Peregrine. adjective.
1. having a tendency to wander; traveling or migratory.
2. coming from abroad.
[Origin: Middle French peregrin, from Medieval Latin peregrinus, foreign, from pereger being abroad, from per through + ager land (that is, beyond one’s own land)
(1350 – 1400)
There were a score or so of the peregrines, come from Carlisle, most them burghers, guild-brothers in the tanners’ guild.
– Something Red, Douglas Nicholas.
Joe Baker, Room 101.
…Part of 1984‘s appeal is the language Orwell developed for identifying fascist control methods that are increasingly visible today. Power structures like the Ministries of Truth, Peace, Plenty, and Love—each of which represents the opposite of its title—are reflected in an Environmental Protection Agency led by a climate change denier, and an education department run by someone who prefers “charter” to public education. Conway’s “alternative facts” sound a lot like the book’s “Newspeak,” the simplification and rebranding of common language, and “Doublethink,” whereby the government controls historical records and the news, sounds an awful lot like Breitbart retellings of current events.
With 1984‘s popularity, the constant debate about whether our current world is more like Orwell’s dystopia or the one described in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World has resurfaced as well. Both books warn of the dangers their authors perceived was on the horizon, but the living legacy of 1984 is its mark on language, so Creators asked artists to illustrate the terms and concepts from the book that they see reflected in today’s society.
Alex Gamsu Jenkins, Two Minutes of Hate.
You can see the rest of the fabulous artwork, along with each artist’s statement at The Creators Project. Fantastic work!
I’ve never seen the show (or read the books), but I know most everyone else on the planet has, so here’s their opening teaser. If you head over to the Creators Project, you can also view their FB special:
A crew on Facebook Live placed a solid chunk of ice containing the release date on a pedestal next to a flamethrower. “Type ‘FIRE’ in the comments to reveal the #GoTS7 premiere date,” they instructed fans, and with each new comment they blasted the ice with fire. At the end of the 11-minute video, the date was revealed…
There’s more at the link!
Obdurate / Obduracy.Adjective.
1 a: stubbornly persistent in wrongdoing. b: hardened in feelings.
2: resistant to persuasion or softening influences. Syn., see Inflexible.
– obdurately, adverb.
– obdurateness, noun.
[Origin: Middle English, from Latin obduratus, past participle of obdurare to harden, from ob– against + durus hard.]
(15th Century)
Obduracy, noun, plural -cies: the quality or state of being obdurate. (1597)
“I’m Milan, the man said, not offering his hand nor any shred of comfort in his voice, which was strangely accented, a dry obduracy to it as if each word were something to be wrestled then spat out. ” – Eleven Days, Stav Sherez.
He would have been 90 years old today. In reading a remembrance, there was this particular quote:
“The more power you have, the harder it is to know who is lying to you and who is not. When you reach absolute power, there is no contact with reality, and that’s the worst kind of solitude there can be. A very powerful person, a dictator, is surrounded by interests and people whose final aim is to isolate him from reality; everything is in concert to isolate him.”
— From The Paris Review Interviews, Gabriel García Márquez, The Art of Fiction No. 69
How very apt.
Bloom Bookcase, Raw Edges.
Oh, I want! I want one of these a whole wall length. Great design. This was one of the designs included in Dezeen’s 10 shelving designs that are perfect for book lovers, which led me to the Bloom Bookcase by Raw Edges.
Credit: Democracy Now.
Republican Arkansas state Sen. Kim Hendren introduced a bill to the state legislature that will ban the works of historian Howard Zinn from any schools that receive public funds.
The Arkansas Times reported Thursday that House Bill 1834 would ban all public schools and open enrollment charter schools from “including in its curriculum or course materials for a program of study books or any other material authored by or concerning Howard Zinn.”
Zinn is the author of “A People’s History of the United States,” the groundbreaking re-examination of U.S. history in terms of its effects on the poor, people of color and women.
