Ramblings & ephemera
From Steve Marsh’s “Homage to Mister Berryman” (Mpls St Paul Magazine: September 2008):
Berryman’s last words to Kate came on that January morning—he told her he was going to campus to clean his office. He had never said that before, she says, but Kate, who was attending Al-Anon meetings at the time, was trying “not to [...]
Posted on September 28th, 2008 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Language & Literature, Uncategorized, art, history | No Comments »
So my friend Carrie is helping me edit my latest book in progress, and we got into an email discussion about the way I write & the edits she made. She sent me this haiku, which I thought was great:
I cannot abide
a run-on sentence, ever.
Sentence fragment, yes.
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The escape [...]
Posted on July 15th, 2008 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Language & Literature, art | No Comments »
Scott: Pronounce this word: A - G - I - N - C - O - U - R - T.
Robin: Why?
Scott: I just want to hear you pronounce it.
Robin: Welllll … I would pronounce it the way it’s spelled: Again-kort.
Scott: (starts laughing & snickering) Haha!
Robin: I *knew* that would send you into proxyisms of [...]
Posted on June 8th, 2008 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Language & Literature, overheard | No Comments »
“You’ve been hoist by your own retard.”
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Talbot describes his son’s valiant death
Posted on April 20th, 2008 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Commonplace Book, Language & Literature, True Stories | No Comments »
From Celeste Biever’s “Language may shape human thought” (New Scientist: 19 August 2004):
Language may shape human thought – suggests a counting study in a Brazilian tribe whose language does not define numbers above two.
Hunter-gatherers from the Pirahã tribe, whose language only contains words for the numbers one and two, were unable to reliably tell the difference [...]
Posted on April 20th, 2008 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: science | No Comments »
From Atul Gawande’s “Final Cut: Medical arrogance and the decline of the autopsy” (The New Yorker: 19 March 2001):
… in the nineteenth century … [some doctors] waited until burial and then robbed the graves, either personally or through accomplices, an activity that continued into the twentieth century. To deter such autopsies, some families would post [...]
Posted on April 12th, 2008 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Commonplace Book, history, science, security | No Comments »
From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (IV: 7):
LUCY:
But where’s the great Alcides of the field,
Valiant Lord Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury,
Created, for his rare success in arms,
Great Earl of Washford, Waterford and Valence;
Lord Talbot of Goodrig and Urchinfield,
Lord Strange of Blackmere, Lord Verdun of Alton,
Lord Cromwell of Wingfield, Lord Furnival of Sheffield,
The thrice-victorious Lord of [...]
Posted on January 16th, 2007 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Language & Literature, Word of the day | Comments Off
From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (IV: 7):
BURGUNDY:
Doubtless he would have made a noble knight;
See, where he lies inhearsed in the arms
Of the most bloody nurser of his harms!
inhearsed: laid as in a coffin
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Talbot describes his son’s valiant death
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Posted on January 16th, 2007 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Language & Literature, Word of the day | Comments Off
From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (IV: 7):
JOAN LA PUCELLE:
Once I encounter’d him, and thus I said:
‘Thou maiden youth, be vanquish’d by a maid:’
But, with a proud majestical high scorn,
He answer’d thus: ‘Young Talbot was not born
To be the pillage of a giglot wench:’
giglot: A wanton; a lascivious or light, giddy girl.
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1 Henry [...]
Posted on January 16th, 2007 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Language & Literature, Word of the day | Comments Off
From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (IV: 7):
TALBOT:
Where is my other life? mine own is gone;
O, where’s young Talbot? where is valiant John?
Triumphant death, smear’d with captivity,
Young Talbot’s valour makes me smile at thee:
When he perceived me shrink and on my knee,
His bloody sword he brandish’d over me,
And, like a hungry lion, did commence
Rough [...]
Posted on January 16th, 2007 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Language & Literature | Comments Off
From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (IV: 6):
TALBOT:
If I to-day die not with Frenchmen’s rage,
To-morrow I shall die with mickle age:
mickle: Great.
(If I don’t die today in battle, I’ll die tomorrow from old age.)
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Talbot describes his son’s valiant death
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Posted on January 16th, 2007 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Language & Literature, Word of the day | Comments Off
From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (IV: 5):
TALBOT:
Then here I take my leave of thee, fair son,
Born to eclipse thy life this afternoon.
Come, side by side together live and die.
And soul with soul from France to heaven fly.
(Talbot’s son refuses to flee & leave his father, even though it likely means his death in [...]
Posted on January 16th, 2007 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Language & Literature | Comments Off
From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (IV: 4):
SOMERSET:
It is too late; I cannot send them now:
This expedition was by York and Talbot
Too rashly plotted: all our general force
Might with a sally of the very town
Be buckled with …
buckled: encountered; To give way; collapse
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1 [...]
Posted on January 16th, 2007 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Language & Literature, Word of the day | Comments Off
From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (IV: 2):
TALBOT:
If we be English deer, be then in blood;
Not rascal-like, to fall down with a pinch,
But rather, moody-mad and desperate stags,
Turn on the bloody hounds with heads of steel
And make the cowards stand aloof at bay:
moody-mad: furious with anger
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Posted on January 16th, 2007 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Language & Literature, Word of the day | Comments Off
From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (IV: 2):
TALBOT:
He fables not; I hear the enemy:
Out, some light horsemen, and peruse their wings.
O, negligent and heedless discipline!
How are we park’d and bounded in a pale,
A little herd of England’s timorous deer,
Mazed with a yelping kennel of French curs!
If we be English deer, be then in blood;
Not [...]
Posted on January 16th, 2007 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Language & Literature | Comments Off
From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (IV: 2):
TALBOT:
English John Talbot, captains, calls you forth,
Servant in arms to Harry King of England;
And thus he would: Open your city gates;
Be humble to us; call my sovereign yours,
And do him homage as obedient subjects;
And I’ll withdraw me and my bloody power:
But, if you frown upon this proffer’d [...]
Posted on January 16th, 2007 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Language & Literature | Comments Off
From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (IV: 1):
EXETER:
Well didst thou, Richard, to suppress thy voice;
For, had the passions of thy heart burst out,
I fear we should have seen decipher’d there
More rancorous spite, more furious raging broils,
Than yet can be imagined or supposed.
But howsoe’er, no simple man that sees
This jarring discord of nobility,
This shouldering of [...]
Posted on January 16th, 2007 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Language & Literature | Comments Off
From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (IV: 1):
With other vile and ignominious terms:
In confutation of which rude reproach
And in defence of my lord’s worthiness,
I crave the benefit of law of arms.
confutation: evidence that refutes conclusively
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Posted on January 16th, 2007 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Language & Literature, Word of the day | Comments Off
From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (IV: 1):
BASSET:
… When stubbornly he did repugn the truth
About a certain question in the law
Argued betwixt the Duke of York and him;
repugn: To oppose or contend against.
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Posted on January 16th, 2007 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Language & Literature, Word of the day | Comments Off
From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (IV: 1):
GLOUCESTER:
What means his grace, that he hath changed his style?
No more but, plain and bluntly, ‘To the king!’
Hath he forgot he is his sovereign?
Or doth this churlish superscription
Pretend some alteration in good will?
churlish: Of, like, or befitting a churl; boorish or vulgar.
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Posted on January 16th, 2007 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Language & Literature, Word of the day | Comments Off