Friday Vocabulary

1. hustle-cap — old penny pitching game where coins are shaken in a cap

In the colonial days of Pennsylvania there is even one report of a deadlocked jury determining their verdict by playing a quick game of hustle-cap.

 

2. tomelet — small tome

The new (1929) tomelet from the World’s Classics Library containing the finally completed 1894 translations of The Apocrypha provides a handsome and inexpensive addition to any home religious library.

 

3. levin — [archaic] lightning, bright flash of light

Beneath the accusing levin-bolt of his stare Jenks could hardly stand, and near fell to the floor.

 

4. paillette — sequins

The paillettes on the shoulders of her drum majorette outfit were suspiciously worn.

 

5. folletto — imp, fairy

All the girls at the school were convinced that Catarina’s father—who everyone knew was a magician—had bound a folletto to brush his daughter’s hair each night, and that was the reason that her tresses were always so gorgeously smooth.

 

6. didicoy — gypsy, esp. non-Romani traveler

When Ellen found her best skirt gone from the clothesline, she immediately suspected the didicoys that had moved into the abandoned barn on the other side of the stream.

 

7. angiography — x-ray of blood or lymph vessels using radiopaque stuff

We’ll use angiography to confirm the suspected intracranial aneurysm.

 

8. oik — [UK slang] oaf; lower class person

We thought the plumbers were a bunch of oiks until we caught them arguing Wittgenstein versus Derrida one afternoon at their lunchtime.

 

9. theriomorphic — of animal or beastly form

Several theories have emerged to explain the preponderance of theriomorphic deities in the pantheon of Ancient Egypt, none of which are entirely satisfactory.

 

10. derp — [slang] expressing notice of foolish act

“Welp, I just dropped the keys over the side of the canoe, derp.”

 

11. crwth (also crowd) — bowed instrument on rectangular frame employed by ancient Celts

Though our sources assure us that the crwth was once much used by the ancient bards, only two historical exemplars now exist.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(1920s U.S. criminal slang)

Baumes rush — to leave the state of New York to avoid a third conviction, which under a state law sponsored by Caleb Baumes would lead to life imprisonment

Baumes rush had brought him out to Los Angeles to start working on a new hat trick of crimes.

 

Friday Vocabulary

1. bonhomous — cheerful, full of bonhomie

But don’t let his bonhomous front fool you, for inside that genial clumban lurks a cunning and devious mind, always set upon gaining profit and power by any means fair or foul.

 

2. slewfoot (also sluefoot) — [slang] detective, policeman; clumsy person

“Ain’t gonna let no tinhorn slewfoot tell me where I can eat or drink—I does what I please!”

 

3. ogdoad — group of eight, octet

Behind this Gang of Eight, the official ogdoad, as it were, was a mysterious figure only identified as ‘Alpha’.

 

4. strake — [nautical] continuous line of planking from bow to stern in a ship’s hull

The garboard strakes are necessarily wider than most strakes at ship’s end, and should be of the strongest wood available.

 

5. analogon — analog, thing related by analogy to something else

Preston took St. Paul’s analogon of society as a human body to be ideally true, assuming to each member both needfulness and diversity in function, capability, and purpose.

 

6. erotetic — of or pertaining to questions or questioning

Focused on the erotetic value of these explanations, Herr Füssbacher makes a strong case for the development of the early rites from the devastating experience of droughts in this region, though Professor Edelman reproves this notion as giving too little weight to religious and psychic impulses which may be difficult if not impossible for we moderns to comprehend.

 

7. lummox — clumsy dummy

“Just stand still, you big lummox!” he growled, “If you break another one of her objects duh art we’ll be out on our ears for sure!”

 

8. concinnity — well-adapted and harmonious arrangement of parts (in musical work, in logical argument, etc.)

But in Lipstick Traces there is also a tremendous concinnity of argument and exposition in his delineation of the connections between the punk rock of the late ’70s and the Dada movement born after World War I, a harmonious convergence of history and music and art which in his narrative builds to a formidable and resonant whole.

 

9. amphigory — nonsense verse, meaningless writing

Are these poems, then, windows into a deeper nature and understanding, as the Surrealists claimed, or merest amphigory, a tremendous confidence trick played upon the literate public?

 

10. salutatorian — graduating high school student with second highest academic record

Coxey always bragged of being the salutatorian of his graduating class, but never mentioned that there were only forty students in the whole school that year, after that situation with the balloons of gin and the strange Swedish bus driver.

 

11. grosgrain — silk fabric having narrow ribs; ribbon made from such fabric

One of the new grosgrain berets will travel better, having no wire frame, and will keep you looking smart this season.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(Black 20th C. slang, sometimes derogatory and sometimes merely descriptive)

ofay — white person

The club was owned by some ofay who installed a time clock by the back door and insisted the bartenders clock out every time they took a smoke break, and Freddy said he’d wanted to hook up the door lock to the clock until the Fire Marshal told him no.

 

Friday Vocabulary

1. beg the question — to assume the conclusion in a premise of a logical argument*

But to claim that the Holy Bible—and specifically the King James translation in English of the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek originals—is the direct word of God, is merely to beg the question when this assertion is used to ‘prove’ that Christian holy writ has priority over all other religious texts.

 

2. ostinato — musical phrase or rhythm which is repeated over and over again

So strong was the ostinato of “The Ecstasy of Gold” that it became a staple of raves and (of course) television advertisements, sometimes even without the accompanying melodic line—though almost always with the trumpets.

 

3. prevenient — coming before in time, antecedent

His years in customer service proved prevenient preparation for his new role as the father of twins.

 

4. pi — to jumble or spill printing type

Be sure to allow adequate space around your type stand and imposing table, else you will be piing type quite frequently.

 

5. orison — prayer

At this time his only orisons consisted of muttered expletives uttered daily as he awoke, once again late for work.

 

6. stamping ground (also stomping ground) — hangout, haunt, frequented place

When Joey stopped at the Waffle House at the Redola Mill exit, once the favorite stamping ground of all his high school friends, he was surprised at how small, how dingy it appeared.

 

7. griffin — legendary beast with a lion’s body and an eagle’s head and wings

In honor of his heritage Bertram got a Pomeranian griffin tattooed on the back of his left calf, though I’m not sure if it’s the German or Polish ancestors he is honoring.

