And now for an interlude of Linguistics-Fu Theatre! Because we haven't done one of those for a danged long time, and since developing a fixation on Iron Chef America during the Olympics-hey it was the only thing on between the different rounds of Women's Hockey in the middle of the night-I've had these wonderful words floating around my head. I ( Read more... )

Voilà, and there was Micmacs! Regent Square Theatre, ♥. I no longer care that pouting to get this film shown closer did not work. It's been a long time since I've been in a theatre that was a-buzz with the happy, cheerful vibes of town dwellers out to enjoy themselves for an evening. None of this insulated, isolated, over-air conditioned, deafening ( Read more... )

"Is the Duke pixilated, Mr. Clent?"

Clent shuddered. "That is a judgement on me for seeking to extend your vocabulary. If I hear you using such words to describe a duke in my hearing again, I shall put you on a diet of dry verbs and water until you have learned to speak more wisely. [...]"

-Frances Hardinge, Fly By Night
Neither what I had planned ( Read more... )

There is still no comparable weirdness to running foreign language knitting sites through Bablefish. For example:

• "Distinguishes true and false the hunchbacked yarn"
• "Poem of 288 three dimensional flower streak - 304 series sheep"
• "Encircles the circle Mahai wool"

True and false hunchbacked yarn may be the best thing I've heard of all

Thinking about some very great conversations I've had lately about lexicography and word-fooling and the general lull of silence that has fallen over dictionaryporn. I definitely want to start posting more of that now that insanity of hatting is over-oh wait, not entirely over, damn-but I think I need to warm up to it a little ( Read more... )

Today's knitting buzz-word is:

nupp [nōup]
Function : n.

: a decorative texture often used in Estonian lace knitting, similar to a bobble

The knitting world as a whole apparently has moved on to badass lace skills and is talking of nothing but. Don't want you to feel left behind.

( Read more... )

As part of my sketchbook work, I've been noodling out a Von Strangehours Alphabetic Primer, similar to The Black Apple's. Because, you know, me and the alphabet, we're like that [gestures] . So far I'm pretty pleased with what I've filled out as my personal symbol set but I'm still short by eight letters. If you've got appropriate suggestions for ( Read more... )

• etymologyFron the greek for "the true sense of a word." That goes back to when roots showed through a lot more than they do today. But just as you appreciate a vegetable more if you know how it grows, you have a better hold on a word if you use it in acknowledgement of its roots, its background, some of the soil still attatched ( Read more... )

Hurrah, hurrah, 2ce's generous mailing of Magic for Beginners has arrived. Bringing cool and damp Portland weather in its wake.

MAGIC.

As fast as I was consumed with glee, I was consumed with guilt for wanting to ignore my library books that much more. Poor library books; poor Alphabet Juice-which I hear in my head as actually being narrated by ( Read more... )