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A book of secrets by Keri.
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* The most profound secrets lie not wholly in knowledge, said the poet. They lurk invisible in that vitalizing spark, intangible, yet as evident as the lightning—the seeker's soul. Solitary digging for facts can reward one with great discoveries, but true secrets are not discovered—they are shared, passed on in confidence from one to another. The genuine seeker listens attentively. No secret can be transcribed, save in code, lest it—by definition—cease to be. This Book of Whispers collects and encodes more than one hundred of humankind's most cherished secrets. To be privy to the topics alone is a supreme achievement, as each contains and nurtures the seed of its hidden truth. As possessor and thereby guardian of this knowledge, may you summon the courage to honor its secrets and to bequeath it to one worthy. |
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I dreamed I waited for a bus that never did arrive.
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"Every series of letters has a meaning waiting to be found."
— Geof Huth |
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Encarta covered our Semicolon's Dream Journal this week. In her witty and mirthful defense of the semicolon, columnist Martha Brockenbrough, author of Things That Make Us (Sic), wrote: Best, however, is the advocacy of Craig Conley, America's most creative and diligent scholar of letters, words and punctuation. To wit: Conley has created a punctuation mark (the rhetorical question mark), he has written a book of one-letter words, and he is so closely related to the semicolon's spirit that he has been appointed official keeper of its dream journal.
That's right, all you haters. The semicolon has dreams: dreams of rest and relaxation at Semicolon Lakes, of conversations about Shakespeare with the mischievous Puck, and even -- gasp -- of the nightmare that is semicolon cancer.
As Conley explained his close relationship with the semicolon, "I first dreamed that I was a semicolon when I was 6 years old. I vividly recall the uncanny experience of being frozen betwixt two closely related sentences. They called me 'the Go-Between.' In my dream, the words all glowed with an otherworldly green life force. Little surprise, then, that when I got my first IBM PC a decade later, typing my first glowing green semicolon brought the dream rushing back. For the past two decades, I've kept a dream journal from the semicolon's point of view."
Conley is happy when semicolons visit not just his dreams, but his discourse. He agrees with the music essayist Steven Harvey, who said in "Bound for Shady Grove" that the semicolon creates a "ringing emptiness" that "clears a space," a space for sacred silence that seals thoughts together. And he quotes Jesus Urzagasti from "In the Land of Silence," who said semicolons give us the air we need.
It's true, Conley said, that semicolons are asymmetrical. Beauty and symmetry are traditionally linked. But who doesn't admire the crooked Venus de Milo, who is one decapitated head away from being a sculptural semicolon herself?
Read the full article here.
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Fast asleep. Singing birds in their leafy cover / Cannot wake her, nor shake her the gusty blast. / Under the purple thyme and the purple clover / Sleeping at last.
—Christina Georgina Rossetti, "Sleeping at Last," 1896.
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* Though printed in black and white, great literature is bursting with vibrant colour. In this rebus-style puzzle, color words and parts of words have been replaced with colored boxes. Try to guess the exact hue of each. Roll your mouse over the colored boxes to reveal the missing words. Click the colored boxes to learn more about each hue. Special thanks to Paul Dean for his colorful research.
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A new softcover edition of the groundbreaking Magic Words: A Dictionary is available for pre-order at Amazon.com at a 34% discount (plus an additional 5% pre-order discount). For the skinny on this beguiling reference, see our sister site MysteryArts.com. |
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"Eventually, the night will be my only companion." — Geof Huth
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| If you have a strange dream to share, send it along! |
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Information Prose :: A Manifesto in 47 Points :: Version 1.0
by Jeremy P. Bushnell, jeremy@invisible-city.com
39. There is nothing about hypertext that
demands that a story incorporating it must be written with forking
paths and multiple endings.
40. Hypertext writers who write
"closed" hypertexts — works that only contain links to other parts of
themselves — deprive hypertext of its most radical feature: the ability
to refer to information outside of itself. The bibliography is the
model here.
41. Information prose writers should embrace the
elements of hypertextuality which aid documentary. Think of the
hypertextual features long used by encyclopedias (cross-references).
42.
Information prose writers should, furthermore, embrace the elements of
multimedia which amplify the power of documentary. Compare an
encyclopedia with illustrations to one without. Compare a traditional
encyclopedia to Encarta.
43. To put it in the words of a friend: "You can now footnote a sound."
44.
Inasmuch as the Web supports hypertextuality and (to a lesser extent)
multimedia, the Web helps to make information prose possible.
45.
However, the Web is not the only thing that makes information prose
possible. Information prose is not dependent on hypertextuality, and
hypertextuality is not dependent upon computers. Think of indexes,
think of tables of contents, think of the numbers in the corners of
pages.