 

8. foible — minor quirk or idiosyncrasy; weakness of character; weaker half of sword blade (between middle and the point)

He’s a man of many foibles and for God’s sake whatever you do don’t mention gluten.

 

9. unctuous — excessively polite or flattering, smarmy; oily, greasy

Cooked in this way, the rabbit has a deliciously unctuous flavor, and the resulting gravy can be saved for use on chops and vegetables later.

 

10. unweeting — [obsolete] unwitting

But this lover’s beloved unweeting was of his undying love.

 

11. muleteer — mule driver

Though he had provided all the beasts himself, our muleteer could not make any of the pack animals move at all, and offered to return his hire money.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(tech business term, coined by Cory Doctorow)

enshittification — process by which tech products go from initially good offerings to successively worse iterations until they become nearly unusable, in response to business customer needs and then shareholder demands for greater and greater profitability

Brandon had recently switched to DuckDuckGo, he said, in response to the ongoing enshittification of Google Search which made it impossible for him to do his historical research without trudging through acres of advertisements and paid links, all claiming to tell him the truth about the connection of aliens to the Byzantine Empire.

 

*other supposed ‘definitions’ based on common usage are not recognized by Educated Guesswork, and no cognizance will be taken of them in Friday Vocabulary

Friday Vocabulary

1. campanology — study of bells and their making, ringing, etc.

After enlisting the minister’s support in refocusing your church on the wonders of campanology, you shouldn’t immediately seek to introduce grandsire doubles to your bellringers.

 

2. veneer — thin layer of decorative wood, usu. placed over other cheaper wood; layer of wood used to make plywood; superficial attractive surface covering less attractive substance beneath

It wasn’t the lack of a plum in his mouth that betrayed his lower class origins—that could have been cured with elocution lessons—but rather the grubby neediness to be liked and approved which he covered in a veneer of brash confidence, both of which made him unattractive to just those people from old money whom he wished to appeal to.

 

3. tansy — herb with yellow flowers; 17th century dish using tansy for seasoning

On either side of the path grew happy little patches of tansy and verbena.

 

4. oscitant — yawning, gaping; tired, drowsy

He seemed an oscitant fellow, nearly nodding off behind his lectern, but he became a veritable whirlwind the moment Taylor’s name was mentioned.

 

5. hincty (also hinkty) — smugly superior, conceited

“Ever since Cab Calloway told him he blew real good he’s been too hincty to sit in on our sessions at Pete’s.”

 

6. huarache — [Spanish] leather Mexican sandal

Of course he should have stopped talking such nonsense long before he felt his mother’s huarache slapping into the back of his head.

 

7. dacron — polyester material used for thread and cloth

He always looks sharp in his Dacron blend shirts and 100% Dacron slacks.

 

8. acerbly — sourly, bitterly

Of course she couldn’t leave it there and had to acerbly point out that she’d gotten three degrees in the same amount of time.

 

9. placket — slit in skirt or other clothing to facilitate putting on or taking off; pocket, esp. in a skirt; petticoat

The pants all had plackets with buttons, so that band members of various sizes could use and re-use the black trousers for years and years, no matter how much the waistlines diminished or grew.

 

10. decalcomania — transferring decals onto surfaces

But from fake tattoos her decalcomania moved on to decoupage and then to fabrics and grew and grew until every article of clothing in the house—even Billy’s athletic socks!—were covered in cheery slogans and cute images transferred from her burgeoning collection of iron-on decals.

 

11. cynosure — center of attention; guiding star

From almost the moment of their arrival in Peacock Village the Wilsons became the cynosure of all eyes, and they could hardly have a couple over for afternoon tea without starting new trends in fashion and politics.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(British idiom)

plum in one’s mouth — speaking in a posh style associated with the upper class

We kept him around because he had a plum in his mouth from watching all those old actors like Gielgud and Guinness, though really he was just as naff as me.

 

Friday Vocabulary

1. marcescent — [botany] withered yet still attached

He still felt the pain when he thought of the door slamming his fingers during that drunken escapade, but also felt pride that his marcescent fingernails were still clinging stupidly to his fingertips, just as stubborn as he always was in the face of brute necessity.

 

2. slope — [British] to go surreptitiously

As soon as Dad turned back to his paper, I sloped out the back door, not wanting to be present when he noticed the broken vase.

 

3. sorites — [rhetoric] series of propositions or syllogisms where each conclusion becomes the subject of the next

Talking with Nana was like talking to an eight-year-old girl, in that every statement was sure to be followed by “Why?”, like some sort of infinite sorites in which like as not you’d end up with the very statement which had began the series, at which point you could be sure that Nana would once again simply say, “Why?”, though you could never be quite sure whether she noticed the infinite repetition or not.

 

4. sorb — fruit-bearing deciduous tree of the old world, the service tree; the fruit of this tree

Both the sorb and the medlar ripen only off the tree, and the sorb in particular attains a delicious mellow flavor about a month after being stored up.

 

5. astragal — anklebone; bead-shaped molding; molding at junction of double doors to prevent drafts

Copies of the astragal (or even the bone itself) were used by children down through the ages to play games similar to dice or jacks.

 

6. philoprogenitive — prolific, producing (many) offspring; of or relating to love of one’s offspring

Originally constructed as a maternity hospital, with three floors of birthing rooms and eight more of singles and doubles for the new and prospective mothers, this philoprogenitive brick structure had been converted to a more general hospital as the baby boom subsided.

 

7. pollard — to prune a tree almost back to its trunk so as to produce massed branches

One of the pollarded willows had either been pruned poorly, or had some other deficiency, as its branches seemed thin and dying.

 

8. cockshut — [obsolete] twilight, evening

Andy planned to move at cockshut time, hoping that the gloaming might hide his movements from the patrols.

 

9. hent — [obsolete] to seize, to take

This potroon, who the style of king has hent, shall trouble these green hills no more after tomorrow morn.

 

10. jessie — [UK slang] sissy, coward, effeminate boy or man

“So I told the little jessie if he wanted his money back he could fight me for it, and that’s the last I heard of him, innit?”

 

11. legicentric — organized around and dedicated to the supremacy of statutes and the law

In the seemingly infinite regulations of the European Union one can see the influence of the French État idéal, the legicentric state where primacy must always be given the the law, even if the rules promulgated have precious little to do with the reality of life as lived by most of its subjects.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(French)

en grande tenue — in full dress uniform, in elegant style

Though she may keep a household almost filthy by our standards, this woman of the working class will be seen on a Sunday always en grande tenue, wearing clothes and jewelry that might feed her hungry children for months.

