1. spancel — noosed rope used to hobble an animal Only a short spancel bound his ankles, but his arms were held tightly behind his back in a pair of police handcuffs. 2. traducianism — doctrine that the soul is generated from the parents at the moment of conception Tertullian’s view of the soul …
Author Archives: mysterious6030
One Hundred And Twenty Thousand Songs (120,000)
This afternoon I listened to my 120,000th unique iTunes ‘song’.* The 119,000th track was the rockin’ Ric Cartey number, “Scratching On My Screen”, found on Volume 6 of Rockabilly Gold. The Stats At six score thousand tracks heard, I’ve listened to 519 days, 8 hours, 31 minutes, and 48 seconds of total music and other …
Continue reading “One Hundred And Twenty Thousand Songs (120,000)”
Friday Vocabulary
1. heteroplasty — grafting of material from one individual onto another The result of Dr. Willoughby’s bizarre heteroplasty was a pouch in Mr. Branchforth’s abdomen made from a sow’s ear, which, interestingly enough, he did at times use as a small coin purse. 2. sizar — undergraduate at Cambridge or Trinity College who received …
Friday* Vocabulary
1. husbandman — farmer Before the drought blasted the valley, Enoch had been a noble husbandman behind his team, but now he was just a desperate dirt farmer looking for a handout. 2. spillikins — jackstraws, pick-up sticks Mighty fine we looked in our fancy powder blue uniforms with the gold braid, but we …
Friday Vocabulary
1. indurate — to harden; to make callous; to inure Yet this same experience which had left me an unrepentant criminal had not indurated Wilfred’s heart and soul. 2. parterre — ornamental flower beds; rear section of main floor in an auditorium All these delectable vegetables were surrounded by rows of shrubbery, beyond which …
Friday Vocabulary
1. doolally — [informal British] out of one’s head, temporarily non compos mentis “You see, George went a bit doolally after losing last night, and he’s burnt the whole game, box and all.” 2. thurifer — acolyte carrying the thurible We first began to suspect that something was wrong with the thurifer when the …
Friday Vocabulary
1. screw — small amount (of a product) wrapped in a twist of paper; such a twist of paper In the ragamuffin’s pocket (the one without the hole in it) were only two tarnished farthings, a screw of tobacco, and a piece of rough twine. 2. univocal — having only a single meaning, unambiguous …
Friday Vocabulary
1. heliograph — signaling device using mirrors to reflect flashes of sunlight; instrument for taking pictures of the sun The gang hid out in this canyon fastness after each robbery, secure from the sheriff’s searchers, until Old Kentuck would signal them by heliograph that the coast was clear. 2. rootle — to dig with …
700 Books
Late yesterday morning I finished reading the 700th book since beginning to track such things way back in the middle of 2015, back in the Before Time before the latest Before Time. The book in question was the delighting collection of surrealist poetry and prose, The Milk Bowl of Feathers: Essential Surrealist Writings. Edited by …
Briefly Noted
Yesterday At 11:50 AM While doing taxes I finished reading my 700th book And the closing Tzara poem Could not make me forget Soupault’s Georgia (written today)