46. Aside from the merits of supporting hypertextuality
and multimedia, there are other advantages of writing for the Web, two
of the most obvious being the ability to make unlimited copies and the
ability to distribute copies worldwide at minimal (or no) expense.
These merits have been amply written on elsewhere. There are obvious
disadvantages as well. Information prose writers should support and
contribute to efforts to overcome these, which will help to secure the
Web as a vital medium for their future expression.
47. The present is here. It it time to begin. Pass it on.
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Piecing together the secret of the stars . . .
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* The most profound secrets lie not wholly in knowledge, said the poet. They lurk invisible in that vitalizing spark, intangible, yet as evident as the lightning—the seeker's soul. Solitary digging for facts can reward one with great discoveries, but true secrets are not discovered—they are shared, passed on in confidence from one to another. The genuine seeker listens attentively. No secret can be transcribed, save in code, lest it—by definition—cease to be. This Book of Whispers collects and encodes more than one hundred of humankind's most cherished secrets. To be privy to the topics alone is a supreme achievement, as each contains and nurtures the seed of its hidden truth. As possessor and thereby guardian of this knowledge, may you summon the courage to honor its secrets and to bequeath it to one worthy. |
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A palette nowadays is absolutely colorful: sky- blue, pink, orange, vermillion, strong yellow, clear green, pure wine red, purple. But by strengthening all colors one again obtains calm and harmony; there happens something similar to Wagner’s music which, even though performed by a great orchestra, is nonetheless intimate.
—Vincent van Gogh, in a letter to his sister, as quoted in Post-Impressionism from van Gogh to Gauguin by John Rewald, 1958.
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* Though printed in black and white, great literature is bursting with vibrant colour. In this rebus-style puzzle, color words and parts of words have been replaced with colored boxes. Try to guess the exact hue of each. Roll your mouse over the colored boxes to reveal the missing words. Click the colored boxes to learn more about each hue. Special thanks to Paul Dean for his colorful research.
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| I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought |
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  by jovikeThe Little-Known Meanings of Crazy Color Names vol. 2
We continue our strange and wonderful adventure into the uncharted fringes of language, in search of new "shades of meaning." Colors with seemingly incomprehensible names actually tell fascinating and humorous stories, at least to those who are willing to delve beneath the surface. The sandy color called chk gray refers to the sound of a shovel pushing through sand: "I listen until my itching subsides, and the nearby scratch of a shovel digging—chk... chk... chk...—is a gentle drumbeat calling me back to life." (Donald W. George, Japan: True Stories of Life on the Road. 
The green color called chk-chk-chk echoes the soft, rhythmic call of the Olive Thrush, as described in Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania by Dale A. Zimmerman. 
by Jeremy Hughes
The mysterious gray color called clk refers to an expression of anger by a Martian whose flying saucer has just been destroyed by a “little beast with a peppermint stick” (Will Eisner, Comics & Sequential Art). 
The pinkish color called dddd echoes “a loud hammering sound,” as described in Tongue Tie—From Confusion to Clarity: A Guide to the Diagnosis and Treatment of Ankyloglossia by Carmen Fernando. 
The smoky purple color called dlrdn refers to an interjection coined by François Rabelais in the novel Gargantua and Pantagruel, spoken by a native of the imaginary “Lanternland.” 
The light brown color dnnn refers to an incoherent response, as from someone intoxicated. “'You all right? You sick or anything, or just drunk?' 'Dnnn,' said Sandra." (William Kennedy, An Albany Trio. 
The light purple color called drrr echoes the sound of "door," as spoken by someone “slurring his words out of pure exhaustion,” as in the novel Doona by Anne McCaffrey. 
The bright green color called fff refers to the sound of a sky rocket fizzing up, as described in “More Than Words” by the New Zealand Ministry of Education. 
The even brighter green color called ffff means fortissississimo, a musician’s directive to perform a passage very, very, very loudly. 
Another green color, called fmp fmp fmmmmp, echoes the sound of a falling body hitting the ground, as in the graphic novel ShadowFall by Kaichi Satake. 
All of these color name insights are derived from my Dictionary of Improbable Words, which is available for online reading. [Read the entire article in my guest blog at ColourLovers.com.]
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Piecing together the secret of the spirit-keeper . . .
