word of the day

dastardly: cowardly; meanly base; sneaking

DAS.terd.lee

 there is not a more mean, stupid, dastardly, pitiful, selfish, spiteful, envious, 
ungrateful animal than the public. it is the greatest of cowards, for it is afraid of itself.

- william hazlitt

word of the day

lollop: to move forward with a bounding, drooping motion

photo by tim flach

LOL.uhp

lollop develops from the middle english lollen, "to doze."

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

victorian

workmen have gutted the old house next-door.
today, in winter rain, the brick is dark.
  a tub glows on its side in the garden,
and a dryer squats against the fence. more
comes out every day into the yard. they park
their trucks on the curb next to the oven.
they tear at sandwiches and blast rock songs
from a paint-speckled radio. a washing machine,
rusted at the seams, glistens in thin light.
beyond the train tracks, a radio tower’s long
sliver splits the mist, and its single clean
beacon pulses white. late day sags with night.
  i watch the bare lot beyond the phone wire.
  i don’t know how much longer i’ll be here.

 by ernest hilbert

word of the day

pedantic: overly concerned with minute details or formalisms, esp. in teaching

ant carrying a microchip

cigarette paper

mushroom spores

the fungus aspergillus fumigatus

 in the most worn, pedantic, introverted self-tormenter's life, the greatest part is incalculable by him, unforeseen, unimaginable, and must be, until he can take himself up by his own ears.

- ralph waldo emerson

word of the day

creolize: to combine local and foreign elements into a new, distinct whole

KREE.uh.lahyz.

he embodies the reluctance to surrender his indian  

heritage and the refusal to creolized his identity. 

- véronique bragard, transoceanic dialogues

word of the day

 

mansuetude: mildness; gentleness.

MAN.swi.tood.

mansuetude  derives from the latin mansuescere , literally "to tame by the hand."

imagination is not an empirical or superadded power of consciousness, it is the whole of consciousness as it realizes its freedom

quote by jean-paul sartre, photographs by sacha goldberger

word of the day

chatoyant: having changeable lustre; twinkling.

illustrations by e.a. seguy

shuh.TOI.uhnt

chatoyant's  poetic origin lies in the french chatoyer, 

"to gleam like a cat's eyes," from the french chat , "cat."

all generalizations are false, including this one

mixed media by clark goolsby

series entitled andy warhol

word of the day

sockdolager: a decisive reply, argument; or a heavy, finishing blow

sok.DOL.uh.jer.

sockdolager is possibly the last word abraham lincoln heard before he was assassinated.

always remember you're unique, just like everyone else

photographs by natalie obermaier

word of the day

panoply:  a splendid or impressive array

PAN.uh.plee

to the east, out over the ocean, the winter sky is a brilliant panoply of stars and comets, 

beckoning to adventurers, wise and foolish alike, who seek to divine its mysteries.

- ben green, before his time

hey yogurt, if you’re so cultured, how come I never see you at the opera?

photographs by massimo vitali

word of the day

nostrom: a usually questionable remedy or scheme; a cure-all.

the angel oak tree in charleston, s.c. is estimated at over 1,400 years old.

NOS.truhm

james is put to work at country fairs, promoting a quack nostrom for pain relief.

- patrick mgrath, heart of ice

word of the day

engram: the supposed physical basis of an individual memory in the brain.

EN.gram.

noun

you shut it away, but it has left a mark- an engram, like an inscription on your brain.

- david bilsborough, a fire in the north