“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.”
—Lewis Carroll
—from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
ataraxy /AT-ər-aks-ee/ – ataraxia /at-ər-AK-see-ə/. noun. Deep tranquility; calmness. Stoic indifference. From French ataraxie > from Greek ataraxia (impassiveness) > from a (not) + tarassein (disturb). See also: serenity, imperturbability, equanimity, composure.
“Hope and ataraxia shrivel away, he is shocked into desperate reality.” (James Tiptree, Jr.)
“I was nonplussed, I stared at my teacher, never before had his swollen face seemed so replete with indifference, stone ataraxy.” (Will Self)
“…maybe this is how it goes: the boy dies and she’s like you, numbed of feeling, not concerned about anything. Practically in a state of ataraxia…” (Clarice Lispector)
“Oh, coffee, el café. Our country has survived for centuries thanks to this plant and the Arabic drink. It’s a docile, attenuated drug, with a marvellous effect, for it stimulates one’s consciousness without letting it get out of control or driving it crazy. Ideal brew for somnolence or laziness, for despondency or apathy, for ataraxy or an excess of resignation.” (Hector Abad)
February is International Correspondence Writing Month (aka, for the camel-casing cognoscenti, InCoWriMo or LetterMo), in which intrepid participants write a handwritten letter every day. ※ If February doesn’t work for you, there is always National Letter Writing Month in April…
Arborists Have Cloned Ancient Redwoods From Their Massive Stumps (and the picture of the sapling slays me).
From the origins of qwerty and why you’re tying your shoelaces wrong to trusting your senses and “black don’t crack,” the BBC Ideas Debunking Modern Myths video series has you covered.
Paper book geeks, meet the endpaper enthusiasts. ※ See also, the Vintage Endpapers collection on flickr and the University of Washington’s growing Decorated Paper Collection.
The BabyLand Diaries go inside BabyLand General Hospital, where Cabbage Patch Dolls are “born” through an artificial tree-like birth canal (and that’s not even the weirdest thing)…before exploring the still-mysterious, classically awesome, processes of labor and childbirth.
Peter Gorman’s Barely Maps are intriguing minimalist maps/graphics/visualizations. ※ While we’re mappin’ it up, see also: The map that popularized the word ‘gerrymander’
“It’s as rare as finding a fossilised sneeze,” said professor Phillip Manning of the identification of a 100-million-year old fossil of a hagfish.
“Biohacker” Dave Asprey has made millions convincing people to put butter in their coffee and follows an insane regimen of supplementation, stem cell injections and more so that he can, he says, live to be 180. Guru? Huckster? I don’t know, but it makes for a fascinating story.
Wow…feast your eyes on the Winning Images from the prestigious 7th Annual Ocean Art Underwater Photo Contest! ※ See also: Wildlife Photographer of the Year: sharing a daydreaming leopard with the world
Today in 1832, author, mathematician, photographer and Anglican deacon Charles Lutwidge Dodgson—better known as Lewis Carroll—is born in Daresbury, England. In addition to his most famous written works—Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its darker sequel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There—Carroll was an accomplished artist in the then-new field of photography and a well-regarded mathematician with 11 books to his (real) name. Carroll was also an avid correspondent—recording nearly 100,000 letters sent and received in his personal register alone, (which he didn’t start keeping until he was 29)—and inventor of the nyctograph and nyctography, a writing template and a shorthand devised so he could capture ideas in the middle of the night without having to take the idea-killing time to light a lamp. ※ Previously: Lewis Carroll’s “Eight or Nine Wise Words About Letter-Writing.”
American Sign Language is distinct from English, with its own grammar, syntax and vocabulary…so ASL has to grow to accommodate new science concepts and terminology. This is ► how deaf researchers are reinventing science communication. Thanks, Reader B.
Watch ► Noodle School to meet some of the students who have flocked to Lanzhou, China, to learn the secrets of its famous noodle soup. ※ Previously: catch a screening of ► Ramen Heads if you ever get a chance.
Reader K.: “I enjoyed today’s Katexic Clippings even more than usual today, which is saying a lot. I particularly enjoyed following Tutivillus down the rabbit hole, and am wondering how I could capture something of him, in a thoroughly indirect way, in an image of my own. ¶ Among the countless ruminations on Mary Oliver’s passing, I think you might especially enjoy this great rant by my dear curmudgeon friend John Straley, about those who are dismissive of her work.”
Reader B: “With regards to ‘The Return of Handwriting’ article; how cursive became the latest fetish – really?”
A different Reader B.: “The opening question of her [Mary Oliver’s] poem gets me as well. ¶ Makes me think of ‘Did he who made the Lamb make thee?’ Also, that weird exchange between God and Job, when God complains that Job doesn’t know anything because he didn’t make the world, after all. ‘Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’”
Reader T.: “Considering the dad jokes last week, I bet some Clamorites are geeky enough to appreciate this command line command to display a random dad joke. Found via our mutual geek idol, Brett Terpstra.”
Reader F.: “Wow…you really elevated Mary Oliver’s ending to ‘The Summer Day’! Hayden’s incredible ending to ‘Those Winter Sundays’ AND Yeats’ ‘Second Coming’! I have always been transfixed by Hayden’s whole poem, and ‘The Second Coming’ has to be in a class by itself. The ‘wild and precious life’ seems to me to be in a totally different class—a question that people always seem to want to answer. I never do because I stop at her use of the word ‘one.’ But I do acknowledge that it has become recognizable as her mark of inviting readers into a poetic conversation. But in that poem, I really love the grasshopper.”
Reader E: “We know you love those Words of the Year (me too!). Since your roundup of links, the MacQuarie (Australian) Dictionary announced their word of the year.”
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