|k| clippings: 2016-02-16 — dumdrum

WORK

“The Babies of Winter”

It’s not just the chill, but the sounds. Information spent on thin wires of air. Upstairs, the window has been blown open; a dilemma telegraph beating itself against walls that will need to be painted before the baby arrives. Not a figurative baby, a literal one: minuscule mitten and woolen hats with chin straps. The cobwebs will need to be dusted from Whitman’s old toys. The seasons hold us tight: the storms have betrayed our trust but they must be forgiven. Dusted, put to use. They did the best they could. They are one hundred years old, and the babies of winter must always be forgiven.

—Peter Conners
—from of Whiskey and Winter

WORD(S)

humstrum /HUM-STRUM/. noun. A musical instrument of crude or primitive construction. A hurdy-gurdy. Sometimes, music played equally badly. Obviously a portmanteau of hum + strum, favored for the pleasing repetition of sound even describing something displeasing.

“Bonnell Thornton had just published a burlesque Ode on St. Cecilia’s day, adapted to the ancient British musick, viz. the salt-box, the Jew’s-harp, the marrow-bones and cleaver, the humstrum or hurdy-gurdy, &c. Johnson praised its humour, and seemed much diverted with it.” (James Boswell)

“A musical instrument made of a mopstick, a bladder, and some packthread, thence also called a bladder and string, and hurdy gurdy; it is played on like a violin, which is sometimes ludicrously called a humstrum…” (Francis Grose)

“I went the other evening to the concert, and spent the time there much to my heart’s content in cursing Mr. Hague, who played on the violin most piggishly, and a Miss (I forget her name)—Miss Humstrum, who sung most sowishly.” (Samuel Taylor Coleridge)

WEB

1. “The goal of Editions At Play is to allow writers to create ‘books that cannot be printed’. Books that are written to change dynamically on your phone or tablet using the internet.” → See the story in pictures. Distinctly related: pBooks, eBooks, & dBooks: why we are hooked on books and bookness.

2. It wasn’t just that one Sears catalog… → A Crudely Drawn Penis Almost Derailed Huckleberry Finn

3. The secret “anti-languages” you’re not supposed to know [Thanks Reader B.!]

4. Copy, paste and play with the N+7 Machine.

5. Today in 1923, British Egyptologist Howard Carter opens King Tutankhamun’s tomb, aka KV62, leading to the discovery of some of the world’s most famous Egyptian artifacts, such as Tutankhamun’s funerary mask, gold sarcophagus and mummy. There has been much speculation about King Tutankhman’s early death (at approximately 19, after ruling for 10 years), but the consensus is that he died of an infection of a broken leg and that the relatively small size of his burial chamber is due to hurriedly adapting a tomb intended for someone of lesser status rather than political intrigue.

WATCH/WITNESS

Oh. My. The Folio Society’s collector’s edition of Lolita looks incredible. See the link for the details of this fine press edition and a peek at a few more of the illustrations by Federico Infante.

REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES

Reader A. on a book that scares her: “The Machine Stops E.M. Forester. ¶ Because it’s a post apocalyptic vision of a world controlled by electronic devices. ¶ Written in 1909 ¶ If I could use a size thousand font for ‘1909’ I would.”

Reader B. asks: “What’s the source of that nearly Lovecraftian McCarthy quote?” — Blood Meridian, from which I could cull 100 WORKs!

I welcome comments, suggestions, thoughts, feedback and all manner of what-have-you. Just press ‘Reply’ or email to: clippings@katexic.com.

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