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* The most profound secrets lie not wholly in knowledge, said the poet. They lurk invisible in that vitalizing spark, intangible, yet as evident as the lightning—the seeker's soul. Solitary digging for facts can reward one with great discoveries, but true secrets are not discovered—they are shared, passed on in confidence from one to another. The genuine seeker listens attentively. No secret can be transcribed, save in code, lest it—by definition—cease to be. This Book of Whispers collects and encodes more than one hundred of humankind's most cherished secrets. To be privy to the topics alone is a supreme achievement, as each contains and nurtures the seed of its hidden truth. As possessor and thereby guardian of this knowledge, may you summon the courage to honor its secrets and to bequeath it to one worthy. |
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| I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought |
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If you've stumbled upon a lucky penny and have a friend who may be down on his or her luck, print out our free, personalized Transfer of Luck Certificate (inspired by the Lucky Penny web site). Rendered in fine calligraphy, the certificate is easy to generate and completely free to print in high resolution. From the certificate:According to the truths of the Penny Priestess, (1) luck is neither created nor destroyed, (2) copper is an excellent conductor of luck, (3) a falling penny acquires a luck charge coincident with the gravitational pull of the earth, (4) the luck force occurs in discrete but non-quantifiable units, and (5) luck is uncertain. May this transfer of the pennies here attached serve to distribute fortune more equitably. Create your own Luck Transfer Certificate » |
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"The comma and the apostrophe are one. The comma punctuates the sentence, and the apostrophe punctuates the word." — Geof Huth |
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| I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought |
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First came the mischievous Irish Straw Boys, the original party crashers. Now comes the rascally German "Zerrissen Jungen" (shredded boys), sporting masks of shredded paper.
This photo is actually by Frankfurt's Pixelgarten. We made up the stuff about "Zerrissen Jungen."
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Piecing together the secret of the spider . . .
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* The most profound secrets lie not wholly in knowledge, said the poet. They lurk invisible in that vitalizing spark, intangible, yet as evident as the lightning—the seeker's soul. Solitary digging for facts can reward one with great discoveries, but true secrets are not discovered—they are shared, passed on in confidence from one to another. The genuine seeker listens attentively. No secret can be transcribed, save in code, lest it—by definition—cease to be. This Book of Whispers collects and encodes more than one hundred of humankind's most cherished secrets. To be privy to the topics alone is a supreme achievement, as each contains and nurtures the seed of its hidden truth. As possessor and thereby guardian of this knowledge, may you summon the courage to honor its secrets and to bequeath it to one worthy. |
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At the bottom of the hill, the woods opened suddenly onto a pasture dotted here and there with black and white cows and sloping down, tier after tier, to a broad orange stream where the reflection of the sun was set like a diamond.
—Flannery O’Connor, The River, A Good Man Is Hard To Find And Other Stories, 1955.
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* Though printed in black and white, great literature is bursting with vibrant colour. In this rebus-style puzzle, color words and parts of words have been replaced with colored boxes. Try to guess the exact hue of each. Roll your mouse over the colored boxes to reveal the missing words. Click the colored boxes to learn more about each hue. Special thanks to Paul Dean for his colorful research.
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We're proud (and somewhat astonished) to announce the World Premiere of Erik Satie's beguiling 18-hour composition "Vexations," performed in the style of a music box. The poet Chris Piuma requested this unprecedented performance, in anticipation of a cross-country train expedition.
Listener take note: Satie's composition is eerie, mind-bending, and hallucinatory. Please don't play while operating heavy machinery.
What does this highly unusual performance sound like? The first listener likened it to "the uncanny valley between creepy and pleasant, between soothing and agitating, between meditative and disturbing. And I'm sure 15 hours into it I will be in some other state entirely. . . . I've wanted to hear an uninterrupted performance of this piece for over a decade, and now here it is!"
The second listener praised music box maestro Ken Clinger for capturing "the continual, unrelieved dissonance, with no obvious sense of direction or tonal centre, and the total chromaticism. I think anyone listening to this for 18 hours and 40 minutes would definitely hallucinate. . . . I suppose it would be curious if for the next 18 hours I kept writing a response. I'm not sure if it would reveal the anguish over unreciprocated affection that I feel listening to this aural Auschwitz. Maybe I should instead podcast. . . . Hours have passed and my hands feel like balloons, my feet like stars, and my hair has turned gray. . . . The 17th repetition I have designated as the Schwarzschild radius. See how slowly I appear to move? Do not be fooled. . . . My elbows tingle in calliopeic sympathy (or that may just be an odd manifestation of the carpal tunnel). . . . I can't stop crying. And laughing."
Fun fact: A music box cylinder containing the full score (with all 840 repetitions) would measure 4,032 inches in diameter (336 feet), which is the same height as the Victoria Tower at London’s Westminster Palace.
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In addition to streaming audio, a 63 MB mp3 of "Vexations" is available. --- Dankitti writes: 18 hours? The best I could do was Guru Sven, which is only 12 hours.