 

Friday Vocabulary

1. brannigan — drinking bout; brawl

We’ve had no trouble to speak of since you left for back east, a brannigan or two but nothing me and Deputy Fievel couldn’t handle, so don’t worry about hurrying home.

 

2. frighten the horses — [idiom] to upset public standards, to cause moral alarm

“Now I don’t want to frighten the horses, but the issue of teenage pregnancy cannot stop merely at demands for complete abstinence.”

 

3. billhook — sharp bladed hand tool with hook at end

Jemmy found that a billhook was more effective than a machete for clearing this type of underbrush and breaking trail.

 

4. tocology — study of childbirth

At the time, of course, midwifery was thought best left to the distaff half, and in some quarters tocology seemed hardly worthy of any medical student with serious intent.

 

5. plaice — type of flounder fish

“Surely you cannot think that you’re the first entrepreneur to think of naming a fish shop ‘The Plaice For Chips’?”

 

6. metope — [architecture] panel between triglyphs in a Doric frieze (as one does)

Most of the frieze was severely damaged, and only by perhaps risky conjecture could the two stone torsos still remaining on the central metope give evidence that this site was hallowed by the Bull cult, as Braithewaite has argued.

 

7. fruitive — fruitful; enjoying, possessing

The Bishop of Halstead argued against Mill’s stance that man was not fruitive and active by turns, but rather in conjunction, simultaneously and by nature.

 

8. orgeat — syrup made from almond paste mixed with rosewater or orange water; similar syrup made from barley

Dr. Rowenthal found that an orgeat made from pumpkin seeds, combined with ether rubbed upon the sufferer’s belly, was a sovereign cure for tapeworm.

 

9. purulent — made of, filled with, or discharging pus

This new variety of the disease presented as a rubicund rash upon the back and legs which quickly turned into purulent sores.

 

10. apolaustic — dedicated to pleasure or enjoyment

Only the richest sovereigns (or perhaps the most depraved hedonist) can truly pursue an apolaustic lifestyle.

 

11. planxty — solemn yet convivial Irish air for the harp

Though it is true that a planxty can be a mournful tune, you will not hear it at a funeral—though you may at the wake that follows.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(industrial motion studies)

therblig — basic unit of motion used by manual workers (according to system created by Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, American industrial psychologists)

Though the system of eighteen therbligs was merely an extension of the robotizing Taylorite micromanaging of industrial workers so beloved by those in the front office, and still has its place in some Six Sigma training programs, no similar system has ever been developed for the supposed work done by ‘management’—only the ‘Plan’ therblig might apply—, so perhaps a system might be created, with such new ‘thinkbligs’ as Ponder, Daydream, Meet, Ratiocinate, and PowerPoint.

 

Book List: 1200 Books

As I told you over two months ago, I recently finished my twelve hundredth book in my little silly book tracking project. So—though we won’t be talking about the silly book pictured here (if you must know more about this awful and boring religious book masquerading as a science fiction slash fantasy novel, check out the link (And who am I to judge? It’s worked before….)), I will be giving you the full list of this last ‘century’ of books read, picking out a few highlights and (one hopes) even fewer lowlights. (Though the percentage of worse books is increasing, as I seek to divest myself of some of the poorer stock in my book portfolio.)

At least this last hundred began well, as I finally got around to reading Walker Percy’s critically acclaimed (and it damn well ought to be) novel, Love In The Ruins. Strangely enough, I’d read its sorta sequel, The Thanatos Syndrome—and loved it—’way back in my days working in the bookstore at the Stanford Mall. But between one thing and another (the ‘another’ being the fact that I truly have a difficult time reading Southern authors, as they tend to make me cry), I had never actually opened the pages of this tale of crazy times (the 60s) in the segregated South. Percy’s story is freaking brilliant. And so very prescient. It all happened, just as he told it. Only we don’t ever realize these things, even as they happen all around us. And yes, it made me cry.

Dick King-Smith (you know him, if you know him at all, as the author of the book from which the movie Babe was derived) provided another little piece of perfection in this first set of ten books read in this last hundred, with the amazing tale of The Mouse Butcher. This is a wonderfully brutal fairy tale, the story of a boy from the working class who makes good, a children’s story which may not be for all children—especially oversensitive adults. The narration remains blissfully oblivious to the central anthropomorphic question of the book: What happened to the humans on the island? But you will not care, as the action doesn’t need those guys one bit. From the very first page we know we’re in for a treat. “Black death dropped from the top of the broken garden wall and white teeth cut off his final squeak.” Did I mention that it is wonderfully brutal?

 

# Read Author Title Genre
1101 3/8/24 Walker Percy Love In The Ruins Fiction
1102 3/9/24 George Baxt The Neon Graveyard Mystery
1103 3/9/24 Robert van Gulik The Chinese Lake Murders Mystery
1104 3/15/24 China Miéville Perdido Street Station SF & Fantasy
1105 3/16/24 Dick King-Smith The Mouse Butcher Children’s
1106 3/19/24 Sarah Caudwell Thus Was Adonis Murdered Mystery
1107 3/19/24 Leonard Austin Around The World In San Francisco: A Guide to the Unexplored San Francisco Travel
1108 3/21/24 Piers Anthony Blue Adept SF & Fantasy
1109 3/21/24 Olga Tokarczuk Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead Fiction
1110 3/22/24 Daniel Pinkwater Looking For Bobwicz: A Hoboken Chicken Story Children’s

 

Another children’s book made the grade in the next set of ten, achieving that rarest of things, making me cry. The Scholastic Book Club edition of That Dog Tarr (originally titled Tarr of Belway Smith) by Nan Hayden Agle was, yes, a quick read, but oh, so much action packed into its 95 pages! Agle tells the story from the perspective of the much put-upon dog, and there is incident and misery and heroism and … yes, Virgina … a happy ending. (I like to cry, but not too much.) Just like the more famous Mr. King-Smith, I’ll be looking for more books by Mrs. Agle. [Trigger warning: Dog kills a bunny.]

