ETYMOLOOGY: DEUTSCHESPRACH AND OTHERS
THE GERMAN LANGUAGE is great at word-building. For instance, I recall the following storefront signage. Come to think of it, my source for this photo, translated into German, is another … Continue reading
ACTION! CUT?? PART 2
YESTERDAY’S TOPIC of extended takes in cinematography focused on Orson Welles’ film noir Touch of Evil. Today, in Part 2, we confirm French director Jean-Luc Godard’s truism that cinematographic truth … Continue reading
ACTION! CUT?? PART 1
“FILM IS TRUTH 24 times a second,” French film director Jean-Luc Godard said, “and every cut is a lie.” Given this, almost all films are filled with falsity: They’re formed … Continue reading
WELCOME TO 2020!
LET’S BEGIN 2020 with laughs and hope they continue throughout the year. These particular tidbits come from Robert Benchley, a member of the famed Algonquin Round Table. During the 1920s, … Continue reading
A CHRISTMAS CAROL ANNOTATIONS
WHAT WITH CHRISTMAS only four days away, I have just completed my annual reading of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, in the annotated edition, of course. Culinary aspects of Dickens’ tale … Continue reading
ETYMOLOGY: THUG
I RECOGNIZED that the word “thug” had to do with Hindi thugees, but that was where my knowledge ended. Now that we have a thug in our country’s highest office, … Continue reading
ETYMOLOGY: RHODOMONTADE AND OTHER CHARACTER TRAITS
THIS RESEARCH STARTED with an erudite, if perhaps overwrought, description of Britain’s Boris Johnson in the London Review of Books, August 15, 2019: Ferdinand Mount, one of the article’s co-authors, … Continue reading
MANGA TIDBITS PART 2
YESTERDAY WE began a celebration of manga, the Japanese genre of pictorial storytelling. Today in Part 2, we’ll see how manga pacing and text presentation set it apart from the … Continue reading
MANGA TIDBITS PART 1
THE JAPANESE WORD マンガ, manga means “pictures running riot,” a good description of this genre of pictorial storytelling. Or as comics authority Paul Gravett terms it, “more than telling a … Continue reading
CHAUCER TIDBITS
A NEW 624-PAGE biography of Geoffrey Chaucer aroused my interest. Not quite enough, I admit, to read all 624 pages yet, but sufficient to enjoy reading a review of this … Continue reading
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