GOREY’S SPOOKY PEN AND INK
EDWARD GOREY’S WHIMSICALLY spooky credits for PBS’s Masterpiece series have entertained me for years. And Rosemary Hill’s recent “How Peculiar It Is,” London Review of Books, June 3, 2021, adds … Continue reading
MAYBE IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES
A DICKENS CITATION at a recent Inspiring Quotes reminded me of high school. Typical of teenage angst, “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” These … Continue reading
READING—A LONG VIEW
TODAY’S TIDBITS TAKE a long view on reading and its celebration of our living in one of two pivotal periods: the transition of script to print and from print to … Continue reading
I WISH I’D SAID THAT. AND I SHALL.
I CONTINUE TO encounter comments I wish I had said. And, paraphrasing Oscar Wilde’s quote, I offer here several good ones originally appearing in the London Review of Books. Fries … Continue reading
ETYMOLOGY: RANSOM
WHAT WITH RANSOMWARE much in the news these days, etymology of the word “ransom” is worthy of research. Merriam-Webster defines it as “a consideration paid or demanded for the release … Continue reading
BEATRIX POTTER, GENTLEWOMAN AND CONSIDERABLY MORE PART 2
YESTERDAY, WE ENCOUNTERED Peter Rabbit, Beatrix Potter’s pal who has delighted children (and their parents) since 1902. Today in Part 2, Beatrix confronts resistance from her own parents, but thrives … Continue reading
A GENTLEWOMAN AND CONSIDERABLY MORE PART 1
THE NAME BEATRIX POTTER is familiar to me because of The Tale of Peter Rabbit, 1902, a favorite children’s book to this day. I encountered her again while browsing through … Continue reading
THE KERFUFFLE OF THE LADY PEN
LANGUAGES WITH GENDER distinctions are getting caught up with inclusion and equality. For example, a French “leader” is the grammatically correct “le” dirigeant, with the assumption that such a position … Continue reading
HOLY CADUCEUS!
THESE TIDBITS COME from no less than the U.S. National Institutes of Health, from Wikipedia, and from R&T. “There are certain things,” the NIH’s National Library of Medicine writes, “that … Continue reading
YEGGMAN RESEARCH
THE TERM “YEGGMAN” arose in a recent cop show on SiriusXM “Radio Classics.” I knew it meant “safe cracker,” but not much else. This called for research; here are tidbits … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 