Aching and sneezing, I bring a drabble for the day.

On the Street Style Aesthetic blog, which is photographer Wayne Tippett's collection of his street-style pictures (as the name implies), he posted this amazing photograph of Italian designer and style icon Eleanora Carisi. I was struck by the contrast of the winter park and the very urban woman. ( Read more... )

The Concise OED is not very helpful on the etymology of "swashbuckling," but the OED proper notes that "swashbuckler" -- first recorded in the 1500s -- is "one who makes a noise by striking his opponent's or his own shield with a sword ( Read more... )

I was thinking this morning about the phrase "the crack of dawn." It is (alas) a cliche now, one where the very specific and very cool visual of sunrise is perhaps no longer evoked. And how interesting it is that we don't think about the opposite...

So, a moment with Principal Morgan Stonewood, where we do.

( Crack of Night )

Today, for some reason --perhaps because I felt so very heavy on my morning walk-run-- I began to ponder the word gravitas (According to the OED: noun. Dignity, solemnity.) It sounds like something else, doesn't it?

And so, a fic-bit of fun with words: "Gravitas."

( Ms Alice Stonewood is the most effective manager the local credit union has ever seen. )

A quick series of thoughts:

*I've been sadly delinquent since... ever... in the upkeep of my house. (I spend my money on Diet Coke with Lime, travel, books, and cowboy boots -- although I still haven't sprung for a pair of Luccheses, and I wants them, my precious... Okay, yes, I totally, totally get that this is improvident.) This spring, however ( Read more... )

Yesterday was, according to various postings, Lurker Amnesty Day -- which really was Lurker Invitation Day, to be honest, asking folk to say hello ( Read more... )

"Sprezzatura. n. studied carelessness, especially in art or literature." -- Concise Oxford Dictionary

At the moment, or indeed ever, I can't manage sprezzatura -- hard to have it on a sneezy, headachy, cleaned-up-the-Dog-of-the-House's-vomit-at-6-am day, even without my natural handicaps of face-pulling and gawkiness -- but I so admire it in others ( Read more... )

At the end of a busy, busy week... I am thinking about trunk shows.

After a v. hard (but pleasing) day yesterday, I was recruiting my strength and resting my brain by flipping through the February Vogue, whereupon I came upon an article about Isaac Mizrahi taking his new Liz Claiborne line on a series of trunk shows. The OED doesn't have an entry ( Read more... )

I cannot write when I'm angry.

Or, rather, I could write when I'm angry, but only bile-filled screeds. [Note: This phrase is of course a cliche, and also, how would one fill a screed? I imagine a gravy boat of nasty-looking liquid, ready to be poured... And what is a screed, exactly, except a receptacle for bile? I consult the Concise OED: n. 1. ( Read more... )

Four Friday things ( Read more... )