Link Mania: Are you a bibliophagist?

10 Words Every Book Lover Should Know
Like to chew on a good book now and then? You're a "bibliophagist". Use with caution.

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10 Fantastic Fog Words
Send this article to anyone named "Larry" you know.

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TV's 10 Best Fake Swear Words

"...a cloff-prunker is an 'illicit practice' in which 'one person frangilates another's slimp' and 'gratifies the other person by smuctating them avially.'" Such filth!

Random Sequence: effulgent countenance

"Who shall paint that effulgent countenance as it bent above the brief but exquisite assurance of his happiness?"
--"Adventures of a Bachelor" in Godey's Lady's Book and Magazine, March 1864

(I found a bound copy of several issues of Godey's in my basement and have been flipping through the dusty pages.)

effulgent (adjective) = shining, radiant
countenance (noun) = face or facial expression

Maybe he was happy, or maybe he needed to wash his shiny face.

Photo of the Week (by me): High Above

It's clouds' illusions I recall. You? Click it for a closer view, then listen to the song in your head all day.

Story Cubes 1: Airsick

"What book are you reading?" Evan asked.

"The one about the people playing chess on an airplane," said Ivan.

"What kind of book is that anyway?" marveled Evan. "Sounds boring."

"Nope," said Ivan. "There's more. They play dice, too."

"Seriously?"

"They guy who loses has to buy dinner. They make you pay for your food on airplanes now," Ivan explained. "And they have fish. Red Snapper. Something is wrong with it though. When the plane hits turbulence, the one guy gets sick. Later he falls asleep and dreams they've been swallowed by a flying dragon. It goes on and on."

"Sounds surreal," said Evan. "Like fantasy."

"Light bulb!" said Ivan.

Fish Food for Thought

2006: Consciousness Streaming

Ever driven Route I-78 in New Jersey during rush hour? I'm doing it twice a day this week, dodging tractor-trailers at 70 mph. Yesterday, someone in a silver Corvette drove across the raised median between the local and express lanes, right in front of me, and then sped off, weaving through the heavy traffic at about 100 miles an hour. Sometimes I wonder if these drivers think they're playing a video game... I thought I had left my favorite belt at the security checkpoint at the airport (I usually take it off before attempting to walk through the metal detector), but I just found it curled up in my suitcase. I guess I didn't wear it that day. Sometimes I'm amazed at my absent-mindedness about these little things... Image on a Tarot card: A man with a severed head floating in space with a couple of tree branches across his back (two of wands). The meaning is supposedly "be a good listener." Or else?... Why don't I... make eye contact with everyone I pass during the day? Is it illegal or something?

Word of the Day: distichous

What's "the word I'm thinking of"? Today, it's....

distichous [dis-ti-kuss] (adjective) [TWITO, page 42]

Divided into two parts or two rows

"His eyes? Nor pen nor camera can present them. Imagine a black pearl imprisoning a diamond; imagine a dewdrop trembling on polished jet; add to these beauties life, and you will have the dormouse eye. His tail? Distichous, say the books. Feathers are mostly distichous, hair-partings are distichous, the moustache is distichous. So is the dormouse tail; but the hairs along it do more than merely part. They curl, upwards from the root, downwards to the point, and form a plume."
--Douglas English, Wee Tim'rous Beasties (1903)


(photo by me)

Link Mania: How to Spice Up Your Cussin'

A Father Designs Minimalist Vocabulary Posters to Teach His Daughter Complex Words
Pretty cool. Includes one I didn't know: "deasil".

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10 Old-Fashioned Swears to Spice up Your Cussin'
Oh, land sakes! as Grandma used to say. This gosh darn list would impress Yosemite Sam.

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16 Weird Forgotten English Words We Should Bring Back
Including "mumpsimus" (TWITO, page 92), "pettyfogger" (page 112), and "pilgarlic" (page 112). And if you think an epidural is bad, try "groaning-cheese" -- and crackers?

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23 words that don’t exist in English but perfectly capture the experience of travel Including "kaapshljmurslis" (Latvian). This is what you are when you fly coach these days. We Americans are so "Scheißfreundlich" (German). Well, some of us are.

Photo of the Week (by me)

Snapped in my mom's garden of mysterious plants. Anyone know what kind of flowers these are? Click for a closer view, horticultists.

Random Sequence: repinings

"But since you have neither, would it not be the wisest course -- and insure you the most happiness -- to cease fruitless repinings, and be thankful for the many blessings you do enjoy? The 'contented mind' brings it's own feast along with it, you know...."
--Mary W. Janvrin, "The Contented Mind", in Godey's Lady's Book and Magazine, April 1864

(I found a bound copy of several issues of Godey's in my basement and have been flipping through the dusty pages.)

repinings (noun) = complaints, fretful expressions of discontent

Tell the customer service rep that you have some "repinings" and see what sort of reaction you get.

The weird thing about this bound copy of Godey's (an American magazine) is that the issues are all from the 1860s, and there is not a single mention anywhere of the American Civil War. 

Fish Food for Thought

Word of the Day: oscitancy

What's "the word I'm thinking of"? Today, it's...

oscitancy [OSS-it-an-see] (noun) [TWITO, page 104]

1. The act of yawning
2. The state of being drowsy or inattentive; dullness

"Melanie began to describe her shopping trip, but Nick couldn’t hide his oscitancy."


(photo by me...yawn)