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A collaged story we assembled for a singular Donna and henceforth dedicate to all the Donnas of the world. Click on the thumbnails below to view an enlarged version in a new window. |
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I dreamed that Geof Huth introduced me to the "areplusand" and the "isplusand." We gossiped together, but the ampersand's name never came up. |
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Years pass by and leave things unaltered. The same narrow, red roads run through cotton- and cornfields. The same time- grayed cabins send up threads of smoke from their red- clay chimneys, doorways, and china- berry and crape- myrtle blossoms to drop gay petals on little half- clothed black children.
—Julia Peterkin (1880–1961), “Ashes,” from Green Thursday: Stories by Julia Peterkin, first published in 1924.
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* Though printed in black and white, great literature is bursting with vibrant colour. In this rebus-style puzzle, color words and parts of words have been replaced with colored boxes. Try to guess the exact hue of each. Roll your mouse over the colored boxes to reveal the missing words. Click the colored boxes to learn more about each hue. Special thanks to Paul Dean for his colorful research.
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Her face lit up like a rainbow.
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Piecing together the secret of the Sphinx . . .
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* The most profound secrets lie not wholly in knowledge, said the poet. They lurk invisible in that vitalizing spark, intangible, yet as evident as the lightning—the seeker's soul. Solitary digging for facts can reward one with great discoveries, but true secrets are not discovered—they are shared, passed on in confidence from one to another. The genuine seeker listens attentively. No secret can be transcribed, save in code, lest it—by definition—cease to be. This Book of Whispers collects and encodes more than one hundred of humankind's most cherished secrets. To be privy to the topics alone is a supreme achievement, as each contains and nurtures the seed of its hidden truth. As possessor and thereby guardian of this knowledge, may you summon the courage to honor its secrets and to bequeath it to one worthy. |
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| I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought |
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The poet Geof Huth offers this lovely commentary on why we notice and in fact need "11:11": 11:11 At certain points in measured time, the world seems to come into alignment, concepts tend to clarify, ideas gel. But we know in our hearts that this is false, that midnight is as meaningless a concept as the idea that a new year begins at a certain second after a particular midnight. We cannot believe fully in these ideas because we understand that we worship and are guided by arbitrary signs created by humans: sequences of numbers, sounds, or letters. ||:|| But we continue to follow these signs because they direct our lives so well. Their meaningless is the source of their meaning and their power. We imbue them with their significance, so we believe them. Even if they become twisted out of shape, we continue to believe them, we continue to see them, we continue to understand them. |||| We can reduce the information in a sign and still be able to read it, still be able to make sense of it, to add sense to it. We do this to eradicate ambiguity, to make sense. The world is a mass of contradictory signs, so we must choose the ones to read, how to read them, the ones to believe. :::: In the end, we have only ourselves to blame. We look for symmetry. It pleases us. That is what we like about architecture, a metrical poem, crossword puzzles, seemingly deft plotting in a story. And the only thing that makes the asymmetrical interesting is that it runs counter to an existing symmetry. We need symmetry. We need symmetry to give beauty to the surprisingly asymmetrical. .... We need 11:11 to find ourselves an idea to play with. We need 11:11 to feel our lives are temporarily in balance. We need 11:11 to feel human. Without 11:11, the world just runs away from us, untamed, untameable, even unsought. ---------- Sexy Girl responds: 11:11 is my fav time. To me it represents dimensional unity... like playing two octaves at once on the piano. Same but different. Somehow the harmonious moment is magnified when the two are played as one. Kinda like love relationships are meant to be ... yeah.
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The poet Chris Piuma scours our Dictionary of All-Consonant Words for three obscure, vowelless words from Ezra Pound's " Canto IX" ( grnnh! rrnnh, pthg). Does he find them, or will Pound's curious expressions resist interpretation for another ninety years? Read about the spirited adventure here:------
There is a curious line in Ezra Pound's "Canto IX": grnnh! rrnnh, pthg.
The typical dictionary is not terribly helpful at elucidating this line, so we must consult a more specialized work. Craig Conley'sAll-Consonant Words Dictionaryoffers a more likely source for discovering the meanings of such obscure and vowelless words.
And yet, none of those three words appear. At first, it seems that yet another dictionary has failed us. But this is where we can use skills picked up by working with medieval texts: Perhaps these are scribal errors, mistakes in the transmission, or else they might be variants of already familiar words. Can we, then, find similar words in this dictionary?
- gnnnh.
- interj. a groan of pain.
<“Gnnnh!” he said, and drew himself up into a ball to escape the pain of his emergent teeth. —Diana Gabaldon,The Fiery Cross.
It is easy to misread a hastily written "n" for an "r", and we can posit with great confidence that "grnnh", especially with its exclamation point, is actually "gnnnh", this pain cry.
- rrrrrrrnnng.
