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Of course in Spanish, where you leave the subject out of most sentences, one would say "Es bella, la vida" and "La vida es bella." Just in case you think all romance languages have the same grammar.

Please know that genderize really is a verb. Wiktionary provides the following:

genderize (third-person singular simple present—genderizes, present participle—genderizing, simple past and past participle—genderized)
1.    (transitive) To bestow gender upon; to make male or female. 
quotations 2002, Helene P Foley, Female Acts in Greek Tragedy. Yet the implications of implicitly genderizing ethical positions in these particular plays may be even more far reaching than it appears on the surface.

For non-New York Times readers, Miriam found an interesting article about bilinguilism that you may not have seen. "The bilinguals, we found, manifested a cognitive system with the ability to attend to important information and ignore the less important." Those were young children. Bilingualism also makes you a better multi-tasker and may delay Alzheimer's. However, "You have to use both languages all the time. You won’t get the bilingual benefit from occasional use."

As beach season seems to have arrived, I'm copying below something I got via Sue Mathias who got it from Eddie, Alison and Anna of Core Sound Seafood.

He writes: 'Many Harkers Islanders believe their distinctive brogue is a variant of the Elizabethan English of Shakespearean times. It is true that aspects of their language, such as pronunciation, vocabulary and grammatical constructions can be traced to the British Isles, especially to eastern and southwestern England. A linguistic study by the North Carolina Language and Life Project has shown, however, that the modern Harkers Island brogue shares features with other regional dialects, including New England and mainland North Carolina. Although it often takes a trained ear to discern the subtle differences in the 'hoi toider' speech of Outer Banks communities, the current version of the Harker's Island dialect "mix" is rich with colourful expressions and vocabulary. Unlike the more widely known village of Ocracoke, where the dialect has long been influenced by tourism and a large number of transplanted residents, Harkers Island has until recently remained semi-isolated, despite the bridge connecting it to the mainland. One linguistic trait that many islanders share is saying the opposite of what they mean: 'Well, you're looking right ugly today! would actually be quite a compliment.' (Prioli, 1998)

Eddie and Alison live on Harker's Island, where Eddie was born and raised, a 4th generation fishermen. They have taught me all sorts of selected Harker's Island vocabulary. A few examples:

"gale"= a high wind, "You can't fry cornbread with a southeast gale." (Means you can't do anything with a southeast wind, not even fry cornbread at home.)

dingbatter" = any visitor or transplanted resident of Harkers Island, "We've been right much plagued with dingbatters lately."

"feesh"= fish, "Eddie's not here. He's a-feeshin' to Core Sound today."

"gadding about"=out on a day trip, visiting someone or shopping, "Alison's been a-gadding about."

"nicket"=a pinch of something when cooking, "A nicket of salt will do."

"prog"=to feel in the mud for clams with your bare feet under water, "When we were kids we used to go over to Shackleford to prog for clams."

Hope that was a bit of an introduction into part of the Harker's Island and larger Downeast culture!"

We all need some humor in these times! Thanks to Rhymes With Orange.

With all the news from Cairo that I have read and listened to, I have only read this word one time and never heard it spoken. It is the demonym for a person from Cairo. Demonym is the word I am really interested in in today's addendum, but I was afraid that if I used that as the title, no one would ever link to it.

I was sure that there must be a word to describe places of residence, like Chapel Hillians, Carrboroites (?), and Beiruti, which was the word that originally sent me searching. Google expert that I am, I couldn't find it. So, thanks to Sue Mathias, one of our English teachers, for finding it. However, don't link to the Wikipedia page on demonym that she found unless you have several free minutes, because it is both long and fascinating! The development of these words is clearly quite organic.

It does absolve our ignorance though. "The term demonym is not widely employed or known outside geographical circles and does not yet appear in mainstream dictionaries. It is used by some geographers, both online and within their studies and teaching."

It's derivation is Greek and related to deme and demos. "A demonym, also referred to as a gentilic, is a name for a resident of a locality and is derived from the name of the particular locality. The word demonym comes from the Greek word for "populace" with the suffix for "name" (-nym). In English, the demonym is often the same as the name of the people's native language (the people of Italy are called Italian, which is also the name of their language). The term is foreshadowed in demonymic, which the Oxford English Dictionary defines as the name of an Athenian citizen according to the deme to which he belonged, with first usage traced to 1893." 

Yes, Virginia (and Hannah), English does use the subjunctive. Those who have studied Spanish know that the subjunctive hangs out there as a bug-a-boo. [BUG-A-BOO 1. An object of obsessive, usually exaggerated fear or anxiety. 2. A recurring or persistent problem. From Answer.com.] Descriptions and examples of its use are intimidating primarily because it is a mood [The mood of a verb indicates what type of role it plays in a sentence and/or the speaker's attitude toward it. From Spanish.about.com.] and because perceiving a speaker's attitude is tricky.

Wikipedia has a lengthy discussion of the use of the subjunctive in English, but here are a few common uses mentioned in its article.

• I asked that it be done yesterday.
• If that were true, I would know it.
• It's high time (that) we bought a new car.
• It's time I be the pitcher.
• If I had seen you, I definitely would have said hello.
• It is important that he have completed two years of Spanish before graduation.
• If I were to die tomorrow, then you would inherit everything.
• Her insistence that he leave seems (or seemed) rude.
• I would that the subjunctive be restored to glory.
• If I were a rich man ...
• I am putting your dinner in the oven in order that it (may) keep warm.
• Johnny asked me if I were afraid.  

I actually think that learning the use of the less common English subjunctive may be trickier than learning the more commonly used Spanish.