Barring a miracle in productivity, Katexic Clippings will be on hiatus for the next two weeks (though I might post some extras on the website)!
“Every moment happens twice: inside and outside, and they are two different histories.”
—Zadie Smith
—from White Teeth (2000)
cark /kark/. verb or noun. To vex, burden or harass…or to suffer from such. Also: a trouble, a burden, a weight. From Latin carcare (to load a wagon), from Latin carrus (wagon). Less commonly, to die, originally an Australian colloquialism, possibly derived from the caw of the carrion crow.
I want to begin
with a new song
on a love that’s my cark and desire,
but is so far I cannot hit her mark
or my words fire her.
(Guillem IX, Duke of Aquitaine)“What fondness is it to cark and care so much, at that instant and passage from all exemption of pain and care? As our birth brought us the birth of all things, so shall our death the end of all things. Therefore is it as great folly to weep we shall not live a hundred years hence as to wail we lived not a hundred years ago.” (Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio)
“…when I had fewer years than thou, my father said, ‘There are many carks in life which a little truth could end.’” (Edward Bulwer-Lytton)
“The young gentlemen were prematurely full of carking anxieties. They knew no rest from the pursuit of stony-hearted verbs, savage noun-substantives, inflexible syntactic passages, and ghosts of exercises that appeared to them in their dreams.” (Charles Dickens)
“I asks when we’re allowed out for exercise an’ air. ‘We ain’t let out,’ says he, ‘till the ship sails or unless we cark it. Now, the money.’ Wish I could say I stood my ground, but Arie Grote ain’t no liar. He weren’t jokin’ ‘bout carkin’ it, neither: eight o’ them ‘stout an’ willing lads’ left horizontally, two crammed into one coffin.” (David Mitchell)
Corncob? Donut? Binch? A Guide to Weird Leftist Internet Slang || Thanks, Reader B.!
Along with providing a lot of information about safely using various drugs, TripSit also provides volunteer, real-time live chat support for, naturally, people who are tripping (as well as taking, or planning to take, other drugs). || See also: one of the best episodes of one of the best podcasts ever, Reply All #44: Shine On You Crazy Goldman.
“Elephants use many different vocalizations to communicate. Share a message in Elephant and help us save this endangered language.”
I know some Clamorites fly a lot. Artist Nina Katachadourian’s Seat Assignment “consists of photographs, video, and sound works, all made in flight using only a camera phone and improvising with materials close at hand.”
“Users [of Buddhist Bitcoin] would be able to earn ‘Karma Coins’ by meditating and teaching Buddhism. The coins could be spent within a special Buddhist community called the ‘Lotos Network.’”
Some examples of words/phrases first seen in print the year I was born: bioethics, comfort food, dorky, erectile dysfunction and love handles. What are some of yours? Find out using Time Traveler by Merriam-Webster: Search Words by First Known Use Date
“The most significant fact to emerge from this history, though, is also the most obvious: Make It New was not itself new, nor was it ever meant to be. Given the nature of the novelty implied by the slogan, it is appropriate that it is itself the result of historical recycling.” → The Making of “Make It New” || Thanks again, Reader B.!
Some of these (nearly 300) kitchen fails are so funny I couldn’t resist sharing the kind of listicle I usually avoid.
Subreddit of the week: DadReflexes
Today in 1955, the first Guinness Book of World Records—a book that fascinated me like no other when I was young—is published in London. Over the course of its 62-year-long history, the book has become the best selling copyrighted title in the history of publishing, selling more than 134 million copies as of August, 2015. A few records for your browsing pleasure: the oldest surviving love poem (written in 2031 BC), the most piercings (single-count, male), the most piercings (single count, female) (the same person holds the lifetime record, being pierced 4,225 times as of June, 2006) and the fastest time to drink one litre of lemon juice through a straw.
“Robin Hanson, research associate at the Future of Humanity Institute of Oxford University, ► speaks to his upcoming book, The Age of Em: Work, Love, and Life when Robots Rule the Earth. It’s a unique look into the social and economic effects of whole brain emulation.”
“Unseen for decades and salvaged by a junk dealer in the 1960s from a trash heap outside a house in Texas, his entire body of work would later go on to marvel the intellectual world. But during his lifetime, Charles Dellschau had only been known as the grouchy local butcher.” → Found in a Junk Shop: Secrets of an Undiscovered Visionary Artist
Reader B., purveyor of links, notes: “Another fine haul, sir. ¶ I note that that apartment’s owner is a Banville fan.”
Reader M. notes a word in Virginia Woolf’s observation of the eclipse: “Pendent. A lovely, resonate, word. Need to use it more.”
Reader K.: “Whoooaaa. Those voices from the days of slavery are powerful. I literally couldn’t help but weep at listening to some of the songs from yesterday during these particular days.”
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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