WORK
“Life and Time”
We grow up
but do not comprehend life.
We think life is just the passing of time.
The fact is,
life is one thing,
and time something else.
—Hasina Gul (translated by Sher Zaman Taizi)
—from Granta
WORD(S)
apricity. noun. Winter sunlight; the warmth of the sun in winter. From Latin apricus, warmed by the sun. Always rare in actual use, it has a single sentence in the OED from Cockeram’s dictionary and is found in, for example, Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language as well. See also: apricate: to bask in the sun.
“[Apricity is] the warmeness of the Sunne in Winter” (Henry Cockeram)
“An apricity seemed to illume her countenance.” (George Raymond)
WEB
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Brian Dettmer is one of our greatest contemporary book artists, as in “books as art objects” artists. Check out pictures from his MOCA-Atlanta show “Elementals” to see why I’m not alone in my opinion. Wowza.
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“How Everything We Tell Ourselves About How Busy We Are Is A Lie”. No excuse to “TL;DR” this one.
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On artist Morton Bartlett’s posthumously discovered, eternally controversial, secret, strange, uncanny [as in the valley] half-life-size dolls. See also: an ArtForum essay on Bartlett by Laurie Simmons; the book Morton Bartlett: Secret Universe III.
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Feeling crafty? The Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here bookmarks project is an easy “street action” in which participants make and distribute 50 bookmarks in their own community. Fun and a worthy cause. More info on the overall idea, of which the bookmarks are just one activity, at the main website.
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Today in 1940, children’s poet Jack Prelutsky is born. Eventually he would write books like A Pizza the Size of the Sun, which I would read to my children many, many, many times. Originally a singer, while working in a bookstore in Greenwich Village, Prelutsky became friends with Bob Dylan who said he sounded like “a cross between Woody Guthrie and Enrico Caruso.” Amazed that a publisher wanted the dashed-off accompanying poems he’d written at the last minute rather than the laborious drawings he was submitting, Prelutsky would go on to win many awards and become the first Children’s Poet Laureate. Read some of his poems at the Poetry Foundation website and/or browse the 188-entry (!) YouTube playlist devoted to him and his work.
REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES
- Reader J. brings my attention to Randall Munroe’s book What If. Munroe is widely known for XKCD (a regular stop for me) and I can’t wait to get my hands on his book. Today’s word comes from the book, courtesy of J.!
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