- n. the ring of a telephone.
<When he woke up, the killer headache hadn’t gone away and the phone was ringing. A fourth ring. A fifth. He still made no move to pick it up. Rnnnnnnnnngagain. —Morrie Ruvinsky,Dream Keeper: Myth and Destiny in the Pacific Northwest.>
At first this seems an unlikely reading of "rrnnh", what with Pound's word having so fewer Rs, and an H instead of a G. But then we recall that this Canto would have been written in the late 1910s or early 1920s, when telephony was in its early stages, and ringer boxes -- which at that point weren't even in the telephones proper -- had not been perfected. There were, we can see, too few Rs. The final "ng", which we pronounce as a satisfying /ŋ/, was then the softer /ɲ/, which Pound spelt the Portuguese way, "nh".
- Pthr.
- n. the title of a work of art by Michael Paulus based upon illuminated eye charts of the 1800s but modified so that “clinical function is surpassed by style and frivolity” (MichaelPaulus.com).
This one is the most problematic. We can write off the capital P being in minuscule as Modernist poetic license. The "r" becoming a "g" -- it seems unlikely to be a scribal error, and you'd have to be Russian to hear those sounds as related. And, worst of all, this art work did not exist yet, and Ezra Pound's ability to foresee the future was demonstrably not that great. We must reject the dictionary's offering as untenable.
Instead I'd like to suggest that it is a transliteration, done to obscure its origins, as a kind of code. You can map "p" onto "π", "th" onto "θ", and "g" onto "γ". "πθγ", of course, isn't a word in Greek -- would that there were some Greek All-Consonant Words Dictionary that I could consult to confirm this! -- but capitalize those letters, "ΠΘΓ", and you get Pi Theta Gamma, perhaps nothing more than the name of some obscure fraternity.
Now, I am no Pound scholar, nor a member of any such fraternity, so the possible connections or the exactly meaning of this reference is still unclear. But the scenario being described in the Canto is now reasonably clear: Pound is in pain because the phone is ringing and he is sure it is just the boys down at the frat calling him again, perhaps hoping to get him to come by the house, have a few beers, whereas all he wants to do is work on his epic poem, the one that would change history, the one that would explain history, and yet he knows they will keep calling to try to get him to go, and so he cries out in pain. The birthing of an epic poem is like getting one's baby teeth in, a painful process that will change everything about how you interact with the world. But for Pound there was no one who cared enough to apply Anbesol on his tender gums -- certainly his fraternity brothers wouldn't! And so this deftly coded message was inserted into The Cantos and resisted interpretation for ninety years.
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The Typographer and the Dingbat
One fine evening a strolling man heard an exclamation for help from the bottom of a deep well. "What's the matter?" he called down.
"I am a typographer," came the reply. "I was taking a slash, dropped my dagger, and descended into this grave."
"Calm down, dear sir, or you'll have a stroke," said the man.
"One moment, please!" called the typographer. "It's not a stroke; it's a virgule!"
"In that case, I'll go for a long dash," said the man.
"Ellipsis, you dingbat!" cried the typographer, but the man was long gone, and for good.
(We were inspired by a Sufi tale told by Rumi, as collected in Tales of the Dervishes by Idries Shah. Our retelling is dedicated to Paul Dean.)
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Piecing together the secret of the soul . . .
Artwork by Pamela Carriker. See full size image here.
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* The most profound secrets lie not wholly in knowledge, said the poet. They lurk invisible in that vitalizing spark, intangible, yet as evident as the lightning—the seeker's soul. Solitary digging for facts can reward one with great discoveries, but true secrets are not discovered—they are shared, passed on in confidence from one to another. The genuine seeker listens attentively. No secret can be transcribed, save in code, lest it—by definition—cease to be. This Book of Whispers collects and encodes more than one hundred of humankind's most cherished secrets. To be privy to the topics alone is a supreme achievement, as each contains and nurtures the seed of its hidden truth. As possessor and thereby guardian of this knowledge, may you summon the courage to honor its secrets and to bequeath it to one worthy. |
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| I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought |
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by jovikeThe Little-Known Meanings of Crazy Color NamesColors with seemingly incomprehensible names actually tell fascinating and humorous stories, at least to those who are willing to delve beneath the surface. Join me on a strange and wonderful adventure into the uncharted fringes of language, where we'll discover new "shades of meaning." The chilly blue color called brrrrrrr refers to the "Official State Motto of Alaska," according to humorist Dave Barry (Dave Barry’s Only Travel Guide You’ll Ever Need). 
by Dalephonics
With an additional "r," the watery color called brrrrrrrr conjures up the sound of someone shaking water out of his or her ears after crawling out from under a waterfall, as in Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman. 
