or, More Findings of No Ultimate Interest As I said last week, I have now read 300 books of my collection since I started tracking my reading back in June 2015. Now follows a shallow analysis of the books in this last hundred books, eschewing (mostly) reference to books in the “Comics & Graphic Novel” …
Author Archives: mysterious6030
Peccavi: Not Actually 110,000 (was One Hundred and Ten Thousand Songs (110,000)) [UPDATED]
NOTE: Due to recent (6 April 2019) changes in methodology, we can no longer support the contention that we have listened to 110,000 iTune tracks. In addition, the use of the term “Songs” in the original title of this post was misleading. Details to come in a new post describing the underlying problems with the …
Friday Vocabulary
1. apostrophe — rhetorical figure wherein the speaker digresses and pointedly addresses some person or personified object But twenty-first century man has made hash of all rhetoric, and even Childe Harold’s apostrophe to the sea has been overtaken by modern humanity’s ability to pollute even the oceans themselves. 2. marge — margin And thus …
300 Books
This morning I finished my 300th book since I started tracking such data back in June of 2015. The book which pushed me over this milestone was the surprisingly good anthology 101 Famous Poems, originally published in 1958. (Hence my surprise.) This book had been sitting in the meditation chamber of my bedroom for some …
Friday Vocabulary
1. palestra — (ancient Greece) place devoted to public teaching and wrestling and athletics Epicurus knew well how divisive his teachings were and preferred to instruct his followers at his home, shunning outdoor schools such as the Academy where onlookers would kibitz as if at the palestra. 2. ataraxy — state of freedom from …
Friday Vocabulary
1. valetudinarian — person obsessively concerned with his or her poor health Their daughter caught what I call the valetudinarian disease, her parents worrying her so about any possible vector for germs in her environment that she seemed to have built up no resistance whatsoever to even the simplest illnesses, and thus she was always …
Friday Vocabulary
1. clepsydra — ancient timekeeping device using discharge of water to measure time; water-clock Like water through the clepsydra, so are the days of our lives. 2. frass — insect excrement The spider webs behind the appliances were spotted with frass that betrayed the unseen life forces which threatened the old homestead. 3. …
Friday Vocabulary
1. brickbat — piece of brick, esp. when used as a missile Piled behind the barricades were cobblestones and brickbats to be used against the government troops during the inevitable reactionary assault. 2. fret — to gnaw; to wear away by gnawing, friction, corrosion, etc. He was proudest of the ivory box lid in …
Friday Vocabulary
1. jade — vicious, worn-out, or worthless horse; disreputable woman Though she be but a jade your contemptuous attitude towards her does you no credit. 2. circumvallation — state of being surrounded by rampart or entrenchment Vercingetorix was unable to lift the siege of Alesia after the circumvallation of that settlement, leading to the …
Friday Vocabulary
1. dark lantern — lantern with a shutter to hide the light “Watson, be sure to bring the dark lantern so that we can conceal our presence in the chamber after traversing the underground paths to the tomb.” 2. arrant — notorious, unmitigated We have rarely heard such arrant falsehoods since Satan was imprisoned …