Stephanie Whetstone – Page 35

Zeitgeist (TSĪT-gīst)

Stephanie Whetstone2016-08-08T12:00:18-04:00

Definition (Noun) The spirit or genius which marks the thought or feeling of a period or age. In Context "Nevertheless, it is my belief that from time to time specific topics in social psychology just happen to become the target of dramatic surges of interest, and that this happens almost unaccountably as the Zeitgeist, or spirit of the times, dictates – rather like popular music and the fashions of different generations." Steve Duck, Relating to Others, Second Edition, 1999.

Zeitgeist (TSĪT-gīst)Stephanie Whetstone2016-08-08T12:00:18-04:00

Tinkers (2009) by Paul Harding

Stephanie Whetstone2016-08-01T12:00:34-04:00

Critical Assessment "The occasional overwriting, the looping narrative, and the almost defiant lack of plot made this a hard book to sell to publishers. An array of editors at major houses rejected the novel, no doubt afraid it would never sell. It apparently sat for several years in the writer's desk. Then an obscure house, the Bellevue Literary Press, published it to such little fanfare that the New York Times (like most papers) ignored it completely. Then, miracle of miracles, it won the Pulitzer. "It remains to be seen where Paul Harding, surely a gifted writer, will go from here. But [...]

Tinkers (2009) by Paul HardingStephanie Whetstone2016-08-01T12:00:34-04:00

meretricious (mĕr-ĭ-TRĬSH-əs)

Stephanie Whetstone2016-08-01T12:00:06-04:00

Definition (Adjective) Alluring by false show; showily or superficially attractive but having in reality no value or integrity. In Context "I had disembarked too recently yet to distinguish how much of nationality, fundamental realness, and primitive beauty still remained in this conquered race beneath the artificial and meretricious veneer of our importations." Paul Gaugin, Noa Noa, 1919.

meretricious (mĕr-ĭ-TRĬSH-əs)Stephanie Whetstone2016-08-01T12:00:06-04:00

apiary (Ā-pē-ĕr-ē)

Stephanie Whetstone2016-07-18T12:00:57-04:00

Definition (Noun) A place where bees are kept; a bee-house. In Context "This nearly 3,000-year-old apiary contains between 75 and 200 hives, and it is estimated that it could have held more than a million bees, with an annual yield of 1,100 pounds of honey and 155 pounds of beeswax." Daniel Marlos, The Curious World of Bugs: The Bugman's Guide to the Mysterious and Remarkable Lives of Things That Crawl, 2010.

apiary (Ā-pē-ĕr-ē)Stephanie Whetstone2016-07-18T12:00:57-04:00

rusticate (RŬS-tĭ-kāt)

Stephanie Whetstone2016-07-11T12:00:31-04:00

Definition (Verb) To stay or live in the countryside; to live a quiet country life. In Context "The area south of Chapel Hill is still fairly rural and is a popular living area for university people with an itch to rusticate." Sara Pitzer, Off the Beaten Path North Carolina: A Guide to Unique Places, 2012.

rusticate (RŬS-tĭ-kāt)Stephanie Whetstone2016-07-11T12:00:31-04:00

Familiar Versus Unfamiliar Words

Stephanie Whetstone2020-01-14T14:03:51-05:00

Familiar Versus Unfamiliar Words by Dana Eckstein Among the many choices we must make as writers is whether to serve up words our readers will digest without a thought or to broaden their palates with words that may be strange to them. In this guest post, Dana Eckstein from the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory explores the tension between "efficiency" and "invention." When I was little, I entertained a regular argument with my father. He earned a living as a lawyer, well-coiffed with a gray suit, satin tie, and a gleaming leather briefcase in which he neatly stored all his legal briefs [...]

Familiar Versus Unfamiliar WordsStephanie Whetstone2020-01-14T14:03:51-05:00

maudlin (MÔD-lĭn)

Stephanie Whetstone2016-07-04T12:00:27-04:00

Definition (Adjective) Having reached the stage of drunkenness characterized by tearful sentimentality and effusive displays of affection; characteristic of (the behaviour of) someone who has reached this stage. In Context "Gully is a neighbouring farmer who drinks at Shamus Henley's pub in Barntrosna where he grows ever more maudlin about his inability to find a wife." Peter Haining, Editor, Great Irish Drinking Stories, 2002.

maudlin (MÔD-lĭn)Stephanie Whetstone2016-07-04T12:00:27-04:00

Essay Contestants Fêted

Stephanie Whetstone2016-07-03T21:19:03-04:00

Princeton Writes honored those who entered its second annual staff essay contest at a celebratory reception at Maclean House on June 16. Before a beaming crowd of family, friends, and colleagues, the winner of this year's Princeton Writes Prize, Bryant Blount, and honorable mention recipients April Armstrong, Violette Chamoun, and Brian Mondschein accepted their certificates, along with autographed copies of On Writing Well by the late William Zinsser '44. In his remarks, Princeton Writes' director, John Weeren, praised contestants for embracing a topic -- diversity -- that is "so idiosyncratic and so transcendent; so central to an understanding of oneself and others [...]

Essay Contestants FêtedStephanie Whetstone2016-07-03T21:19:03-04:00

My Brilliant Friend (2012) by Elena Ferrante

Stephanie Whetstone2016-07-01T12:07:10-04:00

Critical Assessment "Ferrante has said that she likes to write narratives 'where the writing is clear, honest, and where the facts—the facts of ordinary life—are extraordinarily gripping when read.' Her prose has indeed a bare lucidity, and is often aphoristic and continent, in Ann Goldstein’s elegant, burnished English. But what is thrilling about her earlier novels is that, in sympathetically following her characters’ extremities, Ferrante’s own writing has no limits, is willing to take every thought forward to its most radical conclusion and backward to its most radical birthing. This is most obvious in the fearless way in which her female [...]

My Brilliant Friend (2012) by Elena FerranteStephanie Whetstone2016-07-01T12:07:10-04:00

Pick a Number

Stephanie Whetstone2020-01-14T14:07:15-05:00

Pick a Number In The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster's classic ode to learning, the rulers of Dictionopolis and Digitopolis are at loggerheads, each believing that words and numbers, respectively, are paramount. "Never mention numbers here," King Azaz the Unabridged declares. "Only use them when we absolutely have to." In actuality, numbers play a critical role in the wordsmith's craft. Much of English poetry, including dramatic verse, is metrical and thus reducible to lines, feet, and syllables, most commonly expressed through iambic pentameter, a line with five feet, each containing two syllables -- the first unstressed and the second stressed. Shakespeare was a [...]

Pick a NumberStephanie Whetstone2020-01-14T14:07:15-05:00

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