September 2010
24 posts
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Vocabulary: Churning Hatred Edition
vatinian: extremely strong or bitter, esp. hatred (from the name of a very unpopular roman) pettifog: to bicker about trifles; also, practicing law with dishonesty or pettiness otacousticon: an instrument to aid hearing - ear-horns and such wittol: a man who knows of and accepts his wife’s unfaithfulness comminute: to break or divide into many small parts moil: to work or toil hard; also, to...
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SUPERSTAR Rajinikanth! →
“In the first scene of Padayappa (1999), he’s asked, ‘Hey man, who are you?’ and his answer is a four-minute musical number in which he plays the harmonica, flips through the air, oversees a massive martial-arts demonstration, and then morphs into a baby. At the end, the village chief says, ‘Padayappa, that song was excellent,’ at which point the music revs up...
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“For princes are the glass, the school, the book Where subjects’ eyes do...”
– Shakespeare, The Rape of Lucrece
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“…at first, while the Sun was bright, he went merrily on, and without any...”
– M.R. James, Mr. Humphreys and His Inheritance
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Mogwai - “Kids Will Be Skeletons”...
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“As a Dutch host, if you come to an inn in Germany and dislike your fare, diet,...”
– Anatomy of Melancholy
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Thieves - “Silent Servant” You Hold...
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“I hear new news every day, and those ordinary rumours of war, plagues, fires,...”
– Anatomy of Melancholy
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Four Tet - “Angel Echoes” There Is...
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“Blind fury, or error, or rashness, or what it is that eggs them, I know not; I...”
– Anatomy of Melancholy
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Benny Goodman - “Sing Sing Sing (With A...
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“Have I so much leisure, or little business of my own, as to look after other...”
– Anatomy of Melancholy
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Crime in Choir - “Cincinnati” Crime in...
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Vocabulary: Anatomy of Quackery Edition
stentorian: uncommonly powerful in sound (after Stentor, a legendarily loud Greek herald) pleonasm: the use of more words than necessary to express an idea; a redundancy chorographical: a description or map of a region, or the technique of creating one fleer: to mock or coarsely express mockery; a jeer or fleering action maltster: a person who makes or sells malt (obvious in retrospect) parasang:...
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“I said unto the fools, ‘deal not so madly’”
– David (Ps. lxxv, 4)