The green color called bbbbbb echoes a vocal imitation of "a sailing boat in a tub of water," as discussed in Baby Talk: The Art of Communicating with Infants and Toddlers by Monica Devine. 
The orange color called "bssss bssss" refers to the German word for the buzzing of a bee. 
The electric green color called bzzt recalls the crackle of a security spotlight turning on, as in Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes by Teddy Marguiles. 
The bright yellow color called bzzz refers to a deliberately mumbled word, due to passive-aggression (Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Saints, Scholars, and Schizophrenics: Mental Illness in Rural Ireland, Twentieth Anniversary Edition). 
The sanguine color called ccc echoes an ambiguous sound made by someone paralyzed with fear, as in the novel Theo Slugg in Low Spirits by Simon Goswell. 
The tawny color called chchch refers to a sound that Guatemalan village children make to get attention (Jason A. Lubam, “Diary of a Jungle Acupuncturist,” Acupuncture Today). 
With an additional "ch," the smoky purple color called chchchch refers to a French word for musical percussion lacking a definite note (fr.AudioFanzine.com). 
Add yet another "ch," and the golden color called chchchchch echoes the “guttural unvoiced growl” of a tiger (Metamorphosism.com). 
All of these color name insights are derived from my Dictionary of Improbable Words, which is available for online reading. [Read the entire article in my guest blog at ColourLovers.com.]
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"The magic of any gem is dependent upon the magic of the light that gives it life and fire. Gems are complex things and handle light in complex ways. Light doesn’t just uneventfully flow through windows as it does through glass, or simple bounce back as from a black-hearted mirror. Instead it dances impatiently, refracts and reflects. It comes alive along with the gem. In a weird way, a gem is a crystal cage that traps the light and makes it fight to escape." — Diane Morgan, Fire and Blood; Rubies in Myth, Magic, and History, 2008 |
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From A Surrealist Dictionary by J. Karl Bogartte: CHAOS: A fleshy, succulant fruit—the seeds of which are often used as umbrellas.
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A unicorn soul, as depicted by Andy Kehoe:
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| Did You Hear the One I Just Made Up? |
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Fictional Movie Taglines: Tears in Your Camel Milk: A dromedary dairy drama (thanks, Mike!) Camel Milk Journal: A dromedary dairy diary (thanks, Jonathan!) |
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One weekend Trout and Eel decided to paint their bedroom blue. The walls were the turquoise of the southern seas, the ceiling was cobalt, the floors indigo, the color of waters so deep and distant, no human had ever seen them before. Here in this room anyone could imagine the sound of waves breaking.
—Alice Hoffman, Indigo, 2002.
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* Though printed in black and white, great literature is bursting with vibrant colour. In this rebus-style puzzle, color words and parts of words have been replaced with colored boxes. Try to guess the exact hue of each. Roll your mouse over the colored boxes to reveal the missing words. Click the colored boxes to learn more about each hue. Special thanks to Paul Dean for his colorful research.
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This piece is in honor of Geof Huth, who measures the value of a poem with a poemometer. Geof blogged his response: How Craig Conley (the author of One-Letter Words: A Dictionary) does this, I do not know, but here, after less than a day’s work, are diagrams of three poemometers (based on my reference to same last night). Note that the largest measures the metrical feet (the sounds) against the surrounding silence the poem always fights against. (This one device is not calibrated finely enough to allow for dimeter, but we will do without that as necessary). The other two poemometers measure performative force and representational truth. Even though being the more sophisticated devices, they are simpler in structure. I am not sure when Craig will have these ready for sale, but I expect it will be soon. |
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Piecing together the secret of silence . . . ______ Sara Soares writes: Wise words.
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* The most profound secrets lie not wholly in knowledge, said the poet. They lurk invisible in that vitalizing spark, intangible, yet as evident as the lightning—the seeker's soul. Solitary digging for facts can reward one with great discoveries, but true secrets are not discovered—they are shared, passed on in confidence from one to another. The genuine seeker listens attentively. No secret can be transcribed, save in code, lest it—by definition—cease to be. This Book of Whispers collects and encodes more than one hundred of humankind's most cherished secrets. To be privy to the topics alone is a supreme achievement, as each contains and nurtures the seed of its hidden truth. As possessor and thereby guardian of this knowledge, may you summon the courage to honor its secrets and to bequeath it to one worthy. |
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Artist Eric Nykamp strives "to create images of silence." |
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The 19th-century visionary Andrew Jackson Davis predicted the typewriter in 1856, picturing it as a "soul-writer" for poets: I am almost moved to invent an automatic psychographer; that is, an artificial soul-writer. It may be constructed something like a piano; one brace or scale of keys to represent the elementary sounds; another and lower tier, to represent a combination; and still another, for a rapid recombination; so that a person, instead of playing a piece of music, may touch off a sermon or a poem!