One of Richard Armour’s best, Twisted Tales From Shakespeare brings to bear not only the author’s raucous sense of pun-filled humor, but also an abiding knowledge and love for Shakespeare and all things Bardical. Not only are the puns quite witty (in itself almost a small miracle), but the usual silliness is always in pursuit of humor and deep appreciation for the source material. Of course it’s better if you know the plays well, but even with the most basic acquaintance you’ll find plenty to laugh about in these ‘twisted’ transfigurations.

 

# Read Author Title Genre
1111 3/23/24 Nan Hayden Agle That Dog Tarr Children’s
1112 3/24/24 Edward de Bono The Use Of Lateral Thinking Psychology
1113 3/25/24 Michael Bonner, ed. Uncut Magazine October 2023 Music
1114 3/25/24 Christopher Andrew For the President’s Eyes Only: Secret Intelligence and the American Presidency from Washington to Bush History
3/26/24 Jean-Claude Mézières & Pierre Christin Valerian: The New Future Trilogy Comics
1115 3/26/24 Shane Ivey, Bret Kramer, & Dennis Detwiller Delta Green: Need to Know – Quickstart Rulebook D&D
1116 3/26/24 Doug Kelly Sunshine State Mafia: A History of Florida’s Mobsters, Hit Men, and Wise Guys True Crime
1117 3/26/24 Orhan Pamuk My Name Is Red Mystery
3/27/24 Mike Baron Badger #10 Comics
3/27/24 Mike Baron Badger #11 Comics
3/27/24 Mike Baron Badger #12 Comics
3/27/24 Lopamudra Jakata Tales: Nandi Vishala and other stories Comics
1118 3/27/24 Thaddeus Golas The Lazy Man’s Guide To Enlightenment Spirituality
3/27/24 Luis M. Fernandes Jakata Tales: Stories of Wisdom Comics
3/29/24 Dolly Rizvi Kabir Comics
1119 3/28/24 Gil Morales Dupie: The life and times of a college student as seen through the pen of campus cartoonist, Gil Morales Humor
1120 3/28/24 Richard Armour Twisted Tales From Shakespeare Humor

 

I confess, I’m a sucker for books like this, throwaway paperback parodies of … well, in the case of Comfort Station, the works being parodied are the ludicrously popular and overthick (in at least two senses of the word) potboilers of Arthur Hailey, the author of the bestsellers Hotel and Airport. Not to be confused with Alex Haley (though inevitably he will be), the Canadian author is little read nowadays, though I suppose you might accidentally stumble upon the movie made of Airport, or one of its three [!] sequels, or perhaps know at least the trivia that the staggeringly successful and popular Airplane! that made the Zucker brothers such a success was based on that series of films. This book, then, is the high-tension tale of men (mostly) trying to get out of the rain in a New York bathrom—the titular comfort station—whilst intrigue and … ah, skip it. The book itself is a pretty good parody of Haley’s style, with occasional flashes of brilliance. Perhaps the most interesting thing about this tome is that it turns out to have been written by Donald Westlake, using the pen name J. Morgan Cunningham.

Most of the better books in this particular tranche were the mysteries I read. The Allingham, the Charteris, and the Edmund Crispin books were all quite excellent. But I’m highlighting the Maigret novel by the obscenely prolific Georges Simenon because Maigret At The Crossroads shows a strange dark world which has almost certainly passed away into fading memory, a time of lonely towns made up of car garages competing with stables, of gangsters and a sordid lack of crimes passionnels. This is an early one for the stolid French detective, originally published in 1931. As is usually the case with Maigret, it is as much a sense of mood and place as the murder itself which is on display, though the Maigret’s easy revelation of the inextricably dark crime is also one of his laudable hallmarks.

 

# Read Author Title Genre
3/28/24 Mike Baron Badger #13 Comics
1121 3/28/24 Margery Allingham The Fashion In Shrouds Mystery
3/29/24 Kamala Chandrakant Kacha: The Boy Who Placed Duty Above All Else Comics
1122 3/29/24 Michel Politzer & Annie Politzer Playhouses, Cabins, And Tents Home & Garden
1123 3/29/24 Georges Simenon Maigret At The Crossroads Mystery
1124 3/29/24 J. Morgan Cunningham [Donald Westlake] Comfort Station Humor
1125 3/30/24 Isaac Asimov More Tales Of The Black Widowers Mystery
1126 3/30/24 Luqman Keele & Daniel Pinkwater Java Jack Children’s
3/30/24 Mike Baron Badger #14 Comics
3/30/24 Mike Baron Badger #15 Comics
1127 4/3/24 Leslie Charteris The Brighter Buccaneer Mystery
1128 4/4/24 Frederic Bastiat et al. The Law & Clichés of Socialism Politics & Social Sciences
1129 4/6/24 Edmund Crispin The Case Of The Gilded Fly Mystery
1130 4/10/24 Stephen Potter Supermanship or, How to Continue to Stay Top without Actually Falling Apart Humor

 

I’ve always loved the Amar Chitra Katha series of comic books. Heck, if I’m honest about it, likely my best understanding of Hindu mythology and most of the Vedas come from these comics … not to mention my knowledge of other figures important in Indian history, such as Paramahansa Yogananda or Guru Tegh Bahadur. And almost all of the Amar Chitra Katha books about and around the Mahabharata are excellent, including and especially the full set going through the entirety of the epic tale. But this particular issue, Karna: One of the Most Important Characters of the Mahabharata, was truly a stunner. Though the art tended to become a bit frenetic at times, it turns out that viewing the story of the Mahabharata through Karna’s perspective an interesting and fresh take on the classic tale.

Somehow I’d managed to miss the very first appearance of the famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot up to this point. My loss. Because The Mysterious Affair At Styles is an absolute corker, a brilliant mystery that presents M. Poirot as a fully realized genius detective from the first moment he appears on the world’s stage. The whole book is a stellar affair, written by Agatha Christie in 1916 (so I’m reliably informed by Wikipedia) and first published in 1920. And it’s not only Poirot who steps off these pages so perfectly from the get-go. Captain Hastings makes himself useful as the dullard who highlights and augments Poirot’s genius (and everyone else’s, for that matter).

