WORK
“I first heard Personville called Poisonville by a red-haired mucker named Hickey Dewey in the Big Ship in Butte. He also called his shirt a shoit. I didn’t think anything of what he had done to the city’s name. Later I heard men who could manage their r’s give it the same pronunciation. I still didn’t see anything in it but the meaningless sort of humor that used to make richardsnary the thieves’ word for dictionary. A few years later I went to Personville and learned better.”
—Dashiell Hammett
—from Red Harvest
WORD(S)
bumf /BUMF/. noun. Literally, toilet paper. Figuratively, worthless, superfluous, boring papers. Abbreviation of slang bum-fodder (same meaning).
“…I heard a tentative rap at my office door. I rose to open it and found Judd Wilkins. He was bearing a roll of bumf bound with a low-tech rubber band.” (Lawrence Sanders)
“‘Humanity treads ever on a thin crust over terrific abysses …’ Of course there weren’t inevitably abysses, sometimes only shallow ditches, Martin thought. Novelists were very prone to exaggeration. ‘Let’s have a look at all this bumf then, shall we?’ he said.” (Ruth Rendell)
“…this is all nonsense. You’ve no idea how much of this bumf I have to wade through in a week. I wake up in a blue funk at night, asking myself if this is how we’re going to fight the war, with reports and queries and signatures required in triplicate.” (John Banville)
WEB
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An amazing collection of Record Label Logos.
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I dropped “Jeroboam of wine” into a conversation the other day (because that’s what I do). Then I needed to know more. Now you will too. → Why Are Extremely Large Wine Bottles Named after Biblical Kings?
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Preaching to the Clamor Choir here, but a nice pair of articles about reading and the brain: What’s Going On In Your Child’s Brain When You Read Them A Story? || Your Brain on Reading (Why Your Brain Needs You to Read Every Day)
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With at least 7000 glyphs (compared to fewer than 850 for Latin scripts that can be used to represent hundreds of languages), Chinese fonts are just as awesome and complicated as you would expect.
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I think it’s possible to embrace the idea of cultivating quiet time and even that some technologies tend to have more negative effects on our (or at least my) inner landscape without buying wholesale into the “technology is ruining our brains” market. → Why we owe it to ourselves to spend quiet time alone every day. See also: (Bored and Brilliant)[http://ktxc.to/bored-and-brilliant] and Being Bored Is Fun and Good, Sorry.
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And I thought learning that porcupines could climb trees was scary… → New Research Shows That T-Rex Was as Smart as a Chimp
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Kids these days, with their smart phones and their globe and paper making, leather-working and clog-cobbling.
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Twenty years after finding a newborn, buried alive with his umbilical cord still attached, the jogging rescuer is reunited with him.
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The 100 Best One-Star Amazon Reviews of The Great Gatsby || Pairs well with Report: John Grisham Slowly But Surely Climbing List Of Greatest Living American Authors Thanks, Reader B.
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Today in 1894, Dashiell Hammett, premiere author of hard-boiled detective novels and stories, is born on a farm in Saint Mary’s County, Maryland. Hammett wasn’t just one of the best, iconic authors of tough-guy mystery fiction, but one of America’s best prose stylists, evidenced in books such as The Thin Man and The Maltese Falcon as well as indelible short stories including “Corkscrew” and "Nightmare Town. A dedicated anti-fascist, Hammett managed—despite being a disabled veteran of World War I with tuberculosis—to re-enlist during World War II, where he served in the Aleutians. Incidentally, if you can get there, the Aleutian World War II Museum and the bunkers in Dutch Harbor are extraordinary.
WATCH/WITNESS
► AMA - a short film by Julie Gautier
WHAT!?
Army Doctors Grew a Soldier a New Ear — On Her Forearm
REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES
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Reader G.: “Kumi Yamashita’s work! All I can say is – WOW!”
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Reader B.: “I have nothing to say in response, except wordless applause for your fine work.” – Thanks…it is nice to know people are reading!
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