WORK
For if there is ever a moment when we are most vulnerable, it’s when we’re closest to the idea of the attained desire, and thus farthest from ourselves, which is when we’ll tread through any flame.
—Chang-rae Lee
—from On Such a Full Sea
WORD(S)
cantillate /KAN-tə-layt/. noun or verb. To recite or chant musically, usually a religious text. From Latin antillāre (to sing softly), from cantāre (to sing). See also: cantor and cantata.
When one has lived a long time alone,
and the hermit thrush calls and there is an answer,
and the bullfrog head half out of water utters
the cantillations he sang in his first spring…
(Galway Kinnell)“What would that strange man, the trope—cantillation—teacher, have said to that? The trope teacher! Why have I suddenly recalled the trope teacher? A quickening beat of the heart in the swiftly gathering clouds of sleep.” (Chaim Potok)
“Punk had blown the top of pop’s skull off, and downtown concert music was on high alert. The scene was stripping down—postminimal, pulsed, machinic. The music grew a skin of brushed steel and smoky glass. It sounded to Els almost nostalgic, like a holy cantillation for a city slipping down into the East River ooze.” (Richard Powers)
WEB
-
“String is far more important than the wheel in the pantheon of inventions.” → The Long, Knotty, World-Spanning Story of String
-
I’d never really thought about this…and now I can’t stop thinking about it. → Bilingual Authors are Challenging the Practice of Italicizing Non-English Words
-
The language at the end of the Earth || Pairs with: Why no-one speaks Indonesia’s language
-
Coin-Op Eye Candy → coinop_london
-
“With the aid of a Georgetown law student, Genevieve Bentz, he [John Mikhail] embarked on a lexicological odyssey into dozens of long-forgotten dictionaries, published over a 200-year period before 1806, 40 regular dictionaries and 10 legal dictionaries” → Trump’s ‘emoluments’ battle: How a scholar’s search of 200 years of dictionaries helped win a historic ruling
-
I’m unsure whether sharing this is the right thing to do. It is definitely challenging to see. → Willoughby Wallace Hooper: Photographer of Death
-
Sometimes I read about physics and math that I barely (to be generous) understand. But still…octonions? → The Peculiar Math That Could Underlie the Laws of Nature
-
I want to be there. → Ye Oldest Public Library in the English Speaking World
-
Wikipedia page of the week: an internationally published Siamese cat. → F. D. C. Willard
-
Today in 1966, singer, songwriter, painter and future Nobel Prize in Literature winner Robert Allen Zimmerman—better known as Bob Dylan—crashes his motorcycle near Woodstock, New York. Or does he? In any case, Dylan didn’t perform publicly for years and took the opportunity to both reshape his image and record some powerful songs that would emerge years later on The Basement Tapes.
WATCH/WITNESS
![Printed Rainbow [click to view]](https://buttondown-attachments.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/b538c5d1-319a-4bdb-923d-538c849027fa.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJEXF6S6TCOKT7N3Q&Signature=YgHiF4VhCdVH6SJLqHUD85Bjhl4%3D&Expires=1707570795)
WHAT!?
A 1970s Finnish TV cover of “YMCA” — need I say more?
REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES
-
Reader M.: “Hehehe I knew cupidity and the other three mentioned. In exactly the context of word meanings that surprise you.”
-
Reader A: “I’ve been subscribing for a while and I just wanted to say thanks. Each newsletter is a perfectly balanced diet of interest, intrigue, whimsy and delight. Thank you so much for making my Inbox worth opening.”
-
Another Reader A.: “Gotta love OEDILF […] But you have to love better a site with grand dreams and an ironic about page (learn about the lighthouse icon)”
-
Reader J.: “The OEDILF project is a hoot—quixotic like nobody’s business and loving it. It just makes me sad that Richard Wilbur isn’t around to jump in. Could he write a limerick? I’m sure he could and did, but given what’s on hand here at Inaction Central, I can only offer one of his many ”Opposites":
The opposite of tiller? Well,
It’s when some farmer in the dell
Has grown so lazy that by now
He lacks the energy to plow.A bowsprit also comes to mind,
Since, like a tiller, it’s a kind
Of stick, and since on sailing craft,
The bowsprit’s fore, the tiller aft.I also think of butter, brads,
Shoe polish, cannon, shoulder pads,
Daisies, and stock exchange, and goat,
Since none of these can steer a boat.(R.I.P. Dick Wilbur, 1921–2017)
I welcome comments, suggestions, thoughts, feedback and all manner of what-have-you. Just press ‘Reply’ or email to: clippings@katexic.com.
Enjoy the WORK section? Try Notabilia http://ktxc.to/nb for a new WORK every day.
And please feel free to share anything here as far and wide as you want! If you want to give a shout-out, please link to: http://katexic.com/.