 

# Read Author Title Genre
1131 4/10/24 Michael Sims, ed. The Penguin Book of Murder Mysteries Mystery
1132 4/11/24 August Derleth The Casebook of Solar Pons Mystery
1133 4/12/24 Ian Fleming The Spy Who Loved Me Mystery
4/13/24 Karna: One of the Most Important Characters of the Mahabharata Comics
1134 4/14/24 Elizabeth Linington No Evil Angel Mystery
4/15/24 R. Crumb Zap Comix No. 0 Comics
1135 4/16/24 John Dickson Carr He Who Whispers Mystery
1136 4/16/24 Peter A. Levine Walking The Tiger: Healing Trauma Self-Help
1137 4/17/24 Kingsley Amis, Dom Moraes, & Peter Porter Penguin Modern Poets 2: Amis Moraes Porter Poetry
1138 4/17/24 Agatha Christie The Mysterious Affair At Styles Mystery
1139 4/18/24 Kenneth Bulmer / John Glasby The Hunters of Jundagai / Project Jove [Ace Double 68310] SF & Fantasy
1140 4/19/24 Manning Coles A Toast To Tomorrow Mystery

 

It is doubtful, of course, that Orson Welles actually penned Mr. Arkadin: Aka Confidential Report: The Secret Sordid Life of an International Tycoon—the introduction asserts that it was written by his assistant Mauric Bessy. But in that case, who wrote the translation from French? Like so much of this tale, and the tale itself, some things must remain shrouded in mystery, and we must be prepared to endure our nescience. Whatever the source, I did not expect to read such a well-written tale of the cosmopolitan underworld. The slow-building tale grows more and more compelling until the big reveal when Guy looks at the police photograph in Munich on Christmas Eve. Ah, me! There are echoes (of course) of Citizen Kane, but also The Mask Of Dimitrios, in this absorbing tale, whoever may have written it.

A true work of genius, Jack Kerouac’s On The Road is brilliant, and perhaps worth the drugs and alcohol needed for its completion. Kerouac’s style seems so effortless (and apparently was just one huge torrential flow), but that easy style hides just how difficult it is to move from the brain to paper. The story itself could be read many ways, a thousand ways, the characters of Sal and Dean and all the others as roman à clef or as primeval forces or literary history, and you can fall all over yourself lapping up the insights into friendship and its fragile nature, and that final sadness is very real, and never quite final. I know that others know and grok this book much better than I. It is the image of a parallel America that both never was and is now gone forever. The collapse of the frontier and the setting out for somewhere new is all here. That such giants lived, or at least were dreamed of, and now … but there I digress, and we regress.

 

# Read Author Title Genre
1141 4/22/24 Orson Welles Mr. Arkadin: Aka Confidential Report: The Secret Sordid Life of an International Tycoon Fiction
1142 4/23/24 John W. Campbell, ed. Analog Science Fact–Science Fiction: March 1963 SF & Fantasy
1143 4/23/24 Gerald Sussman, ed. National Lampoon: March 1982 Humor
1144 4/24/24 Richard Hull Excellent Intention Mystery
1145 4/25/24 Gertrude Behn Exercises After Childbirth Health
1146 4/26/24 Gérard Emptoz & Valérie Marchal Aux sources de la propiété industrielle : Guide des archives de l’INPI Foreign Language
1147 4/27/24 Wilkie Collins Basil Fiction
4/27/24 Jay Kinney, ed. Young Lust #5 Comics
1148 4/29/24 Jack Kerouac On The Road Fiction
4/29/24 Bill Griffith, ed. Young Lust #2 Comics
1149 4/30/24 Lloyd Alexander The Foundling and Other Tales of Pyrdain Children’s
1150 4/30/24 Vincent P. Collins Grief: How To Live With Sorrow Self-Help

 

The wonderful translations by Eunice Clark of Selected Fables of Jean de la Fontaine so inspired me that I rushed up my library ladder to grab a volume containing the originals in their 17th-Century French. Alas, my comprehension en français fails me, as I am more suited to read late 18th-Century political speeches. (Though I’m still muddling through the originals.) Be that as it may, these wonderful version by Ms. Clark inspire, delight, and—as perhaps Fontaine intended—teach us something if we’re not careful. The dreamlike line drawings by Alexander Calder complement the tales very well, being poems for the eyes as you read the poetic fables.

Alas … this book saddened me, or at least the primary tale, the novella The Land Of Mist, made my heart ache. When The World Screamed & Other Stories collects the late Professor Challenger tales by Arthur Conan Doyle, a character known to most (if at all) from his first and best appearance in 1912, in The Lost World, which has been made into numerous movies and which inspired many other ‘lost world’ tales (as well as the very subgenre of such SF/Fantasy works). A second novel published the next year, The Poison Belt, was not as good, but passable, and there Professor Challenger could have stayed in comfortable retirement, but—alas!—Doyle could not leave well enough alone. This volume gives us the terrible novella mentioned above, as well as two more passable short stories, the titular “When The World Screamed” (which has its moments) and the viciously pleasant “The Disintegration Machine”, both of which appeared a few years after the awful 1926 novel The Land Of Mist. Why is it terrible? Let me count the ways. Actually, I won’t do that; it deserves a fuller write-up than I’ll give it here. Suffice to say that the tale is an excuse for a pro-spiritualist polemic (the chapter wherein the ‘real’ spiritual medium bemoans the lack of understanding of the public is particulary cringe-inducing), and that Professor Challenger, one of Doyle’s best character ideas, hardly appears in the work at all. Sad that Challenger did not leave the ourvre of a Holmes or a Brigadier Gerard, but … we don’t always get the heroes we want.

 

# Read Author Title Genre
1151 4/30/24 Jean de La Fontaine; Eunice Clark, trans.; Alexander Calder, illus. Selected Fables Poetry
1152 4/30/24 Vincent P. Collins Acceptance Self-Help
1153 4/30/24 Kenneth Bulmer / Mack Reynolds Behold the Stars / Planetary Agent X [Ace Double M-131] SF & Fantasy
1154 5/1/24 David Inglish W. B. Bugg’s Change of Heart Fiction
1155 5/2/24 Iain Pears The Immaculate Deception Mystery
1156 5/3/24 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle When The World Screamed & Other Stories SF & Fantasy
1157 5/4/24 Fritz Leiber Swords And Ice Magic SF & Fantasy
1158 5/5/24 Rita Emmett The Procrastinator’s Handbook: Mastering the Art of Doing It Now Self-Help
1159 5/5/24 Kenneth Blanchard & Spencer Johnson The One Minute Manager Bidness
1160 5/6/24 George Barker, Martin Bell, & Charles Causley Penguin Modern Poets 3: Barker Bell Causley Poetry

 

Louis L’Amour really is an excellent writer, if you like taut action, well-constructed plots, and nicely delineated if nostalgically good or otherwise characters. And The High Graders is a perfect exemplar of his mastery: a perfect story akin to Yojimbo, or The Glass Key, somehow transplanted to the West. Yes, I’m well aware that a western was already made of Yojimbo, and that Sergio Leone was even sued over the resemblance. But this book was not exactly either of those classic plots, but a unique tale all its own, a compelling story of vengeance and money politics that grabs the reader from the first scene in the rain-soaked graveyard and never lets go. Dashiel Hammett would have been proud.

