Category Archives: Uncategorized

Whether it’s glister or clyster it’s up the keister, mister. From the Diary of Samuel Pepys, The Joys of Excess in the Great Food series from Penguin, the entry for February 11, 1663, begins Took a glister in the morning … Continue reading →

It is an observation culled from a note that carries over from one page to the next and in its spilling over displays some of the processes at work in the description. It is perhaps worth noticing that as soon … Continue reading →

The subtleties of English usage brought to you by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White. Do you mind me asking a question? Do you mind my asking a question? As explained: In the first sentence, the queried objection is to … Continue reading →

Hakim Bey. Black Fez Manifesto, &c. I like to truncate these two lines, provide a wee bit of shade. This is how I remember No one retires to Florida for the sun they go for the air-conditioning Which when once … Continue reading →

Joyous trans-figuration. The Twitter feed devoted to a Word of the Day from James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake reacquainted me with the particularities (amazing what happens when one’s reading is slowed down to a word-by-word pace) of unpacking the portmanteau alphybettyformed … Continue reading →

One of the memorable conceits offered in Life of Pi is the description of the ocean-view that Yann Martel begins with analogies to city vehicular traffic and ends with a slow cruise as best speed to enjoy the scene. With … Continue reading →

Proust quotation (found in red ink on an index filing card): […] and bodily desire has the marvellous faculty of restoring its value to intelligence and a solid base to the moral life. Beckett on Proust: So that no amount … Continue reading →

In three dialogues with Georges Duthuit in Transition ’49 no. 5 Samuel Beckett takes up three painters (Tal Coat, Masson, Bram van Velde) in light of a problematic of expression. In the first dialogue on Tal Coat this is expressed … Continue reading →

Fulfilling. I recently came into possession of a micro puzzle from Wentworth Wooden Jigsaw Company (On the Terrace by Auguste Renoir). The trick to assembling is recognizing pattern through negative space. Very close in time I encountered a re-modelled supermarket. … Continue reading →