Word of the Week: flummox (FLUM-uks) Definition (verb) Confuse In Context "The reason for math's bad rap is that the very same teachers and parents who have psychic scars from their own inability to correctly memorize their multiplication tables in the fourth grade are today completely flummoxed by elementary school kids' homework." — Esther J. Cepeda, The Record (Bergen County, New Jersey), 26 Apr. 2018
I Could Be a Whale Shark Aimee Nezhukumatathil Bolinao, Philippines I am worried about tentacles. How you can still get stung even if the jelly arm disconnects from the bell. My husband swims without me—farther out to sea than I would like, buoyed by salt and rind of kelp. I am worried if I step too far into the China Sea, my baby will slow the beautiful kicks he has just begun since we landed. The quickening, they call it, but all I am is slow, a moon jelly floating like [...]
Diving into the Wreck Adrienne Rich First having read the book of myths, and loaded the camera, and checked the edge of the knife-blade, I put on the body-armor of black rubber the absurd flippers the grave and awkward mask. I am having to do this not like Cousteau with his assiduous team aboard the sun-flooded schooner but here alone. There is a ladder. The ladder is always there hanging innocently close to the side of the schooner. We know what it is for, we who have used it. Otherwise it is a piece of maritime floss some sundry equipment. I [...]
Word of the Week: whelm (WELM) Definition (Verb) 1. to turn (something, such as a dish or vessel) upside down usually to cover something : to cover or engulf completely with usually disastrous effect 2. to pass or go over something so as to bury or submerge it In Context "By the time San Jose annexed the town to expand its sewage-treatment plant in 1968, nature had already begun to reclaim the bayside. The town of 2,500 splintered, rusted and sank as groundwater was over-pumped, sea water rose on all sides and storm surges whelmed the backed-up drains." Jennifer Wadsworth, The [...]
Word of the Week: oleaginous (ō-lē-ˈa-jə-nəs) Definition (Adjective) 1: resembling or having the properties of oil : oily; also : containing or producing oil 2 : marked by an offensively ingratiating manner or quality In Context "Sometime around 2000, Sater got to know a neighbor, Tevfik Arif, an oleaginous former Soviet official from Kazakhstan." — Andrew Rice, Daily Intelligencer, "The Original Russia Connection," 3 Aug. 2017
Hurricane Yona Harvey Four tickets left, I let her go— Firstborn into a hurricane. I thought she escaped The floodwaters. No—but her Head is empty of the drowned For now—though she took Her first breath below sea level. Ahhh awe & aw Mama, let me go—she speaks What every smart child knows— To get grown you unlatch Your hands from the grown & up & up & up & up She turns—latched in the seat Of a hurricane. You let Your girl what? You let Your girl what? I did so she [...]
On Children Kahlil Gibran And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, Speak to us of Children. And he said: Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, For their souls dwell in the house [...]
Word of the Week: malapert (mal-uh-PERT) Definition (adjective) impudently bold : saucy In Context "Fair ladies, brave knights, churls, varlets, squires, scurvy knaves, men-at-arms, malapert rogues—all were merry." P. G. Wodehouse, The Man Upstairs and Other Stories, 1914
Writing at Its Best: The Magic of Dialogue by Andrea La Bella In this, the latest post in our series of reflections on the nature of “good writing,” Andrea La Bella reflects on the magic of dialogue in film. Andrea is the Assistant to the Director at the Center for Statistics and Machine Learning. I grew up in a movie loving household. My father and mother would pile into the car with the five of us kids and head for the drive-in theater: one low admission price per car. My brothers loved the action scenes. But I loved the dialogue. When [...]
