Monthly Archives: August 2022

Some Days I’m Angry AND Disappointed

Posted on August 17, 2022 by JMN

Those are stay-big-picture days: paint, write, read, think about language. If gender is fluent, so are the other language markers which assert us. What if I don’t always identify as a first person? I may feel like a you, for … Continue reading →

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Versicles & Dangleberries

Posted on August 15, 2022 by JMN

Wrath of ThronesThee 8TH of Henrys did decreebad wyves &&& Thomases must meet their Heav’nly Fodder sharpishly,ahead of shedjewel, toote sweet.***** Thee Archfellowe of Hi KirkFor proper fayth Thee others beeBeelzebubbish,don’t ye see?**** Saint Peete Monarkee & Papacee a-sittin’ in … Continue reading →

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Failure Foretold: Manifesto of Translation Excuses

Posted on August 13, 2022 by JMN

The physics of a tiny bead driven by a puff of air towards a miracle on airy wing guarantees that a kid plinking at dragonflies with his BB-gun will never bag one. That’s the comfort built into the action. So … Continue reading →

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Fun With Man-Words

Posted on August 11, 2022 by JMN

In 2013, 52 Atlantic spotted dolphins migrated from the northern Bahamas to Bimini, 100 miles south, where a community of 120 of their species already lived. The encounter could have gone badly. When groups of social mammals meet, things can … Continue reading →

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Also Good With Cheese on a Biscuit

Posted on August 9, 2022 by JMN

Anyone who has twisted the cap off an opened jar of Marmite rimmed with dried product will know why it’s used to glue the tiles on the heat shields of Elon Musk’s rockets. The shields enable the craft to withstand … Continue reading →

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‘Trsf yjr timr/‘

Posted on August 8, 2022 by JMN

When I tried to be a writer I was too young to have interesting thoughts. Rimbaud was a freak to be worshiped despairingly. Why couldn’t I be an ancient soul at nineteen like him? I could not find impassive rivers … Continue reading →

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‘What rough beast, its hour come round at last…’

Posted on August 6, 2022 by JMN

“We’re going to draw a hard line in the sand for morality,” Precinct 4 Commissioner Clint Ives said… “I applaud their efforts to defeat liberalism…” (George Coryell, “Victoria County [Texas] sides with group that wants city library books removed,” victoriaadvocate.com, … Continue reading →

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New Word: ‘Yean’

Posted on August 5, 2022 by JMN

I’ve bumped into yean, a novel word, in the serendipitous way that study of a foreign language affords. The word is classed as ‘Archaic.’ Of course it is. Another recent discovery of mine, objurgate, is’ Rare.’ I wonder if I … Continue reading →

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Don’t Do to Me Whatever That Means

Posted on August 3, 2022 by JMN

From the stagnant backwaters of my brain, objurgate bubbles up unsolicited. Is it even a word? Where have I ever heard or set eyes on it? Objurgate. My smidgin of Latin alerts me to what the word has in common … Continue reading →

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Garabatos

Posted on August 1, 2022 by JMN

The Spanish word garabato (‘scrawl’) has a staccato pop to the ear, like a spate of rim shots. It evokes line and form in a night on the town, gadabout and roguish, flirting with all and sundry, living it up, … Continue reading →

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