Monthly Archives: September 2010

Happy Birthday Paperbacks!

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Okay, so today is not the real birthday of the paperback, but it is the birthday of Sir Allen Lane, who gave us the paperback as we know it today.

Legend has it that (not yet) Sir Allen got bored waiting at a train station in 1934, and came up with the idea of printing paperback editions of already successful hardback literature which could be sold from a vending machine.  Soon after, when he founded Penguin Books, these paperbacks appeared in the aptly named “Penguincubator.”

Of course, paperback editions quickly moved from the vending machine to racks and newstands, and are now an integral part of the publishing business.

Category: Background

Odd Thought on the Sincerest Form of Flattery

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i like if wrote that poem bet
some cummings next point me the would
but woulding didn’t could see where
today tomorrow can’t

Category: Odd Thoughts

I’m with Suzannah, Oxford, and Grammar Girl

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Author Suzannah Windsor Freeman of the Write It Sideways blog comes down on the side of the serial comma, occasionally attributed to Oxford or Harvard for some reason.  She quotes Mignon Fogerty (AKA “Grammar Girl”), who points out that the alternative to the serial comma standard is really no standard at all because you still occasionally need it for clarification.

I’m with them.  It is much more reasonable to simply have a rule rather than justifying every pre-“and” comma on an ad hoc basis.

And, the argument that you don’t need the serial comma before “and” because the commas are stand-ins for the other “ands” is, to be blunt, ridiculous.  Next time you see or hear a series of items, try imagining “and” between each one and see how literate it sounds.

Category: My Two Cents

Archaic Definition of the Week – Wharfinger

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publishingWHARFINGER, the person who has the charge of a wharf, and takes account of all the articles landed thereon, or removed from it, into any vessel lying alongilde thereof; for which he receives a certain fee called wharfage, which becomes due to the proprietor for the use of his machines and furniture.

– Wm. Falconer’s Dictionary of the Marine (1780).

Category: ADOTW

What do Action and Problem Mean for Writers?

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Les Edgerton recently explained the difference between what “action” and “problem” mean in lay language and in literature, to show how the confusion about terminology creates problems in writing education.

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Category: Blogroll, Observer

Some Background Reading on a Saturday

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As promised, I am now posting from America’s desktop: the wi-fi connected National Mall in Washington, DC.  Specifically, I am having lunch in the Mitsitam Cafe inside the National Museum of the American Indian.  More specifically, I am having apple juice, tamarind-basted papaya, and pork pibil.

And, no, I did not shoot the cook.

There is, of course, a literary component of my visit to the museum.  At the bookstore, I purchased a Día de los Muertos figurine (for Halloween use) and Iroquois Diplomacy on the Early American Frontier by Timothy J. Shannon.

Can’t wait to read some, so I’m signing off for the day.  Have a good weekend!

Category: Background

Archaic Definition of the Week – Xeres

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xeres (ZER-es) sherry
_his grandmother’s late-afternoon spot of xeres

– Endangered English Dictionary: Bodacious Words Your Dictionary Forgot by David Grambs.

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Category: ADOTW

The National Mall in DC is Now my Writing Desk

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For those of you who don’t already know, I live a short jaunt from the National Mall.

And, when I say “a short jaunt” I mean that, if I had a straight line of site from my balcony to Independence Avenue, with my US Navy Expert Marksman ribbon I would stand a good chance (with a rifle) of hitting a man-sized target skirting the rear of the Air and Space Museum.

Okay, maybe that’s a rather violent illustration, but I think I’ve made my point.

So, imagine my excitement at the news that the entire National Mall is now wired for the Internet!  Granted, it is a bit ironic since I just signed up for 3G service on my new laptop with Verizon last weekend, but let’s not look a gift horse (or gift Wi-Fi) in the mouth.

Expect some blog entries from the shadow of the Smithsonian (or, God help my waistline, the Mitsitam Cafe at the Museum of the American Indian) in the near future!

Category: Blogroll

Why Our Discussion Of Literature Is Confused

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Discussing her twist on Bram Stoker, titled Dracula in Love, author Karen Essex wrestles with the slippery definition of the “literary” … and its many pretenders.

Her piece at Publisher’s Weekly, “No Sex, Please, We’re Literary,” got me thinking about the way we categorize literature, and how it holds us back from really understanding — and enjoying — the stuff we read.

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Category: My Two Cents

Odd Thoughts on Emphasis

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How can you tell if a hyphen is italicized?

–

[experiment: – –]

Category: Odd Thoughts
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