I’ve read Poetry Comics before, away back in the Before Time, whilst I was in college (the first time), and the world seemed an oyster. Alas, too much hot sauce and not enough poetry was to pass before picking up this wonderful compilation illustrated by the strange meta-poet Dave Morice once again. He really was on to something here; the cheeky illustrations manage both to add and to not detract from the words of these … erm … wordsmiths. I was overjoyed to rediscover that it was just as remarkable a book as it seemed lo those many years ago when first I acquired it. I was a bit flummoxed, however, to learn that one of my favorite poems from this anthology, the weirdly enthralling “Ubble Snop”, putatively by Joyce Holland, was in fact penned by Mr. Morice himself, as part of his strange literary hoax using this fictitious poet’s persona. I’m not entirely sure how I feel after learning of this creative deception, but have reread the poem a couple of times since gaining this knowledge, and find that I still love it and like it. A lot. Certainly it’s not the first instance of an anthologist placing his own work in a collection.

 

# Read Author Title Genre
1161 5/6/24 Susan Watson Emery Blood On The Old Well Wacko
1162 5/7/24 Louis L’Amour The High Graders Western
1163 5/8/24 James M. Cain Love’s Lovely Counterfeit Mystery
1164 5/8/24 Johann David Wyss The Swiss Family Robinson Fiction
* 5/9/24 Dave Morice Poetry Comics Poetry
1165 5/10/24 Margery Allingham Mr. Campion and Others Mystery
1166 5/11/24 Harold Lamb Tamerlane: Conqueror of the Earth History
1167 5/12/24 Louis L’Amour Down The Long Hills Western
1168 5/13/24 Jean-Patrick Manchette The Mad And The Bad Mystery
1169 5/13/24 Eric Nakamura, ed. Giant Robot No. 1 Zine
1170 5/14/24 Eric Nakamura, ed. Giant Robot No. 2 Zine

* I count Poetry Comics as a ‘Comic Book’ for the purposes of the running totals

 

I had read The Stranger by Albert Camus before, but not in French, had not read L’Etranger. (Strangely enough, I’m learning that I never have read The Plague in either language, though I’m trying to rectify this oversight.) And it turned out that it is an easy read, even for someone with as poor comprehension of the French language as I have. And it seemed even more persuasive in the original, though what that suasion was is perhaps an exercise best left up to the reader, n’est-ce pas? Certainly it seemed less ‘existential’ (whatever that term might mean; I’m also very ignorant of philosophy, though perhaps not so much as I am of French) and more simply annoyed—or perhaps just plain bored, à votre guise. Camus’s novel is a powerful, difficult work, and well worth reading in any language.

Pretty-Shield: Medicine Woman of the Crows, as related by Frank B. Linderman, is the autobiography of a Indian woman Mr. Linderman got to know at the reservation to where she was restricted at the end of her days. He transcribed her life story over many days as she told it to him. He could follow along in sign language, which he knew, but used a native translator as well. This book is a companion piece to his earlier autobiography of the Crow chief Plenty Coups, and the narrative is remarkable as being one of the few pieces we have which details the daily lives of Native American women and girls. Indeed, I was struck by the playful memories of Pretty-Shield as a little girl, when they would make their dolls ride upon the tribe’s dogs in emulation of the horse-riding warriors. The work is an amazing history, life, and self-revelation. Every section is interesting, though I have to admit that the presence of a transgender Crow at the greater battle around Little Bighorn came as a real surprise.

 

# Read Author Title Genre
1171 5/15/24 Andrea Penrose Sweet Revenge Mystery
1172 5/16/24 Agatha Christie Uncut Magazine November 2023 Music
1173 5/16/24 Edith Pargeter The Dragon At Noonday Fiction
1174 5/17/24 Albert Camus L’Etranger Foreign Language
1175 5/18/24 Richard Hugo Death And The Good Life Mystery
1176 5/19/24 Shepard Rifkin The Murderer Vine Mystery
1177 5/20/24 David Holbrook, Christopher Middleton, & David Wevill Penguin Modern Poets 4: Holbrook Middleton Wevill Poetry
1178 5/21/24 Josephine Tey The Franchise Affair Mystery
1179 5/22/24 Frank B. Linderman Pretty-shield: Medicine Woman of the Crows History
1180 5/23/24 Sam Pilger & Leo Moynihan Unsolved Enigmas: Incredible Events That Have Puzzled The Greatest Minds History

 

As part of my side-project of revisiting books of my youth, I re-read Richard Brautigan’s Trout Fishing In America, and … boy does it hold up. May have even gotten better with age. After all the disasters and broken promises and human failures and our constant blaming others for all of those, Brautigan’s brilliant book reads like a lyrical message from the Before Time, which of course it is and was. Though published in 1967, he wrote it in 1961 in a series of genius scribblings, before hippies had even been taxonomically distinguished from Beats, before things got all tangled up and people started dying, when the promise still had some shiny patina of potential reality and the outsiders lived outside and went fishing.

Christopher Andrews followed up his first book on the wonders of the Mitrokhin Archive—the raft of handwritten notes on KGB secrets smuggled out of the Soviet Union by Vasily Mitrokhin—with The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for The Third World. Now, a lot of people have a lot of problems with the original source material, but then, not a lot of people actually have access to the original source material. Andrews, who is usually identified as a ‘Cambridge historian’ but is also the official historian of MI5, is one of these, and says he worked closely with Mitrokhin in producing this second volume, focused on KGB operations in the so-called Third World from the 50s to the 80s. And, well, sure it’s filled with lots of secrets, I suppose, but the constant drumbeat of codenames reveals the beat of the music the Geheimnisträger want us to listen to, the silly rhythm of spies and counterspies that has fascinated us so since WWII. But what is most revealing here is the folly of self-serving bureaucracy (How many times does the author say that this or that residency claimed more credit than it deserved?) and the ultimate failure of most KGB plans, save only for the forgery and technical intelligence departments. Otherwise, one can say only, What a waste. Of course, this book also acts as an apologia for the CIA and such, but that’s the price you pay, I suppose, for gaining access to the underlying documentation.