What began as a fringe interpretation of history has gradually gained ground. In 2014 and 2015, Republicans across the country fought a pitched battle against the federal AP high school history program. Conservatives argue that the curriculum looks at U.S. history through the lenses of race and class, placing too much emphasis on slavery and Native American genocide and not enough on American exceptionalism and the glory of the free market economy.
Why you can’t go around teaching history that isn’t properly whitewashed, oh no. Lies are so much better. As usual, in that exceptional American way, the truth is the enemy. Full story here.
Adding to the load of exceptional American stupidity, is Ryan Zinke, the new Secretary of the Interior. What’s he done? Why, he’s lifted the ban on lead ammunition and fishing tackle. Because lead doesn’t cause any harm at all, right? Right.
Naturally, the NRA is elated over this idiotic move. As lead causes the unintended deaths of birds and fish, you’d think perhaps all those avid hunters and fishers would have a moment of head scratching, and figure out that lead would mean less animals available for them to slaughter. And of course, having lead scattered all over the place, leaching into the ground and water, eh, what’s the problem?
In the hypocritical stupidity exceptionalism category, we have one Mike Pence, and his little email problem:
Vice President Mike Pence routinely used a private email account to conduct public business as governor of Indiana, at times discussing sensitive matters and homeland security issues.
Emails released to IndyStar in response to a public records request show Pence communicated via his personal AOL account with top advisers on topics ranging from security gates at the governor’s residence to the state’s response to terror attacks across the globe. In one email, Pence’s top state homeland security adviser relayed an update from the FBI regarding the arrests of several men on federal terror-related charges.
Cyber-security experts say the emails raise concerns about whether such sensitive information was adequately protected from hackers, given that personal accounts like Pence’s are typically less secure than government email accounts. In fact, Pence’s personal account was hacked last summer.
You can read all about this new children’s book at Out. Keith Haring: The Boy Who Just Kept Drawing is now available at Penguin Random House.
Pernicious.Adjective.
archaic: wicked.
– perniciously, adverb.
– perniciousness, noun.
Pernicious implies irreparable harm done through evil or insidious corrupting or undermining.
[Origin: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin perniciosus, from pernicies destruction, from per – + nec -, nex violent death.] 15th Century.
“I found this fellow at the bottom of the chest under a lot of other stuff. Fortunately our pernicious vicar hadn’t quite got to it before his collapse.” The Ghosts of Sleath, James Herbert.
Philippic.
Noun.
A discourse or declamation full of bitter condemnation: Tirade.
Origin: Middle French philippique, from Latin and Greek; Latin philippica, orationes philippicae, speeches of Cicero against Mark Antony, translation of Greek Philippikoi logoi, speeches of Demosthenes against Philip II of Macedon. Literally, speeches relating to Philip. (1592).
“That was the kind of outburst Stefan had to put up with for five years as I worked on the Wharton bibliography, wading through file cards and fits. The explosion would usually be followed by an overly detailed explanation of what I was reading, then a philippic of one form or another. No wonder he was sick of everything Wharton.” – The Edith Wharton Murders, Lev Raphael.
Louche.
Adjective: not reputable or decent; dubious, shady.
[Origin: French, literally, cross-eyed, squint-eyed, Old French losche, from Latin luscus blind in one eye.]
“And so it is with old HPL: the very model of an 18th century hipster, born decades too late to be one of the original louche laudanum-addicted romantic poets, and utterly unafraid to bore us by droning on and on about the essential crapness of culture since Edgar Allen Poe, the degeneracy of the modern age, &c. &c. &c.”
– Equoid: A Laundry Novella, Charles Stross.
Noun.
1. Opposition to the spread of knowledge: a policy of withholding knowledge from the general public.
2a. A style (as in literature or art) characterized by deliberate vagueness or abstruseness. b: an act or instance of obscurantism.
-obscurantist noun or adjective. (1834)
“Yes. Because once you get away from the original words, the purest of theories just become rumours. Then we don’t know anything. From one approximation to another inaccuracy, the truth unravels and obscurantism takes over.” – The Ghost Riders of Ordebec, Fred Vargas.
A small treat for myself, from a recent visit to the bookshop, Lego Pens! :D Clickety for full size.
© C. Ford.