As I feared, this newsletter is leaking readers like a sieve. I assume some of the former Clamorites are happy enough with the website. Fair enough. But if you’re so inclined, I’d appreciate you sharing a link to the newsletter with your real life, Facebook, Twitter and other friends: http://ktxc.to/go !
WORK
Mr. Stocks:
A lottery is a taxation
Upon all the fools in creation;
And heaven be praised,
It is easily raised,
Credulity’s always in fashion:
For folly’s a fund
Will never lose ground,
While fools are so rife in the nation.
—Henry Fielding
—from The Lottery (1732)
WORD(S)
parnel /PAR-nəl/. noun. A prostitute. More specifically: a priest’s mistress (though who’s to say none of those were love matches?). Often seen in the phrase “tender parnel.” Also rendered as pannell, pernel and others. From Pernel, a shortened form of the name Petronilla which was, at one time, a popular feminine form of the name Peter. Beyond that, the etymology is unclear.
Henry Hankovitch, con guítar,
did a short Zen pray,
on his tatami in a relaxed lotos
his mind on nuffin, rose-blue breasts,
and gave his parnel one French kiss
(John Berryman)
Get you to church and have a good priest that can tell you what marriage is; this fellow will but join you together as they join wainscot; then one of you will prove a shrunk panel, and like green timber warp, warp.
(William Shakespeare)
WEB
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The STRONG LANGUAGE blog is a “Sweary blog about swearing” (NSFW, naturally). Highlights include Mapping the United Swears of America & the followup Sweary maps 2: Swear harder, Donald Trump swears a lot and “More man? Plague, plague!”: How to curse like a misanthrope.
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Technology killed bookstore chains. Can technology save indie bookstores?
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The Terrible Beauty of Californian Wildfires, as Seen by David McNew
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Stick that in your cup and drink it… → InStem study finds cockroach milk is next superfood
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“Fantasies about the future have a troubling effect on achieving actual goals. If positive thinking doesn’t work, what does?” → Don’t Think Too Positive.
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“We are reduced to quarter rations and no coffee,” he continued. “And nobody can soldier without coffee.” → If War Is Hell, Then Coffee Has Offered U.S. Soldiers Some Salvation
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The archives of Randall Munroe’s archives of his What If (Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions) series are a great browse [Thanks, Reader A.!]. I recommended the book a few years ago…and still do!
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Once all but left for dead, is cursive handwriting making a comeback?
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The always awesome Atlas Obscura now has a podcast! And don’t forget their forthcoming book.
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Today in 1703, Daniel Defoe is pilloried (literally, as in the stocks’ harsher sibling), for publishing his pamphlet The Shortest-Way with the Dissenters; Or, Proposals for the Establishment of the Church in which he satirized Queen Anne’s actions against the non-conformists (“…people in the World, who, now they are unperched, and reduced to an equality with other people, and under strong and very just apprehensions of being further treated as they deserve…”), arguing they should simply be exterminated (“Crucify the Thieves!”).
WATCH/WITNESS
Watch “Memory Lane,” an automaton diorama by Mark Ryden, in action.
WHAT!?
The Energy of Hair [Thanks, Reader T.!, who adds, “it makes me think about Samson, of course…”]
REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES
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I bet Reader M. isn’t alone: “Am I the only one who just doesn’t feel they get as much out of audiobooks as reading to themselves? Or reading aloud to someone else?”
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Reader B. on Frank O’Hara’s “As Planned”: “Loved that poem. Reminds me of Bukowski. ¶ —signed, fellow epeolator.”
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Reader F. also adores O’Hara: “I’ve read Lunch Poems every year for at least 25 years. It never gets old. It never gets tired.”
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Reader K. must know something about my diagram love: “I bet a Venn diagram of Clamorites and Epeolatrists would be nearly 100%!”
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A different Reader B. wants to lose some FOUND: “FOUND Magazine is excellent. The FOUND podcast is OK. But forget the FOUND app.”
I welcome comments, suggestions, thoughts, feedback and all manner of what-have-you. Just press ‘Reply’ or email to: clippings@katexic.com.
Enjoy the WORK section? Check out my other little project: concīs » http://concis.io/
And please feel free to share anything here as far and wide as you want! If you want to give a shout-out, please link to: http://katexic.com/.