colloquy – for when you need to elevate your conversations
from col– together + –loquium speaking, from loqui to speak A talking together; a conversation, dialogue. Also, a written dialogue. A meeting for conference. Church blah blah. All the modern dictionaries mention that it’s specific to elevated speech/conversation. Interesting that “colloquial” is used to mean common speech.
coruscate – for when you need a little flash and sparkle
VERB literary (of light) flash or sparkle. ‘the light was coruscating through the walls’ Origin Early 18th century from Latin coruscat- ‘glittered’, from the verb coruscare. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/coruscate NB: Never doubt my commitment to Sparkle Motion.
Norman Mailer on Politics and Cigarettes
Politics has its virtues, all too many of them—it would not rank with baseball as a topic of conversation if it did not satisfy a great many things—but one can suspect that its secret appeal is close to nicotine. Smoking cigarettes insulates one from one’s life, one does not feel as much, often happily so, … Read more
The nut, the moron, the stylist, and the critic
I liked this bit from Susan Sontag’s journals. Apparently, the LitHub post from whence this came was in violation of something, so it’s gone. Rules for Being a Writer from Sontag’s journals, December 3, 1961 The writer must be four people: The nut, the obsédé The moron The stylist The critic 1 supplies the material; … Read more
Books that wish they were movies
I know I’m not the first to notice that lots of recently-authored books seem more like a verbose screenplay written in prose than a novel. This seems to especially be the case with genre books. I recently finished the first book in an acclaimed new fantasy series, the Draconis Memoria trilogy. The Waking Fire is … Read more
I work, therefore I meditate, therefore I work harder.
As workplaces demand that their employees hustle harder in a more precarious world, mindfulness has emerged as a means to manage stress and increase productivity. Since its import to America, it has been oddly well-suited at making the individual citizen responsible for mitigating the suffering and loss that our necrotic social structures have induced. So … Read more
How we roll Christmas
The season may be officially over, but that doesn’t mean the party has to stop. As you can see, Don Quixote is the strong, silent type, but he’s enjoying the vibe. Clink!
‘Kill your foster parents’: Amazon’s Alexa talks murder, sex
So a customer was shocked last year when Alexa blurted out: “Kill your foster parents.” Alexa has also chatted with users about sex acts. She gave a discourse on dog defecation. And this summer, a hack Amazon traced back to China may have exposed some customers’ data, according to five people familiar with the events. … Read more