 

# Read Author Title Genre
1181 5/24/24 Richard Brautigan Trout Fishing In America Fiction
5/25/24 R. Crumb XYZ Comics #1 Comics
1182 5/26/24 Christopher Andrew & Vasili Mitrokhin The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for The Third World Spies
1183 5/26/24 John W. Campbell, ed. Analog Science Fact–Science Fiction April 1963 SF & Fantasy
5/27/24 Art Spiegelman & Françoise Mouly, eds. The Toon Treasury of Classic Children’s Comics Comics
1184 5/28/24 Edwin C. Bliss Getting Things Done: The ABCs of Time Management Psychology
1185 5/29/24 Gary Allen The Rockefeller File Wacko
1186 5/30/24 Margery Allingham Traitor’s Purse Mystery
1187 5/31/24 John D. MacDonald The Empty Copper Sea Mystery
1188 6/3/24 Vernard Eller The MAD Morality or the Ten Commandments Revisited Religion & Spirituality
1189 6/4/24 David Vigilante (Out)Law & Order: The Code of the West Meets the Code of the Street in the Classroom History
1190 6/4/24 A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada Coming Back: The Science of Reincarnation Religion & Spirituality

 

I may have to move Molière up on my ‘must read’ list, because this translation of Le Malade Imaginaire (The Would-Be Invalid) was just hilarious. My French certainly isn’t good enough to read it in the original (see above), and in any case my understanding of 17th-Century French is even worse, but this version by Morris Bishop was wonderful, growing funnier and funnier as the play went along, and finally surpassing all other nonsense with that masterful final faux-Latin doctoral award ceremony at the end. Bishop offers a fine translation, making even the Latin flow seamlessly into the Englished nonsense. Brilliant. The play is great, of course, with the ironic twist being that Molière himself perished during (well, began to perish, as he lingered on for a while after) the fourth performance of this final work of his, in which he was playing the lead role. Unlike his character, the author didn’t believe in doctors, and they likely wouldn’t have done him any good anyway, which is sort of the point of the play as well.

Though the history of Napoleon’s Russia Campaign by Talty was interesting for its content, if not its style, the deservedly famous history of the Dreyfus Affair by Nicholas Halasz was the standout of this last tranche of books in the last hundred read. Captain Dreyfus: The Story of a Mass Hysteria is a brilliant analysis of the material and events, and though other works have massaged this information in different directions (focusing more upon the antisemitism inherent in French culture, or the French army, for instance), this well-documented narrative of the whole ‘Affair’ is a truly excellent, remarkable history. Halasz spins a compelling story, though it ends up being more than a tad depressing (his ending to Part Three still gives me chills). Unfortunately, his book has more than a little to say about our own odd situation in history.

 

# Read Author Title Genre
1191 6/6/24 William Shakespeare The Tempest Drama
1192 6/7/24 Nassim Nicholas Taleb Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets Business
1193 6/8/24 Piers Anthony The Source Of Magic SF & Fantasy
1194 6/10/24 C. G. Jung & C. Kerényi Essays on a Science of Mythology: The Myth of the Divine Child and the Mysteries of Eleusis Mythology
1195 6/11/24 Stephan Talty The Illustrious Dead: The Terrifying Story of How Typhus Killed Napoleon’s Greatest Army History
1196 6/12/24 Molière The Would-Be Invalid (Le Malade Imaginaire) Drama
1197 6/12/24 G. K. Chesterton Manalive Fiction
1198 6/13/24 Nicholas Halasz Captain Dreyfus: The Story of a Mass Hysteria History
1199 6/15/24 Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö The Man Who Went Up In Smoke Mystery
1200 6/15/24 James Robert Hawkins Sword Of Power SF & Fantasy

 

I’ve already told you about the mishegas around the book I thought I’d completed this last set of a hundred books with, so I won’t go into that here, save to say that, yes, of course, that Vonnegut book will be Book #1201 when I eventually get around to producing that list for y’all, after completing the next 100 books. Which might not be all that long, seeing as how I’m already up to something like Book #1262 (again, not counting the comics). Once again, the Mystery category dominated this last set, with 29 books read, followed by 10 SF & Fantasy books (well, one of ’em was a magazine) and 8 books of Fiction (plus the 2 Westerns, which you might count as Fiction, since the line gets blurry sometimes). Surprisingly, I read something like 9 books on or about Health & Psychology, and 7 of Poetry and Drama. However, it was Comic Books that turned in a strong second place, with 17 appearances on the list of the last hundred read (though, as I’ve explained ad nauseam, they don’t count towards the hundred read) (also, as I also explained, the Poetry Comics I’m counting as a Comic Book for those summation totals, though I counted it as a Poetry book just above (and didn’t count it as one of those 17 comics (which shows how deep the rot goes when you try to be consistent))). Anyway, enough of this madness—See you next time!

 

The lists of previously read books may be found by following the links:

Friday Vocabulary

1. non sequitur — [Latin, sorta] disturbingly inapt transition or sequence; statement not logically following its precedent

I had already given up trying to follow the plot with its plethora of holes and non sequuntur, but the literal resurrection of the bishop killed so drastically in the very first scene of the movie solely so that he could reveal the location of the treasure map was a ludicrous bridge too far for me.

 

2. sucker — [obsolete] inhabitant of Illinois

A rowdy crowd of hoosiers joined the suckers around the debate stage in Jonesboro.

 

3. imbrute — to transform or devolve into a brute; to make brutal

Olmsted’s relentless inventory of missed opportunities, failed projects, passive squalor, and degraded morals makes clear how slavery had imbruted the owners as much as the slaves themselves, if not moreso.

 

4. hygroscopic — absorbing moisture from the surrounding atmosphere

But the hygroscopic crystals used in these dehumidifiers can be quite toxic if ingested, so proper disposal is important.

 

5. greengage — light green plum

While we were talking my horse nibbled at some greengages that had fallen to the ground.

 

6. conglobulate — to make into a ball

Now the worms began to writhe and join together in a horrid mass, conglobulating into a leprous sphere that made my stomach heave.

