A couple weeks ago, I tried to read Louis Menand’s review of Thomas Pynchon’s new novel. I got as far as this passage: Getting broken is in the nature of being an egg. The novel gives the concept some low-key metaphysical play—original sin is an obvious analogy—but, apart from this and a death-and-resurrection motif involving [...]
Google Blog Search yields 21,000 results for “obama ‘speech on race,’” yet I doubt that any of those bloggers took up this question. Consider the following passage, in which Obama talks about the feelings caused by America’s legacy of racism: “At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, [...]
I’m reading Louis Menand’s The Metaphysical Club, and I have to admit, it’s challenging my vocabulary. Tonight I read about Thorstein Veblen, an early sociologist whose disdain for the consumer culture was matched only by his disregard for the sanctity of marriage. (“He had the custom of sleeping with his colleagues’ wives, who are reported [...]
Patronize is a word that has always confused me. To patronize a restaurant is a good thing, but to patronize the waiter is decidedly bad. Then there’s the related patron. I see some similarity between patrons of the arts and patrons of the local Bickford’s, but again, there seems to be a significant difference: both [...]
In addition to Pissarro, the Jewish Museum is showing William Steig. Steig wrote and illustrated The Amazing Bone, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, Shrek, and lots of other children’s books. He also drew hundreds of covers and cartoons for the New Yorker. I have a New Yorker from the 60′s, and after I saw the [...]
I went to the Jewish Museum today to see the Pissarro exhibit. (Who knew he was Jewish?) A caption on a painting read: In 1891, Pissarro advised his son Lucien, “Remeber that watercolors help the memory, and enable you to return the most fugitive effects — watercolors render so well the impalpable, the powerful, the [...]
The clue for 41 across in today’s NYT crossword was “Hair net.” When I had filled in SNO_D, I thought, “It can’t possibly be SNOOD,” which I knew only as the video game to which my college roommate was addicted (a shameless clone of the standup game Bust a Move). But, alas, 36 down, “Musician [...]
The other night, my friend Nick directed a cab to “The Bowery.” What is a bowery? How is it different than, say, an arbor? Why is the neighborhood/street in New York called The Bowery? According to WordReference, a bower, like an arbor, is “a framework that supports climbing plants.” But, apparently, while arbor can just [...]
Sometimes I come across interesting words or patterns of words that I want to share. I’m going to start posting brief entries about these words. The rules: I’m not going to fret over how well written these posts are, and I’m only going to spend a few minutes researching and/or writing. OK? Ok.