|k| clippings: 2015-03-06 — it's a little old place

WORK

from “Topics Suitable for Composition”

• A Drunkard’s Fate
• Discoveries of Gaileo
• Happiness is a Palace
• To be Hanged To-Morrow
• Bad Habits, Hard Masters
• What Might Have Been, Was
• The Skeleton in the Household
• Honestly, the Poor Man’s Riches
• New Inventions Discovered by Accident

—Thomas E. Hill
—from Hill’s Manual of Social and Business Forms

[Note: see the source link for more from the lists and to admire the original’s pyramidal layout…]

WORD(S)

agapemone /a-gə-PE-mə-nee/. noun. A community of love. An establishment for free-love. As a proper noun, it refers to either of the headquarters of the religious sects founded by Rev. Henry James Prince or Rev. John Hugh Smyth-Pigott in the mid-late 1800s. A coinage roughly derived from Greek agapē (love) + monē (stopping place).

“The happy nature of my retirement is most sweetly expressed in its being the abode of Love. It is, as it were, an inexpensive Agapemone.” (Charles Dickens, from All the Year Round)

“I myself would move immediately back into our Audrey’s former agapemone or ‘Guest’ room down the hall.” (David Foster Wallace, from Oblivion)

She even wrote a book.’ ¶ ‘About agapemones?’ ¶ ‘Yes. And the Higher Wisdom. And Beautiful Thought. That sort of thing. Full of bad syntax.’ (Dorothy L. Sayers, from Gaudy Night)

WEB

1. Alexis Arnold’s “Crystallized Book” sculptures

2. “For decades the leading nature writer has been collecting unusual words for landscapes and natural phenomena – from aquabob to zawn. It’s a lexicon we need to cherish in an age when a junior dictionary finds room for ‘broadband’ but has no place for ‘bluebell’” → The word-hoard: Robert Macfarlane on rewilding our language of landscape

3. ►Alfredo Anaya Solos on the Typewriter…with the “Voices for Peace” Orchestra

4. Browse a newly discovered trove of fan letters to Agatha Christie from all kinds of folks including school children, labour camp survivors and authors such as P.G. Wodehouse. If you’re inspired, you can share your own. → #125STORIES

5. 179 years ago today, March 6, 1836, the 13-day siege of the Alamo ends in victory for Mexican forces. In those final hours somewhere between 182 and 257 Texian soldiers are killed, including the legendary Davy Crockett and Sam Bowie, though accounts differ for both: Bowie likely died in his bed, Crockett might have surrendered only to be killed later.

REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES

• Reader K. spreads the word: “Lalochezia has been such a fun word this past week that I have shared it far and wide. The other night I was writing the Pro statement for a campaign issue I’m leading, and my two writing partners were so pleased to hear about lalochezia. It came up when one of them, a guy in his 70s now, cussed to show emphasis. I said… ”I think there’s a word you might like…“ He LOVED it and so I sent it to him again via email. ¶ Thanks for brightening my week!”

• From a comment on our Facebook page: ►Total Eclipse of the Heart Literal Video Version. You have “Liked us on Facebook” right?

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