|k| clippings: 2016-01-21 — a nip and a quaff

WORK

“So You Say”

It is all in the mind, you say, and has
nothing to do with happiness. The coming of cold,
the coming of heat, the mind has all the time in the world.
You take my arm and say something will happen,
something unusual for which we were always prepared,
like the sun arriving after a day in Asia,
like the moon departing after a night with us.

—Mark Strand
—from New Selected Poems

WORD(S)

nipperkin /NIP-ər-kin/. noun. A small cup or other vessel for alcoholic spirits or a measure using the same. Now commonly abbreviated as nip. From Low Dutch nippen (sip).

“…for you must know, I have set a nipperkin of toddy by me, just by way of spell, to keep away the meikle horned deil, or any of his subaltern imps who may be on their nightly rounds.” (Robert Burns)

“Here’s a health to the barley-mow! The ocean, the river, the well, the pipe, the hogshead, the half-hogshead, the anker, the half-anker, the gallon, the half-gallon, the pottle, the quart, the pint, the half a pint, the quarter-pint, the nipperkin, and the jolly brown bowl!” (Traditional Cornish drinking song)

WEB

1. Books without words (but not the kind you think).

2. The Ask Me Another podcast/audio show [Thanks, maybe-a-reader R.] is a hoot. Past guests include Patrick Stewart, Peter Sarsgaard, David Cross, John Darnelle, and the cast of Wet Hot American Summer.

3. Good for a little laugh → ►Paper is not dead

4. A Grandfather’s Postcards

5. Today in 1968, the Battle of Khe Sanh begins. One of the longest sieges in the Vietnam War, the battle would end 77 days (and more than 12,000 casualties) later. Also on this day, in 1977, on his first day in office, President Jimmy Carter grants unconditional pardons to more than 100,000 “draft dodgers”.

WATCH/WITNESS

Andy George examines 5000 years of writing history and attempts to follow ancient methods and new practices to ►make a book entirely from scratch. [And they mean entirely: vellum, paper, glue, ink, brush, etc.]

REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES

• Reader M.: “Reader S. ‘drops their mic’? I see what you did there.”

• Reader B.: “Guy Davenport! Please, sir, may I have some more?”

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