 

7. brevier — size of printing type, usu. judged nowadays equivalent to 8 point type

By trimming the contents header, we were just able to add an inch-and-a-half in brevier stating this new information in such a way as to avoid the legal danger Mr. Markus had pointed out.

 

8. aerobate — to perform dramatic maneuvers with aircraft

After the war Nicholas became a barnstormer, aerobating for the farmers outside Dubuque with an old Jenny he’d patched up, but never really approaching the thrill he’d felt when contending with other warriors of the air in skies where death was a constant companion.

 

9. zeugma — [rhetoric] use of a word to modify two other words either in two different senses or in an inappropriate (sometimes for humorous effect) fashion

Cornball then shred the eviction notice and his guitar, a zeugma which unfortunately only occurred to me much later.

 

10. vorlage — skiing position in skier leans well forward while keeping heel down on the ski

Somehow the back heel clip had become damaged, making impossible the extreme vorlage I needed to escape these skiing gunmen.

 

11. Vorlage — [German] earlier version of a text

Even the interesting symmetry shown by Paskukov between the two cantatas cannot prove the existence of a heretofore undiscovered Bach Vorlage, as Scott claims in his recent article.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(Soviet Union)

nomenklatura — official list of bureaucrats and appointees to government posts in the Soviet Union; the people on such lists; any elite or other privileged group

In trying to storm the citadel held by the academics of this most conservative (if not most prestigious) state university system, the revolutionary professors succumbed to the risk faced by all exorcists, becoming members of the nomenklatura themselves, and defending the high towers of academe just as vigorously (and viciously, at least in the Tennis Elbow Affair) as had their quondam opponents.

 

Friday Vocabulary

1. cambion — child with one human and one demonic parent

As no one suspected Marta of being anything but a gullible human girl, and since the fishermen all knew her boy Toby to be a cambion, the village was convinced she’d been seduced by an incubus, likely taking the form of her own Long Tom, lost these many years ago in the storm of ’86.

 

2. patria potestas — [Latin] absolute power in law of a father in Roman times over his progeny

Still the debate rages today over whether the ancient claims of female guardianship came before those of patria potestas, the advocates of an archaic matriarchal society, of course, favoring such precedence.

 

3. spit — measure based on length of a gardening spade

Rhododendrons will grow well in furrows dug two spits deep.

 

4. hegumen — monastery head in Eastern Orthodox churches

By the time of the NEP the hegumen had become head of the committee providing aid to single mothers.

 

5. colorable — seemingly true

While both teams of lawyers were making colorable claims about jurisdiction and prior claims, Ernest was making his own arrangements with both sets of potential heirs.

 

6. vernal — of or related to spring; of youth

He stood, transfixed, as Ashley removed her large floppy hat and rolled her head back, eyes closed, enjoying the sun’s vernal warmth upon her face and shoulders.

 

7. anosognosia — neuropsychiatric disorder in which sufferer takes no cognizance of their own serious disability

Though Henry must have been found it quite painful to walk with the foot-long metal spike embedded through his heel, some strange anosognosia held him in thrall all during that long march back to camp, and his only complaints were directed at his boots, which he swore must have been manufactured poorly to cause him such difficulty in hiking across the rocky terrain.

 

8. barbola (also barbola work) — decorative fruit or flowers made from barbotine; such decoration when added to a craft piece

The top of the mirror was covered with fanciful barbola, as if the cornucopia of harvest fruits might make more fruitful the woman using the looking glass.

 

9. kudu — large striped African antelope

Our fears were raised when we saw a party of jackals feasting on a corpse, but when we got closer we discovered they were merely tearing the flesh off of a kudu carcass.

 

10. badmash — miscreant, ruffian, dishonest man or youth

Annie had no idea who the actual thieves were, and though the colonial police questioned the filthy badmash who had first stopped our party, he firmly denied any involvement in the affair.

 

11. drumlin — small elongated hills formed by glaciation

This part of Wisconsin is known for the highest concentration of drumlins ever seen, so you can be sure to find a geologist in every bar or restaurant, should you ever need one.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(British)

twoc — to steal, esp. a car (from the phrase ‘taking without owner’s consent’)

As somebody who thought of twocking as merely a youthful folly, a rite of passage for certain chavs, I was surprised to find that in Australia it had the aspect of class war between bourgeois shop owners and aboriginals.

 

Friday Vocabulary

1. langlauf — to ski cross-country

He thought of langlaufing to the forester’s hut, but decided it was impracticable with these wide skis he’d been forced to use.

 

2. antetype — prototype, early form

Thus these radio clubs were the antetype of the grand scheme of fan clubs which became so important to the Argentinian film industry of the 40s and 50s.

 

3. sit-upon — [informal] the buttocks

“Well, I’ve got a slash across my sit-upon that’ll have me favouring a standing desk for a week or two, but other than that I’m all right.”

 

4. erst — [archaic] once, formerly

See you there that wretch that erst commanded men, troops, yay, even whole armies, now laid so low as to come begging at my door?

 

5. nootropic — cognition-enhancing drug

Although much hullaballoo is made about nootropics or so-called “smart drugs”, such noise has been bruited since at least the era of Mondo 2000, when people were advised to take acetylcholine to enhance their brain function.

 

6. irid — iris of the eye

His steely irids completed his aloof visage, and I found I could not endure their cold focus and must look away.

 

7. bootjack — forked device designed to assist in removal of riding boots

Ebenezer was furious when he learned that Glory Ann had broken apart the bootjack for firewood, partly because it was a useful item, but mostly (as I think) because he had received it from his grandfather before everything fell apart.

 

8. bedad — euphemism for ‘By God’

“Tell them to leave, and quickly, but that if they return, bedad, they’ll learn how far they’ve worn out their welcome to this house!”

 

9. rushlight — rush-candle, weak candle made from dipping dried pith of a rush into grease; the light emitted from a rush-candle

We awoke several hours before dawn, dressed ourselves by rushlight and began our numerous chores.

 

10. photophobia — pain or discomfort in eyes due to exposure to light

The medication worked well to alleviate her symptoms, but we had to discontinue its use due to her constant reports of photophobia.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(Japanese)

sanpaku — condition in which whites of the eyes are visible below or above the pupil

Charles Manson, Lady Diana, and JFK were all noted for their sanpaku eyes, which according to Chinese medicine indicates an imbalance in the psychic and physical system.