Category Archives: Uncategorized

Evil Little Goat

Posted on April 18, 2024 by Kathy

A recent Italian film has furnished us a perfect Wednesday Word: chimera. La Chimera, written and directed by Alice Rohrwacher, stars Josh O’Connor (Prince Charles in The Crown) as a thief who, with fellow gang members, raids Etruscan tombs and … Continue reading →

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Are You Tanked Up?

Posted on April 7, 2024 by Kathy

Cleveland lies in the path of the April 8th solar eclipse, and everyone’s a-twitter, including Twitter. The Guardians’ home opener also happens today, and the big women’s college basketball championship games were here in Cleveland this weekend. Traffic will be … Continue reading →

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Parapros . . .What??

Posted on March 14, 2024 by Kathy

I never encountered paraprosdokian before, but I liked it as soon as we met. David Bordwell introduced us, by way of his 2016 book, The Rhapsodes: How 1940s Critics Changed American Film Culture. Bordwell, one of my husband’s favorite critics, … Continue reading →

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The Horseless Dashboard

Posted on March 6, 2024 by Kathy

The term dashboard dates from the 1840s or so. What? you exclaim. There were no cars in the 1840s! How could there have been dashboards? You’re right about cars, of course. Karl Benz developed the first car in Germany, acquiring … Continue reading →

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Baltimore Boys

Posted on March 5, 2024 by Kathy

I wrote about R. Eric Thomas here, describing Thomas’s hilarious take on Mister Rogers and the mythical land of Bubbleland in his book of essays, Here for It, or, How to Save Your Soul in America. Last week I read Thomas’s … Continue reading →

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Lots of Good Fun That Is Funny

Posted on February 13, 2024 by Kathy

Amid my interesting reading lately, I enjoyed revisiting a classic yesterday. Twice. The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house All that cold, cold, wet day. The opening pages of Dr. … Continue reading →

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More Nonsense Words

Posted on February 8, 2024 by Kathy

Writing last week about YouTuber Dana K. White’s dololly and other weird words, I intended to move on to whomper-jawed, Dana’s adjective for a rickety bookshelf she was getting rid of. But I forgot and moved on instead to thingamajigs … Continue reading →

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Prose and Poetry

Posted on February 4, 2024 by Kathy

I let a few weeks pass after finishing Mozart: The Reign of Love before tackling American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, another massive tome. Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s 2006 biography served as a source … Continue reading →

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An Absolute Pleasure

Posted on January 26, 2024 by Kathy

The Latin verb solvere, like English’s to put or to take lends itself to multitudinous idioms. It can mean “to untie,” “to release,” “to unbind,” “to loosen what restricts,” “to throw off,” “to pay,” and on and on. The word’s … Continue reading →

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No Trouble in Bubbleland

Posted on January 20, 2024 by Kathy

Here’s a writer you’ll not only probably enjoy but who will make you feel a little bit better. I learned of R. Eric Thomas through our mutual friend (just kidding) Ann Patchett, the novelist, who featured his new book in … Continue reading →

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