On the last day of February this year I finished book #1400, Hank Janson’s Kill Her With Passion, a “very silly, throwaway book” as I called it when I told you I’d completed another century of books. And yet I haven’t thrown it away. I have a special fondness for books that aren’t great, but …
Author Archives: mysterious6030
Friday Vocabulary
1. rising — [informal] nearly, almost It was rising two in the morning before we were all prepared, with Vince insisting on carrying his ridiculous stiletto unsheathed in his left hand. 2. bulla — [biology] blister, vesicle; [biology] hollow spaces within bone structures; [historical] clay balls or containers, often with external writing detailing contents; …
1500 Books
Well, I’ve gotten out over my skis a bit, I’m afraid. In my increasingly silly book tracking project I began after receiving book database software from my wife oh many years ago now, I have reached the milestone of having read, officially (which means here that I entered the date I finished the book in …
Friday Vocabulary
1. defecate — [obsolete] made pure, clarified; spiritually or morally purified Thus may defecate reason attain an even greater appreciation of more universal truth in forging with faith an antinomy stronger than mere material science. 2. anorak — [UK slang] obsessive fan, esp. of trains He’s a total anorak about 2000 AD and especially …
Friday Vocabulary
1. dingle — wooded valley Below the prominence lay a dark dingle which formed a precipitous barrier to any invading force, a steep ditch formed by the stream that even when fordable during the dry days of summer, still had treacherous rocks aplenty to turn the hooves of cavalry and men. 2. dingle — …
Friday Vocabulary
1. hinky — behaving in a nervous manner; suspicious Say what you want about interdepartmental lines of communication and all that, but the way the Secret Service acted makes the whole thing seem hinky to me. 2. gisant — [French] recumbent statue atop a grave representing the deceased For decades after his death in …
Friday Vocabulary
1. withal — in addition, besides; nevertheless He exhibited an irascible mien, yet Nicholas withal was a gentle soul at heart, ever ready to help the weak and downtrodden. 2. stadial — of or related to geological ages; of or related to stages of society, civilization, etc. The 100-year anniversary of The Glorious Revolution …
Friday Vocabulary
1. taximeter — device for calculating cab fare by measuring distance traveled We were fortunate to find a taximeter cab in that area and so were able to speed to the station before Bertram’s Daimler arrived. 2. hogget — not yet shorn sheep under one year old Reilly was caught red-handed with two of …
Friday Vocabulary
1. mim — [Scots & British] demure, primly reticent, pretentiously shy Alice sat there hands folded in her lap, mim as can be, though now I know that even then she was scheming to foil all our plans and triumph by our ruin. 2. compossible — not inconsistent with some other assertion As we …
Friday Vocabulary
1. plonker — [UK slang] fool; penis; [outdated] item of unusually large size or girth “He’s nice enough to his friends, I suppose, but he’s a right plonker with the ladies.” 2. Dannert wire — concertina wire, coiled barbed or razor wire The village had shown their preparedness by removing all the street and …