For one of my age, I have seen very little of the drama. The first presentation of Falstaff I ever saw was your Leer last winter or spring. Perhaps the best compliment I can pay is to say, as I truly can, I am very anxious to see it again. Some of Shakespeare’s plays I have never read; while others I have gone over perhaps as frequently as any unprofessional reader. Among the latter are Leer, Richard the Third, Henry Eighth, Hamlet, and especially MacBeth. I think nothing equals Macbeth— It is wonderful.
Unlike you gentlemen of the profession, I think the soliloquy in Hamlet commencing “O, my offence is rank.” surpasses that commencing “To be or not to be.” But pardon this small attempt at criticism. I should like to hear you pronounce the opening speech of Richard the Third. Will you not soon visit Washington again? If you do, please call and let me make your personal acquaintance.
—Abraham Lincoln
—from an August 17, 1863 letter to actor James Henry Hackett
logodaedalist /lawg-ə-DEE-də-list/. noun. One who is highly skilled in the use of words. See also logodaedaly (skill in using words). From Greek logodaidalos, from logos (word) + daidalos (skillful).
“He was well-read. He knew French. He was versed in logodaedaly and logomancy. He was an amateur of sex lore. He had a feminine handwriting.” (Vladimir Nabokov)
“‘raking out the clinker’ was a phrase of Kipling’s that appealed to Wodehouse, and polishing them to a near-final 1,500 next morning in revision was a pleasurable chore, logodaedaly following logorrhea.” (Richard Usborne)
“I am Bosco, the logodaedalist.
It’s my job to repair broken-down words…”
(James Laughlin)“Words can be endlessly drawn upon to cancel out other words, when the spokesman is such a logodaedalist as Berowne. Not for nothing is he the predecessor of Mercutio, and both live under the aegis of Mercury — ‘the President of Language…’” (Harry Levin)
A little perspective… → Hubble Space Telescope captures death of star in Rotten Egg Nebula
Why monkeys can’t talk—and what they would sound like if they could (answer: unsettling). Pairs with ►Orangutan Found To Mimic Human Speech.
Reasonable people may disagree with The Guardian’s Top 10 Books About the Apocalypse. What say you?
Moij Design’s origami inspired dishes, concrete art and ornaments. Thanks, Reader M.
Phonetic Calligraphy (@IPAcalligraphy) combines the beauty of calligraphy with the charm of the International Phonetic Alphabet.
Introducing Open Access at The Met, more than 200,000 images, all of which are searchable as part of the 10,000,000 images you can search with the new Creative Commons search engine.
Today in 1809, future United States President Abraham Lincoln is born in a one-room log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky. Certainly one of the most important US presidents, Lincoln saw the country through its deepest existential crisis, the Civil War, and who knows what influence he might have had on the fallout of that war and the end of slavery were he not assassinated in 1865. Lincoln was a deep thinker, significantly more complex than many popular cultural portrayals would have us believe on everything from slavery and authoritarianism to his own melancholy (that we’d now call clinical depression). The best way to know Lincoln is through his own words and the words of those who’ve studied him most closely, for which I highly recommend The Annotated Lincoln and the Library of America’s The Lincoln Bicentennial Collection. Also, given the WORK I chose today, you might enjoy “Men of Letters: Shakespeare’s Influence on Abraham Lincoln”.
Vaudevillian ►Harry Rose performs “Frankfurter Sandwiches” in 1929. See also, ►Peggy Lennon’s 1967 performance on the Lawrence Welk show. And if none of that is on point enough, enjoy a ►pseudo-retro burlesque take by “Varla Jean Merman”.
“A symphonic mash-up of the Brahms 1st Symphony and Radiohead’s ‘OK Computer’” re-composed, arranged and conducted by Steve Hackman. Performed by the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra with vocalists Andrew Lipke, Kristin Newborn and Will Post.
Reader A. echoed the sentiments of more than a few: “I watched Ten Meter Tower multiple times. There was something about the fear and the vulnerability of those would-be divers that was more naked than if they’d been unclothed.”
Reader V.: “The only thing more disappointing than YOLOCAUST being removed is that more people aren’t still talking about it!” — Note you can still access YOLOCAUST in the Internet Archive.
Reader K.: “John McWhorter is a funny, persuasive writer. He single-handedly brought me to the descriptivist side of the eternal linguistics wars. My world is so much richer without spending mental coin on that fight!”
I welcome comments, suggestions, thoughts, feedback and all manner of what-have-you. Just press ‘Reply’ or email to: clippings@katexic.com.
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