word of the day

dilettante: a person who takes up an art, activity, or subject merely for 
amusement, esp. in a desultory or superficial way; dabbler.

photo by michael schmelling
dil.i.tahnt.

 you cannot tell a man that he is a lowbrow any more than you can tell a woman that her clothes are in bad taste, but a highbrow does not mind being called a highbrow. he has worked hard, read widely, traveled far, and listened attentively in order to satisfy his curiosity and establish his squatters' rights in this little corner of intellectualism, and he does not care who knows it. and this is true of both kinds of highbrow—the militant, or crusader, type and the passive, or dilettante type. these types in general live happily together; the militant highbrow carries the torch of culture, the passive highbrow reads by its light.
-russell lynes