For his vision of the future automobile, see Futility Closet. --- Sara Soares writes: What a brilliant idea!
I'm sure you are the right person to build such a thing.
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They live ’neath the curtain / Of fir woods and heather, / And never take hurt in / The wildest of weather, / But best they love Autumn — she’s brown as themselves — / And they are the brownest of all the brown elves.
—Patrick Chalmers, from "The Puk-Wudjies", a poem published in Punch in 1910.
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* Though printed in black and white, great literature is bursting with vibrant colour. In this rebus-style puzzle, color words and parts of words have been replaced with colored boxes. Try to guess the exact hue of each. Roll your mouse over the colored boxes to reveal the missing words. Click the colored boxes to learn more about each hue. Special thanks to Paul Dean for his colorful research.
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Piecing together the secret of Shambhala . . .
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* The most profound secrets lie not wholly in knowledge, said the poet. They lurk invisible in that vitalizing spark, intangible, yet as evident as the lightning—the seeker's soul. Solitary digging for facts can reward one with great discoveries, but true secrets are not discovered—they are shared, passed on in confidence from one to another. The genuine seeker listens attentively. No secret can be transcribed, save in code, lest it—by definition—cease to be. This Book of Whispers collects and encodes more than one hundred of humankind's most cherished secrets. To be privy to the topics alone is a supreme achievement, as each contains and nurtures the seed of its hidden truth. As possessor and thereby guardian of this knowledge, may you summon the courage to honor its secrets and to bequeath it to one worthy. |
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Top Ten Tips forRun-of-the-Mill Playersto Enjoy Outstanding Games(an Abecedarian guest blog for DeepFun.com) There's nothing so comfy as mediocrity. Indeed, our culture teaches us both explicitly and implicitly that "okay" is good enough. But when it comes to fun, the middle-of-the-road game players cheat themselves out of something precious. Lackluster players miss out on the special spark that characterizes outstanding game play. We're not talking about the thrill of victory versus the agony of defeat. An outstanding player will have more fun losing a game than an average player will have winning a game. The fact is that mediocre players cannot, by definition, get caught up in the lighthearted spirit of the game. Following are ten techniques for transforming yourself into an outstanding player of your favorite game. 1. Seek your game's hidden source of entertainment, its heart of fascination. In Classical times, Greek and Roman games consisted mainly of running, wrestling, jumping, riding, and racing. On the surface, these games were nothing out of the ordinary, yet their players made them the world's most extraordinary entertainments, exciting the enthusiasm and awakening the spirits of the spectators.[1] To find your game's heart of fascination, observe those moments when players become carried away, when they exclaim joyously, when they leap into the air or rise off their seats as if suddenly weightless. Notice those moments when teams cheer one another, when the thrill of the play dissolves rivalry. When you identify the dynamic at play—the true spirit of the game—you can foster it, prolong it, and take it to Olympic heights. 2. Improve your flexibility and agility (whether muscular or mental). To stretch your gray matter, a Web search for "lateral thinking exercise" will offer puzzles unsolvable by traditional step-by-step logic. To increase your physical flexibility, the "sun salutation" of Yoga is a 12-step series of poses that exercise every muscle and joint of the body. Do a Web search for "sun salutation" to find free pictorial guidance. 3. Use drills to work on weaknesses (whether muscular or mental). If another player is one step ahead of you mentally or one second faster than you physically, that's a winning edge. A single increment of improvement may be all you need for success. Set simple goals and work one step at a time. 4. Better your memory. A good memory is a boon to virtually any game. A Web search for "memory game" will yield hundreds of free online resources for exercising your powers of recollection. 5. Dispel falsehoods that hinder you. Are you convinced that golf isn't a woman's game, or that softball is a young person's game, or that pinball is about making lights blink with a rolling ball? Educate yourself about your game. Read books, explore websites, talk to other players. There's always more to learn. 6. Sharpen your concentration. This is the age of the eleven-second attention span. Being easily distracted is ruinous to game play. Sharpening your concentration takes conscious, prolonged, repeated effort. Keep a journal about your game. Thinking and writing about your game will help to increase your power of concentration. 7. Manage your stress. Stress management techniques will help you improve virtually any game. A Web search for "stress management" will yield hundreds of free online tips and techniques. One marvelous stress reducer is laughter. A Web search for "laughter therapy" will inform you about how laughter reduces stress hormones, boosts immunity, promotes a positive attitude, and engenders a feeling of power. 8. Practice solo. If your game involves two or more people, don't let that fact discourage you from practicing any aspects you can work on by yourself. 9. Embrace change. "Change is necessary to improve your game. You must not be afraid to risk giving up the known for the unknown if you wish to play better."[2] 10. The final tip is too specific to apply to just any game. You already know what it implies, or will soon discover it through your ongoing self-education. Perhaps this tip will require the help of a coach or the advice of a teaching pro. Perhaps it will involve visualization techniques, or the use of a video camera, or familiarization with quantum physics. This final tip may be the ultimate key to your fullest enjoyment of your game. Notes: [1] Lewis Henry Morgan, League of the Ho-dé-no-sau-nee Or Iroquois, 1904, p. 303. [2] Philip B. Capelle, Play Your Best Pool, 1995, p. 383.
