Word of the Week: absquatulate (ăb-SKWŎCH-ə-lāt) Definition (Verb) To abscond, make off. In Context "Residents of the Gulf States coined the term 'absquatulate' to describe men who left the state to avoid their debts in order to 'squat' in the new republic." Scott Reynolds Nelson, A Nation of Deadbeats: An Uncommon History of America's Financial Disasters, 2012.
Chinese Dream 61 Timothy Yu Cartoons. Computer-generated smiles and fixed eyes fill my daughter’s screen, show her form is content, content form. She’s over unicorns. Now she plays a child who always knows best. There’s nothing to fear except when we near an evening when the moon’s not giving light, turning away. It’s late for attitude, but it’s now that rude words are a parent’s heritance. Is she white? Race is something her father has, a way of arresting play away from her, in Timothy’s long trail of ancestors, immigrants, grasping arms out of elsewhere, of whom she’ll be one. The [...]
ductility (dŭk-TĬL-ĭ-tē) Definition (Noun) Capability of being easily led or influenced; tractableness, docility. In Context "Bingley was endeared to Darcy by the easiness, openness, ductility of his temper, though no disposition could offer a greater contrast to his own, and though with his own he never appeared dissatisfied." Jane Austin, Pride and Prejudice, 1813.
Value City Idra Novey Under the marked-down dresses, we conjured trips to Oslo. Also to Lima. Mel says the game was my idea, hiding behind hundreds of hems, inventing trips to cities we knew only as pleasing arrangements of letters, places we’d likely never see. Mel says it’s how she remembers me: cross-legged, knotting lengths of licorice, traveling the planet under racks of final sales. A rhinestone belt fell on my head once, she says, and I kept on talking about Alaska, the claws of King Crabs we’d crack open and taste the arctic, find out what we were missing [...]
Word of the Week: valetudinarian (văl-ĭ-tōōd-n-ÂR-ē-ən) Definition (Noun) A person in weak health, especially one who is constantly concerned with his own ailments; an invalid. In Context “The evil of the actual disparity in their ages (and Mr. Woodhouse had not married early) was much increased by his constitution and habits; for having been a valetudinarian all his life, without activity of mind or body, he was a much older man in ways than in years; and though everywhere beloved for the friendliness of his heart and his amiable temper, his talents could not have recommended him at any time.” Jane [...]
Word of the Week: bugbear (BŬG-bâr) Definition (Noun) An object of dread, especially of needless dread; an imaginary terror. In weakened senses: an annoyance, bane, thorn in the flesh. In Context "As for that bugbear of a dissolution of the Union, I say, without fear of contradiction, that no practical man has ever believed in it for a day." Horace Mann, Slavery: Letters and Speeches, 1851.
Dedicated to All Human Beings Who Suffer Yang Licai translated from the Chinese by Joshua Edwards and Lynn Xu 1. No, Behind the truth are other truths 2. Rain makes a painting on the earth In the classical manner Meticulously depicting what’s hidden from view: Mountain, forest, valley, gorge Building, vehicle, person Beasts, cattle, creeping things, and flying fowl Gradually expressing the outline From invisible to visible From solid state to a state of change Is this a form of justice? Rain, and representations of rain Shrouds, and the shroud’s ability to obscure and to change This is like one [...]
Fall Song Joy Harjo It is a dark fall day.The earth is slightly damp with rain.I hear a jay.The cry is blue.
