|k| clippings: 2015-01-28 — out of sight, out of mind?

WORK

“The fish trap exists because of the fish; once you’ve gotten the fish, you can forget the trap. The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit; once you’ve gotten the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words exist because of meaning; once you’ve gotten the meaning, you can forget the words. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can have a word with him?”

—Chuang Tzu (translated by Burton Watson)
—from Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings

WORD(S)

costermonger. noun. Originally, an apple (or other fruit and vegetable) seller who operated on the street. Later, and more amusingly, a term of contempt. From costard (apple; also slang for a person’s head) + monger (trader).

“…Virtue is of so little regard in these
costermonger times that true valour is turned
bear-herd…” (William Shakespeare)

“A letter … to say that the dictionary is hers for always, but if”—now I sound, Jacob thinks, like a costermonger honey-talking housewives at the market—“were she…ever…to consider me a patron, or let us say a protector, or…or…” (David Mitchell)

“The religious teacher is at least supposed to be interested in the costermonger because he is a man; the politician is in some dim and perverted sense interested in the costermonger because he is a citizen; it is only the wretched writer who is interested in the costermonger merely because he is a costermonger.” (G. K. Chesterton)

“The costermongers of London number between thirty and forty thousand. Like other low tribes, they boast a language, or secret tongue, in which they hide their earnings, movements, and other private affairs. […] The main principle of this language is spelling the words backwards,—or rather, pronouncing them rudely backwards.” (A London Antiquary in “Some Account of the Back Slang, The Secret Language of Costermongers”)

WEB

1. “Against National Poetry Month As Such” by Charles Bernstein (including a call for “Anti-Poetry Month”). Via Reader H. Or, if that’s going too far, perhaps Morten Høi Jensen’s call for a “dislike poetry month” suits.

2. Yesterday, on the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz—and continuing the “to remember and to never forget” theme—the BBC released ►haunting footage from a drone that flew over the death camp. Via Reader C.

3. Animated GIFs are an ingenious method to emphasize the power and process of colorizing photographs.

4. “In 1983, after years of deteriorating vision, the writer and theologian John Hull lost the last traces of light sensation. For the next three years, he kept a diary on audio-cassette of his interior world of blindness. This film is a dramatization that uses his original recordings.” → See the film, read the story behind it, and listen to some recent responses by John Hull.

5. Today in 1986, 73 seconds after liftoff, the Space Shuttle Challenger’s fuel boosters explode and the shuttle itself breaks apart. Like many others eager—or assigned—to see Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher to be sent to space, I watched the disaster unfold on television. Until the Twin Towers fell, it was the most memorable media moment of my life. President Reagan’s brief address to the nation—noting the coincidence of the death of the great explorer Sir Francis Drake on the same day 390 years before and ending with the famous quotation that the astronauts had “slipped the surly bonds of earth” to “touch the face of God” from “High Flight” by John Magee, Jr.—was similarly unforgettable.

REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES

• Reader R. expands on the semordnilap…kind of: “Thinking I’d heard the word ‘antigram’ used for what you called a ‘semordnilap’, I discovered this wasn’t the case. But what I found may be of interest to your readers. An antigram is an anagram that has a meaning opposite the starting text, such as ‘astronomers :: no more stars’ or ‘saintliness :: entails sins’.” — Love it…and I bet the Clamor will too!

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