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Grandson of a millionaire, [Cole] Porter spent his entire life surrounded by opulence, and his home at 13 re Monsieur was no exception. In the entryway, black- and- white checked tile led from the front door to a finely cut marble staircase flanked on each side by columns. From the top of the stairs, a grand salon stretched out over much of the first floor, enclosing in its white paneling soft velvet couches, oriental- finished tables, and colorful rugs. Platinum paper coated the library walls, while elsewhere in the house zebra- skin rugs complemented ornate art deco furnishing. . . . Porter’s workroom . . . , painted entirely in white, contained nothing but a white table, a white piano, and one hundred white pencils. The wall facing the courtyard was made of frosted glass with a small, clear porthole so that Porter could gaze outside for inspiration.
—Luke Miner, Paris Jazz: A Guide, 2005.
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* Though printed in black and white, great literature is bursting with vibrant colour. In this rebus-style puzzle, color words and parts of words have been replaced with colored boxes. Try to guess the exact hue of each. Roll your mouse over the colored boxes to reveal the missing words. Click the colored boxes to learn more about each hue. Special thanks to Paul Dean for his colorful research.
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From Prof. Oddfellow's sketchbook:
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Printed collections of Forgotten Wisdom diagrams are available: Volume I from Mindful Greetings and Volumes II, III and IV from Amazon. Selected posters are also available via Zazzle. |
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Piecing together the secret of the shadow . . .
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* The most profound secrets lie not wholly in knowledge, said the poet. They lurk invisible in that vitalizing spark, intangible, yet as evident as the lightning—the seeker's soul. Solitary digging for facts can reward one with great discoveries, but true secrets are not discovered—they are shared, passed on in confidence from one to another. The genuine seeker listens attentively. No secret can be transcribed, save in code, lest it—by definition—cease to be. This Book of Whispers collects and encodes more than one hundred of humankind's most cherished secrets. To be privy to the topics alone is a supreme achievement, as each contains and nurtures the seed of its hidden truth. As possessor and thereby guardian of this knowledge, may you summon the courage to honor its secrets and to bequeath it to one worthy. |
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The springtime trees of Chitra were perfect as a scene imagined from a storybook. They grew short and tall, thin and spreading, leafy and open. Their leaves were grass- green, blue- green, yellow- green, dark green, light green, crimson and brown and yellow, glossy and dull, smooth and sticky, round and pointed like fingers, fluttering and still. The barks of the trees were rough and smooth and furry, grey and white and green and black, cool and warm. The flowers grew in bunches or grew apart; they were red, yellow, white, pink and honey- colored; they were green and blue and purple and orange and silver and gold and lavender; they were large and small. All among the trees were tapering vines and slender creepers, rushes and canes and reeds, ferns and shrubs and grasses and orchids and bamboo and moss.
—William Buck, Ramayana, 2000.
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* Though printed in black and white, great literature is bursting with vibrant colour. In this rebus-style puzzle, color words and parts of words have been replaced with colored boxes. Try to guess the exact hue of each. Roll your mouse over the colored boxes to reveal the missing words. Click the colored boxes to learn more about each hue. Special thanks to Paul Dean for his colorful research.
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| I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought |
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According to Plato, a particular bicycle with two wheels missing is distinct from the abstract form of Bicycle-ness. A Bicycle is the ideal that allows us to identify the distorted reflections of bicycles all around us. --- Sara Luz wrote: Good old Plato. He knew what he was talking about.
Platonic idealism photographed by Melita Dennett on Church Street, Brighton.
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"In the end, we may be in love with books, but it’s words that have truly won our hearts. It’s words that whisper into our ear and transform us, that make us believe in other worlds or new emotions we didn’t know existed; it’s words that keep us company in . . . planes, on subway trains, or our comfy couches. It is words, not books, paper, papyrus of vellum pages that transform our lives." — Jeff Gomez, Print is Dead; Books in Our Digital Age, 2008 |
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Original Content Copyright © 2025 by Craig Conley. All rights reserved.
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