Michael Gates's Blog, page 50

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Random Sequence

I saw her! She came to that window! She's in that house, Bolker, by Jupiter!" exclaimed John Henry, evidently in a frenzied state of mind, and immediately darted up the steps again.

Fearful of an approaching crisis, I rushed after him, and, getting between his outstretched hand and the bell-pull, besought him to be calm, and restrain himself till we could find a cab to take him home.

"Pshaw!" said he, with unnecessary petulance, considering the kindness of my offer, "don't be a fool, Bolker. I tell you there is some mistake. That lovely young lady is certainly in this house. I saw her distinctly at the window, a moment ago. Let me alone, will you? I know what I'm about."
--from "In Search of an Owner", in Godey's Lady Book and Magazine, July 1864

I recently came across a bound volume of Godey's Lady Book, a magazine from the 1860s, in my basement. It's full of all sorts of interesting ephemera from that era, including fictional pieces full of phrases like "by Jupiter" and "Pshaw!" Today it would be "by God!" (or "Jesus Christ!") and "Bullshit!" -- which would, I suppose, have given the ladies of the 1860s the vapors.

Word of the Day: fissiparous

"Fissiparous" is a word from my book, The Word I'm Thinking Of: A Devilish Dictionary of Difficult Words, available here. TWITO is not a comic book, though. I'm just having some fun with stripcreator.com. The dialog, however, is from the book.

Photo of the Week: Tower of Power

Sometimes a fluorescent tower is just a fluorescent tower. Click the pic for a closer view. (You know you want to.)

Random Sequence

It was getting dark, and he felt as if his sweat was starting to freeze. All wanted to do was to go back to his apartment, change his clothes, and sit down with a book and a steaming mug of hot chocolate. Knowing that he could use the car if he needed to was satisfying, though.
--from "Snow in the City" (by me), first published by Biff's Boards

Link Mania: Giggle Water, Anyone?

You wouldn't find a teetotaler in a blind pig drinking giggle water -- only whales and wets.
15 Fun Phrases That Were Popularized During Prohibition

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Admit it. You're a word...maven.
The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

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Was Mac Adamia nuts?

Word of the Day: desideratum

"Desideratum" is a word from my book, The Word I'm Thinking Of: A Devilish Dictionary of Difficult Words, available here. TWITO is not a comic book, though. I'm just having some fun with stripcreator.com. The dialog, however, is (slightly adapted) from the book.

Random Acts of Poetry

Improvisation

We, man and woman,
decided last evening
to impersonate dark trees.

Our elbows
were the crooks of branches.
Our feet disappeared in the dirt.

My thoughts hardened
to wood. You hardly breathed for fear
of roosting nightbirds.

We went too far in the forest.
By morning our fingers
scratched at the sky.

To the whack of an ax
we drank our warm rain,
mindless and mum to the root.

Photo of the Week (by me)

Full circle. Click the pic for a closer view. Now. You will.

Random Sequence

"I began to have a peculiar feeling that I've only experienced a few other times in my life: a contradictory sensation of time standing still while events rush forward at terrible speed. I'd felt it before, for example, in a car wreck, as the vehicle I was in was rolling over on a highway.

"Involuntarily, it seemed, I climbed up on the iron fence at the edge of the park that faces Manhattan. So did several other people of the sort who don't normally climb fences."
--from "The Towers" (by me), originally published by BiffsBoards