Ive long been fascinated by the relationship between language and thinking. A long article in the New York Times traces views on the matter from Benjamin Whorfs deterministic theory through its general repudiation to the view that now prevails, a modified Whorfian thesis, that language does affect our perceptions of the world. "Languages differ essentially in what they must convey and not in what they may convey. This maxim offers us the key to unlocking the real force of the mother tongue: if different languages influence our minds in different ways, this is not because of what our language allows us to think but rather because of what it habitually obliges us to think about." Illustrations are offered from differences in gendered and non-gendered languages, in the perception of color, and in spatial orientation. Fascinating.