freshness. Service uneven - variably attentive. Outdoor back patio is sweet on a summer night. Overall - good experience and will return.
I had never been to this local spot before and I don't think I will return. The food was VERY GOOD but the rest was really off. Lighting is too low. On an empty week night, getting drinks took a weirdly long time. I had only heard good things about Harpers but my experience was disappointing.
First, I love Harpers. It's our go-to restaurant when we want to have a nice dinner. The food was delicious. BUT, the service really tainted our experience. So much so, that we would think twice upon returning. We had a friend visiting and wanted to take her to our local, favorite restaurant. I made reservations and asked for seating in their outdoor patio area. Upon arrival, the host took us to a table indoors. I asked if they had any seating outdoors and she said, "no." Okay, that's fine. But, we were disappointed so I went up and asked how long it would be to wait for an outdoor table. She said 5-10 minutes and we replied that we'd love to wait. Literally, 30 seconds later she leads us outside and only 2 tables were occupants. All the other (perhaps 10 total) were empty. That's annoying and bad service but we'll let it slide. Then, the bartender comes to take our drink order. Our guest asked what his favorite cocktails were and he flippantly says "I don't know. I'm a beer and whiskey guy." LIE! You work for a restaurant that touts specialty cocktails. It's your job to know the product and comment on it. I order a cava and my wife orders a white wine. Two white "wines" come out in wine glasses and I see the bartender hesitate to hand me my glass. I preemptively say "I ordered cava" and he says "it's cava." I take it noticing that it has no bubbles. It was flat. He grabbed it and returned with another glass, which was perfect. Last thing -- we finish our dinner and asked to see the dessert menu. I literally look the most forward to dessert. The waitress said, "oh the kitchen's closed." It was 9pm on Sunday. Maybe in the rivertowns that is late, but all we needed from Harper's staff was for them to stop by our table and let us know that the kitchen would be closing and would we like to put in a dessert for later. Simple stuff that makes a big difference. Note: this is our second, consecutive visit where service has been terrible.
Do your self a favor and skip this place. We couldn't decide what we disliked the most. The place is filthy. There was mold on the picture on the wall next to our table. Paint chips literally fell on our food. The menu is limited. They frequently are out of things. All the beers are hipster in an environment that is very much not. The waitstaff is unprofessional and slow. I could go on and on about how awful this place is. Just skip it. Please, just skip it.
We should have been here sooner! We were having dinner with a friend who lives in Dobbs Ferry following a show in NYC. We generally have dinner in the City before driving home, but decided to eat closer to home this time - what a good decision! The food here was inventive and absolutely excellent. The chef had no problem adjusting slightly to accommodate our peculiar tastes (more well done on the duck breast and substitute a vegetable on a pasta dish), which was very much appreciated. The bartender suggested some variations on the drinks we ordered that were so much better, we will now only use his choices! we were early diners, so it may get noisier as the night goes on, but it was quiet and comfortable with attentive and friendly service in a large, nicely appointed room. We will be back for sure.
Cooking at Harper's is good, menu is small with a couple of specials, but what they have tastes very good. I had a dandelion salad, very tasty, don't see that much. The menu says it has some duck egg on it, not sure why, so little can't taste or see it, server agreed, but salad was good. Then I had duck confit, really good. The problem with it was so little, just one tiny leg with thigh. Most restaurants give you the thigh and breast as a portion. But I see there is a separate dish on the menu of pan roasted duck breast, so that's where it went, profitable for them customer's loss. Also ordered a side of shishito peppers, they were grilled and delicious. Have to add the dessert I had, called chocolate chip bread pudding, a real disappointment, not a chip in site just some chocolate sauce and was dry. Helped a little by a tiny scoop of vanilla ice cream, other choices may be better. I would just add I love their bread, could come here just for that. Final problem though is the abomination of a wine list. No much under $50 and those not worthy of decent food. Goes rapidly up from there with good wines, but no excuse for not having a good selection of decent bottles under 50, most restaurants do even where the food is more expensive. But I grin and bear this inconsideration, I come back for the overall experience.
Great service and delicious food. My personal favorites are the Mushroom Toast, the Fried Cauliflower, and the burger. The mixed greens are simple and perfect. I hear the Duck Confit is excellent. There's garden seating in the back, which is romantic. There's a long bar & great drinks, so it's also good for happy hour. The pricing is good for the quality of food. Bon apetit!
As always, Harper's comes through! We had a last minute plan to eat out for Father's Day and Harper's was very accommodating. We secured a table outside on the patio and proceded to have a delicious dinner. We shared a salad and moved to entrees of steamed mussels, tagliatelle with duck ragu and a Harper's burger (there were three of us). Delicious, expertly prepared and served. If you haven't been here, run don't walk for your next dinner, lunch or brunch.
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